Controllers¶

What is a Controller?¶

A Controller is simply a class file that is named in a way that it can be associated with a URI.

Consider this URI:

example.com/index.php/blog/

In the above example, CodeIgniter would attempt to find a controller named Blog.php and load it.

When a controller’s name matches the first segment of a URI, it will be loaded.

Let’s try it: Hello World!¶

Let’s create a simple controller so you can see it in action. Using your text editor, create a file called Blog.php, and put the following code in it:

<?php
class Blog extends \CodeIgniter\Controller
{
        public function index()
        {
                echo 'Hello World!';
        }
}

Then save the file to your /application/Controllers/ directory.

Now visit your site using a URL similar to this:

example.com/index.php/blog

If you did it right, you should see:

Hello World!

This is valid:

<?php
class Blog extends \CodeIgniter\Controller {

}

This is not valid:

<?php
class blog extends \CodeIgniter\Controller {

}

Also, always make sure your controller extends the parent controller class so that it can inherit all its methods.

Methods¶

In the above example the method name is index(). The “index” method is always loaded by default if the second segment of the URI is empty. Another way to show your “Hello World” message would be this:

example.com/index.php/blog/index/

The second segment of the URI determines which method in the controller gets called.

Let’s try it. Add a new method to your controller:

<?php
class Blog extends \CodeIgniter\Controller {

        public function index()
        {
                echo 'Hello World!';
        }

        public function comments()
        {
                echo 'Look at this!';
        }
}

Now load the following URL to see the comment method:

example.com/index.php/blog/comments/

You should see your new message.

Passing URI Segments to your methods¶

If your URI contains more than two segments they will be passed to your method as parameters.

For example, let’s say you have a URI like this:

example.com/index.php/products/shoes/sandals/123

Your method will be passed URI segments 3 and 4 (“sandals” and “123”):

<?php
class Products extends \CodeIgniter\Controller {

        public function shoes($sandals, $id)
        {
                echo $sandals;
                echo $id;
        }
}

Defining a Default Controller¶

CodeIgniter can be told to load a default controller when a URI is not present, as will be the case when only your site root URL is requested. To specify a default controller, open your application/Config/Routes.php file and set this variable:

$routes->setDefaultController('Blog');

Where ‘Blog’ is the name of the controller class you want used. If you now load your main index.php file without specifying any URI segments you’ll see your “Hello World” message by default.

For more information, please refer to the “Routes Configuration Options” section of the URI Routing documentation.

Remapping Method Calls¶

As noted above, the second segment of the URI typically determines which method in the controller gets called. CodeIgniter permits you to override this behavior through the use of the _remap() method:

public function _remap()
{
        // Some code here...
}

The overridden method call (typically the second segment of the URI) will be passed as a parameter to the _remap() method:

public function _remap($method)
{
        if ($method === 'some_method')
        {
                $this->$method();
        }
        else
        {
                $this->default_method();
        }
}

Any extra segments after the method name are passed into _remap(). These parameters can be passed to the method to emulate CodeIgniter’s default behavior.

Example:

public function _remap($method, ...$params)
{
        $method = 'process_'.$method;
        if (method_exists($this, $method))
        {
                return $this->$method(...$params);
        }
        show_404();
}

Private methods¶

In some cases you may want certain methods hidden from public access. In order to achieve this, simply declare the method as being private or protected and it will not be served via a URL request. For example, if you were to have a method like this:

protected function utility()
{
        // some code
}

Trying to access it via the URL, like this, will not work:

example.com/index.php/blog/utility/

Organizing Your Controllers into Sub-directories¶

If you are building a large application you might want to hierarchically organize or structure your controllers into sub-directories. CodeIgniter permits you to do this.

Simply create sub-directories under the main application/Controllers/ one and place your controller classes within them.

application/controllers/products/Shoes.php

example.com/index.php/products/shoes/show/123

Each of your sub-directories may contain a default controller which will be called if the URL contains only the sub-directory. Simply put a controller in there that matches the name of your ‘default_controller’ as specified in your application/Config/Routes.php file.

CodeIgniter also permits you to remap your URIs using its URI Routing feature.

Class Constructors¶

If you intend to use a constructor in any of your Controllers, you MUST place the following line of code in it:

parent::__construct(...$params);

The reason this line is necessary is because your local constructor will be overriding the one in the parent controller class so we need to manually call it.

Example:

<?php
class Blog extends \CodeIgniter\Controller
{
        public function __construct(...$params)
        {
                parent::__construct(...$params);

                // Your own constructor code
        }
}

Constructors are useful if you need to set some default values, or run a default process when your class is instantiated. Constructors can’t return a value, but they can do some default work.

Included Properties¶

Every controller you create should extend CodeIgniter\Controller class. This class provides several features that are available to all of your controllers.

if (! $this->request->isSecure())
{
        $this->forceHTTPS();
}

if (! $this->request->isSecure())
{
        $this->forceHTTPS(31536000);    // one year
}

class MyController extends \CodeIgniter\Controller
{
        protected $helpers = ['url', 'form'];
}

Validating $_POST data¶

The controller also provides a convenience method to make validating $_POST data a little simpler, validate() that takes the current Request as the first instance, an array of rules to test against as the second parameter, and, optionally, an array of custom error messages to display if the items don’t pass. The Validation Library docs has details on the format of the rules and messages arrays, as well as available rules.:

public function updateUser(int $userID)
{
    if (! $this->validate($this->request, [
        'email' => "required|is_unique[users.email,id,{$userID}]",
        'name' => 'required|alpha_numeric_spaces'
    ]))
    {
        return view('users/update', [
            'errors' => $this->errors
        ]);
    }

    // do something here if successful...
}

If you find it simpler to keep the rules in the configuration file, you can replace the $rules array with the name of the group, as defined in Config\Validation.php:

public function updateUser(int $userID)
{
    if (! $this->validate($this->request, 'userRules'))
    {
        return view('users/update', [
            'errors' => $this->errors
        ]);
    }

    // do something here if successful...
}

That’s it!¶

That, in a nutshell, is all there is to know about controllers.