Professional CodeIgniter

Chapter 4: Creating the Main Web Site

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$data[‘sidef’] = $this- > MProducts- > getRandomProducts(3,$skip);

$data[‘main’] = ‘home’;

$this- > load- > vars($data);

$this- > load- > view(‘template’);

}

Running a print_r() on the data returned by the getMainFeature() function, you ’ ll see something

along the lines of the following little snippet:

[id] = > 6

[name] = > Shoes 1

[shortdesc] = > This is a very good pair of shoes.

[image] = > /images/dummy-main.jpg

Similarly, the data returned by the getRandomProducts() function would look like this via the

print_r() function:

[0] = > Array

(

[id] = > 7

[name] = > Shoes 2

[thumbnail] = > /images/dummy-thumb.jpg

)

[1] = > Array

(

[id] = > 8

[name] = > Shirt 1

[thumbnail] = > /images/dummy-thumb.jpg

)

[2] = > Array

(

[id] = > 12

[name] = > Pants 1

[thumbnail] = > /images/dummy-thumb.jpg

)

Setting $data[ ’ main ’ ] to home instructs the $this - > load - > view() command inside template.php to

load the view called home. That ’ s what you ’ ll need to create next.

Creating the Home Page View

Now all you have to do is create some HTML based on these data. Your initial thought might be to put

this logic directly in the main template view, but this is a bad idea. Why? Because you ’ re going to be

reusing the template view a lot, and if you have to maintain an ever - growing list of rules to govern the

display of the $main variable, you ’ re going to drive yourself (and everyone else) crazy trying to

maintain it.

Instead, you ’ re going to create a series of included templates, each dedicated to a different view. There

are other ways to handle the problem, of course, including doing all this work in the models, creating a

custom library, or using private functions, but the view approach is the purest when it comes to the MVC

division of labor.