Extending CI_Controller - php

Question

All I'm trying to do is something fairly simple :
Create a class (let's say brandNewClass - NOT MY_Controller) which extends CI_Controller
Create other controllers which extend brandNewClass
E.g.
class brandNewClass extends CI_Controller {
public function index()
{
}
public function info()
{
}
}
used like (in a file under /controllers) :
<?php
class newController extends brandNewClass
{
}
?>
The thing is, although it works when I'm copying the file under /application/core and naming it as MY_Controller, when I change the name to something more... self-explanatory, it doesn't.
Fatal error: Class 'brandNewClass' not found in .... on line ..
I've even tried using the __autoload function mentioned here, but without any luck.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Have a look at this excellent tutorial - I hope it helps
http://codeigniter.tv/a-10/Extending-the-core-MY_Controller-and-beyond

Answer 2

The autoloader doesn't automaticly include other controllers. you will have to include it manually like this:
if (!defined('BASEPATH'))exit('No direct script access allowed');
include_once(APPPATH . 'controllers/brandnewclass.php');

Answer 3

If you want to create a custom base controller and make other controllers extend there, you can do it in following ways:
Create MY_Controller extending CI_Controller in application/core/ folder and make other controllers extend MY_Controller as MY_Controller will be autoloaded from core (This I guess you already know but want other alternatives.
Create MY_Controller in application/core/. Then create other level of Controllers that can primarily be Admin_Controller and Frontend_Controller. Now, one of these controllers will make base for your actual used controllers.
e.g. in application/core/MY_Controller.php
class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller {
public function __construct(){
parent::__construct();
}
}
Then Admin and Frontend controllers will be created in application/libraries/ and will extend MY_Controller like
class Admin_Controller extends MY_Controller {
public function __construct(){
parent::__construct();
}
}
Now, Any controller can extend one of these 2 controllers but for doing that you will have to autoload them. For autoloading in this case there can be a confusion because setting autoload['libraries'] in config/autoload.php will not work . That autoload works inside a controller but here we need to autoload before that i.e. in the class declaration. Will need to set this code in config/config.php
function __autoload($class)
{
$path = array('libraries');
if(strpos($class, 'CI_') !== 0) {
foreach($path as $dir) {
$file = APPPATH.$dir.'/'.strtolower($class).'.php';
if (file_exists($file) && is_file($file))
#include_once($file);
}
}
}
Now you can create your own controller
class newController extends Admin_Controller
{
}
This is the most suggested method making your structure quite clean and effective. May take some effort in understanding for the first time but is definitely worth it.
Third method is just a tweak of the second one, just based on the condition you mentioned of not using MY_Controller
You can make Admin_Controller or Frontend_Controller extend CI_Controller directly and not extend MY_Controller
That may just lead to some duplicity of code in both these controllers if that may be the case

Answer 4

http://philsturgeon.co.uk/blog/2010/02/CodeIgniter-base-Classes-Keeping-it-DRY
I suspect you're trying something similar?
There's an autoload function that you can add to the config file so that you needen't require_once() the class all the time.

Answer 5

You should declare the class as abstract, since it shouldn't be instantiated directly.
You'll need to modify the CodeIgniter autoloader configuration file and add your class to it, or change the actual autoloader.
You really should consider not using CodeIgniter :)