define custom variables and direct call the variables in view part - php

Question

What I want to do is creating a file like my_custom_settings.php in config directory and call the defined variable in view part.
let's say in my_custom_settings.php:
define('TEMPLATE_DIR', 'assets/front');
and in view part direct in HTML:
<link href="<?=TEMPLATE_DIR?>/stylesheet/style.css">
or any other alternative solution??
PS: Now I am using base_url() to access the path

Answer 1

personally i extend the /core/helpers/url_helper.php , defaults are site_url() , base_url(), current_url(); etc ... i just extended that for having base_static_url();
so put in core/helpers/url_helper.php:
if ( ! function_exists('base_static_url'))
{
function base_static_url()
{
$CI =& get_instance();
return $CI->config->slash_item('base_static_url');
}
}
then in config.php file you just add 1 more line:
$config['base_url'] = "http://mysite.com/";
$config['base_static_url'] = "http://mysite.com/static/"; //path to your static resources folder
then you can call static resources using :
<img src="<?php echo base_static_url();?>img/myimage.png"/>

Answer 2

ok this is might be more then what you are looking for,
but this is a way to put site wide configs in one file, and then easily have them available
in config folder you have file: my_custom_settings.php
in that file you want to set a config value like:
$config['TEMPLATE_DIR'] = 'assets/front' ;
$config['site_slogan'] = 'Laravel? Never heard of it' ;
create another file called: My_custom_settings.php
put that file in: application/library/My_custom_settings.php
that file will contain:
<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
class My_custom_settings
{
function __construct($config = array() )
{
foreach ($config as $key => $value) {
$data[$key] = $value;
}
// makes it possible for CI to use the load method
$CI =& get_instance();
// load the config variables
$CI->load->vars($data);
}
} // end my custom settings
now in your controller constructor
public function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
// Load configs for controller and view
$this->load->library( 'my_custom_settings' );
$this->config->load( 'my_custom_settings' );
} // end construct
Now for the cool part -- anything you put in that config file, will be available for your controller and views. ( you can load config in a model constructor as well ).
in a controller or model you get the value with $this->config, like
$this->config->item( 'site_slogan' )
a little awkward, but for views, heres the reward, you only need the config name
echo $TEMPLATE_DIR . '/somefile' ;

Answer 3

Images, css, javascript, pdfs, xml... anything that is allowed to be accessed directly should not be living in your application directory. You can do it, but you really shouldn't. Create a new folder at the root of your directory for these files, they should not be mixed into your application, for example: in your views folder.
Chances are, you're using an .htaccess file, which is only allowing certain directories to be accessed via http. This is very good for security reasons, you want to stop any attempt to access your controllers and models directly. This is also why we check if BASEPATH is defined at the top of most files, and exit('No direct script access.') if not.
To get the correct path to these resources (js/css/images), you can't use relative paths, because we aren't using a normal directory structure. The url /users/login is not loading files from the directory /users/login, it probably doesn't even exist. These are just uri segments that the bootstrap uses to know which class, method, and params to use.
To get the correct path, either use a forward slash (assuming your app and assets are in the root directory, not a subdirectory) like this:
Or your best bet, use an absolute url:
// References your $config['base_url']
" />
Equivalent to:
http://mydomain.com/images/myimage.jpg
There are helpers built into CI that you can optionally use as well, but this is really all you need to know.