Modular CI
[b]Introduction:[/b]
Modular extensions for CodeIgniter have been around for quite some time: Modular Extensions, HMVC, Matchbox and Modular Separation.
While designing an application framework based on CodeIgniter, I needed a much more flexible system than what is on offer by the extensions mentioned above.
A module in my definition is a complete CodeIgniter mini-application. It needed to support all elements you have in a regular application folder: controllers, models, views, libraries and helpers. All these elements must be loadable using the CodeIgniter standard, automatic, and with a minimum of configuration. And this included controllers loading other controllers, and models loading other models, to support true HMVC. At the same time, the solution should support modulair routing. Not with a fixed format (for example the first URI segment has to be the module name), but using regular CI routing. Also, I wanted as little impact on a standard CodeIgniter installation, as every extension of a core library method might break some CodeIgniter functionality in the future.
[b]Features:[/b]
- Location of your modules is configurable
- Supports routing to a module controller
- Supports cross module calls, also to controller methods
- Uses standard CodeIgniter routing, no Router library modifications
- Support for both version 1.7.2 and 2.0
- Support for the default index() method and the _remap() method
[b]Solution:[/b]
The new Module library can be loaded from inside your controller, like any other library: [code]$this->load->library('module', array('path' => 'modules') );[/code]
You can pass a config array to the library to define the location of your modules. This path is relative to your application document root directory (the directory that holds your index.php file). You can also use a configuration file for this purpose.
You can also load the Module library via the autoload config file. If you do, you have to use a configuration file to inform the library of the location of your modules: [code]<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
| /* |
|---|
| Modules path |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| | This variable must contain the name of your "modules" folder. | Include the path if the folder is not in the same directory | as you applications index.php file. | */
$config['path'] = 'modules';
/* End of file module.php / / Location: ./application/config/module.php */[/code]
Once the Module library is loaded, you can initialize a module by using: [code]// Make the "my_module" module available to us $this->module->load('my_module');[/code]
This is all you have to do. From this moment on, all files from this module can be accessed in a way similar to the way you would normally load them: [code]// call a method in a library of our module $this->my_module->library->testlib->func('varA', 'varB');
// call a method in a model of our module $this->my_module->model->testmodel->func('var1', 'var2');
// call a method in a controller of our module $this->my_module->controller->testcntrlr->func('varX', 'varY', 'varZ');
// load a view from our module $this->my_module->view('test');
// load a helper from our module $this->my_module->helper('test');
// and see if it works testhelper();[/code]
[b]Routing:[/b]
- work in progress -
[b]Download:[/b] The latest version of the zip file can be found in the forum thread.
[b]Discuss:[/b] See this [url=http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/164350/]forum thread[/url].
Developed by WanWizard