Views
*****

A view is simply a web page, or a page fragment, like a header,
footer, sidebar, etc. In fact, views can flexibly be embedded within
other views (within other views, etc., etc.) if you need this type of
hierarchy.

Views are never called directly, they must be loaded by a controller.
Remember that in an MVC framework, the Controller acts as the traffic
cop, so it is responsible for fetching a particular view. If you have
not read the Controllers page you should do so before continuing.

Using the example controller you created in the controller page, let’s
add a view to it.


Creating a View
===============

Using your text editor, create a file called blogview.php, and put
this in it:

   <html>
   <head>
           <title>My Blog</title>
   </head>
   <body>
           <h1>Welcome to my Blog!</h1>
   </body>
   </html>

Then save the file in your *application/views/* directory.


Loading a View
==============

To load a particular view file you will use the following method:

   $this->load->view('name');

Where name is the name of your view file.

Note:

  The .php file extension does not need to be specified unless you use
  something other than .php.

Now, open the controller file you made earlier called Blog.php, and
replace the echo statement with the view loading method:

   <?php
   class Blog extends CI_Controller {

           public function index()
           {
                   $this->load->view('blogview');
           }
   }

If you visit your site using the URL you did earlier you should see
your new view. The URL was similar to this:

   example.com/index.php/blog/


Loading multiple views
======================

CodeIgniter will intelligently handle multiple calls to
"$this->load->view()" from within a controller. If more than one call
happens they will be appended together. For example, you may wish to
have a header view, a menu view, a content view, and a footer view.
That might look something like this:

   <?php

   class Page extends CI_Controller {

           public function index()
           {
                   $data['page_title'] = 'Your title';
                   $this->load->view('header');
                   $this->load->view('menu');
                   $this->load->view('content', $data);
                   $this->load->view('footer');
           }

   }

In the example above, we are using “dynamically added data”, which you
will see below.


Storing Views within Sub-directories
====================================

Your view files can also be stored within sub-directories if you
prefer that type of organization. When doing so you will need to
include the directory name loading the view. Example:

   $this->load->view('directory_name/file_name');


Adding Dynamic Data to the View
===============================

Data is passed from the controller to the view by way of an **array**
or an **object** in the second parameter of the view loading method.
Here is an example using an array:

   $data = array(
           'title' => 'My Title',
           'heading' => 'My Heading',
           'message' => 'My Message'
   );

   $this->load->view('blogview', $data);

And here’s an example using an object:

   $data = new Someclass();
   $this->load->view('blogview', $data);

Note:

  If you use an object, the class variables will be turned into array
  elements.

Let’s try it with your controller file. Open it add this code:

   <?php
   class Blog extends CI_Controller {

           public function index()
           {
                   $data['title'] = "My Real Title";
                   $data['heading'] = "My Real Heading";

                   $this->load->view('blogview', $data);
           }
   }

Now open your view file and change the text to variables that
correspond to the array keys in your data:

   <html>
   <head>
           <title><?php echo $title;?></title>
   </head>
   <body>
           <h1><?php echo $heading;?></h1>
   </body>
   </html>

Then load the page at the URL you’ve been using and you should see the
variables replaced.


Creating Loops
==============

The data array you pass to your view files is not limited to simple
variables. You can pass multi dimensional arrays, which can be looped
to generate multiple rows. For example, if you pull data from your
database it will typically be in the form of a multi-dimensional
array.

Here’s a simple example. Add this to your controller:

   <?php
   class Blog extends CI_Controller {

           public function index()
           {
                   $data['todo_list'] = array('Clean House', 'Call Mom', 'Run Errands');

                   $data['title'] = "My Real Title";
                   $data['heading'] = "My Real Heading";

                   $this->load->view('blogview', $data);
           }
   }

Now open your view file and create a loop:

   <html>
   <head>
           <title><?php echo $title;?></title>
   </head>
   <body>
           <h1><?php echo $heading;?></h1>

           <h3>My Todo List</h3>

           <ul>
           <?php foreach ($todo_list as $item):?>

                   <li><?php echo $item;?></li>

           <?php endforeach;?>
           </ul>

   </body>
   </html>

Note:

  You’ll notice that in the example above we are using PHP’s
  alternative syntax. If you are not familiar with it you can read
  about it here.


Returning views as data
=======================

There is a third **optional** parameter lets you change the behavior
of the method so that it returns data as a string rather than sending
it to your browser. This can be useful if you want to process the data
in some way. If you set the parameter to TRUE (boolean) it will return
data. The default behavior is false, which sends it to your browser.
Remember to assign it to a variable if you want the data returned:

   $string = $this->load->view('myfile', '', TRUE);
