How to Deal With Codeigniter Templates?

Question

I\'m fairly new to MVC, and I\'ve found CodeIgniter recently. I\'m still learning everyday, but one problem is its template engine. What is the best way to create templates

Answer 1

I have two primary templates; one for the site and one for our admin panel. Here is my setup for our main site (mostly static)... I decided on one controller called site It calls the template file and each page and gets its view file.

Why doesn't anyone mention template engine use? Are -just- views better/faster?

• In config/template.php I defined the template(s). Note *site_template* is in the views folder:

  $template['site']['template'] = 'site_template';
  $template['site']['regions'] = array('title','section','col2','content',);
  $template['site']['parser'] = 'parser';
  $template['site']['parser_method'] = 'parse';
  $template['site']['parse_template'] = FALSE;
  

• In config/routers.php I setup rules to handle the requests for the site controller which are single segments urls mostly but we do have one section that is structured as such; /who-we-are and then for selected people /who-we-are/robert-wayne and so:

  $route['what-we-do'] = 'site/what_we_do';
  $route['who-we-are'] = 'site/who_we_are';
  $route['who-we-are/(:any)'] = "site/who_we_are/$1"
  

• And controllers/site.php Again with a function for each page/section:

  class Site extends CI_Controller
  {
  function __construct() {
      parent::__construct();
      $this->template->set_template('site'); // ask for the site template
      $this->load->library('mobile');
  }
  public function index()
  {
  $data = array('section' => 'home');
  $this->template->write_view('col2', 'site/menu.php', $data);
  $this->template->write('title', "COOL PAGE TITLE", TRUE);
  $this->template->write('section', $data['section'], TRUE);
  $this->template->write_view('content', 'site/welcome', $data);
  $this->template->render();
  }
  public function who_we_are()
  {
  // this bit readies the second segment.
  $slug = str_replace('-', '_', $this->uri->segment(2, 0));
  if($slug) // IF there is a second segment we load the person.
  {
  $data['bio'] = $this->load->view('site/people/'.$slug, '', true)
  } else {
  // where it loads the general view who_we_are
  }
  // and so on for each page...
  

and as fine point notice the router lets us leave out `/site/' in the url, http://the site.com/who-we-are

thoughts? anyone? bueller?