Professional CodeIgniter

Chapter 4: Creating the Main Web Site

93

Building out the cat() Controller Function

Now all you have to do is run the right function in the right context and then pass the result set to a

single view. In the following code listing, the essential if statement is bold. Notice how the simple check

for parentid transforms this controller function into a multipurpose tool that allows you to build the

appropriate listing with the same set of views.

While you ’ re at it, include a few lines of code to redirect users back to the home page if the category page

being loaded is somehow bogus. You can do that very quickly with a simple PHP count() function:

function cat($id){

$cat = $this- > MCats- > getCategory($id);

if (!count($cat)){

redirect(‘welcome/index’,’refresh’);

}

$data[‘title’] = “Claudia’s Kids | “. $cat[‘name’];

if ($cat[‘parentid’] < 1){

//show other categories

$data[‘listing’] = $this- > MCats- > getSubCategories($id);

$data[‘level’] = 1;

}else{

//show products

$data[‘listing’] = $this- > MProducts- > getProductsByCategory($id);

$data[‘level’] = 2;

}

$data[‘category’] = $cat;

$data[‘main’] = ‘category’;

$data[‘navlist’] = $this- > MCats- > getCategoriesNav();

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

$this- > load- > view(‘template’);

}

Creating the Category View

Before coding the category view, it would be worth the time to revisit the diagrams for the category and

subcategory views developed with the client. Here is the category view, illustrated in Figure 4 - 6.