Is there a way to include dynamically html in partial views in CodeIgniter?

Question

I wonder what is the correct approach to achieve this? I have an "overview" of products and other stuff it's in the "view"-file of the controller. I want to show product-items in a list on an overview page, but in other templates as well (same html-elements but with different values for each product). I don't want to type same thing twice and want to easily maintain the code.

I have this file (views/profile/overview.php) it's basically a for-each loop listing of products - something like:

foreach($items as $item) {
    echo $item->name;
    echo $item->creation_date;
}

Is there a way to put

 echo $item->name;
 echo $item->creation_date;

in a single partial view (like product_item) and load that dynamically?

I've tried: (does not work because $item is undefined in product_item)

foreach($items as $item) {
        $this->load->view('/profile/partials/product_item');
}

Try 2: (didn't work either. I don't know why - because $item should be passed to that view?)

foreach($items as $item) {
       $this->load->view('/profile/partials/product_item', $item);
}

Try 3: (same as try 2)

foreach($items as $item) {
       $x = $this->load->view('/profile/partials/product_item', $item);
       echo $x;
}

Try 4 (I've tried to do this in controller (I then just wanted to echo out $product_item into the overview-template)

$this->view_data['product_item'] = $this->load->view('profile/partials/product_item', $this->view_data, true);

I have to mention that product_item and it's html is far more code than this, I just wanted to describe my issue. If you need more, please tell me :-)

Answer 1

load->view() takes an associative array or an object as a parameter, so this should work:

foreach($items as $item) {
    $this->load->view('/profile/partials/product_item', array('item' => $item));
}

After that, you can use:

echo $item->name;
echo $item->creation_date;

in your view.

---

Remember, every array key of the array/object that you pass to your load view function becomes a variable in the view. So, if you send:

$data['hey'] = 'there';

In your view, you'll have the variable $hey which has the value 'there'.

Answer 2

To Build on what @Shomz as just said

Master Template

views/master/template.php

Say you load in your Product Controller View

<section role="content">
    <?php echo $this->load->view($view); ?>
</section>

But What if you then want to load some more information from the Product Controller, in say the sidebar?

---

Well you can do so from the Product Controller, and simple do a Conditional to check if the variable was sent back from the Controller.

<aside role="sidebar">
    <section>
         //Normal sidebar stuff here, nothing to worry about
    </section>

    <?php if($sidebar) : ?> //Did ANY Controller send a Sidebar Variable ?
    <section >
       <?php echo $this->load->view($sidebar); ?>
    </section>
    <?php endif; ?>
</aside>

Controller

public function someMethod()
{
    $this->template = 'master/template'; //views/master/template

    return $this->load->view($this->template, array(
          'view'   =>  'products/index' // the $view var
          'sidebar' => $this->load->view('partials/sidebar', array('product_data'=>$model), true) //$sidebar var buffered with dynamic data
    ));
}

Answer 3

I realise that this may be a response to a dated question; but in addition to @Philip's answer, the CodeIgniter Template Parser Class can be used to prevent the 'contamination' of the view files with PHP code.

An example with the iteration controlled in the controller, using a view fragment:

$temp = '';
$template1 = '<li><a href="{link}">{title}</a></li>';
$data1 = array(
        array('title' => 'First Link', 'link' => '/first'),
        array('title' => 'Second Link', 'link' => '/second'),
);

foreach ($data1 as $menuitem)
{
        $temp .= $this->parser->parse_string($template1, $menuitem, TRUE);
}

$template = '<ul>{menuitems}</ul>';
$data = array(
        'menuitems' => $temp
);
$this->parser->parse_string($template, $data);

Result:

<ul>
        <li><a href="/first">First Link</a></li>
        <li><a href="/second">Second Link</a></li>
</ul>

A further tutorial is avaialble at Introduction to Templating and Dynamic Views with Codeigniter.