Loading view outside view folder with CodeIgniter

Question

I have the need to load a view from outside the scope of:

$this->load->view();

which appears to work from base/application/vie

Answer 1

create a file MY_Loader.php in application/core/

<?php
class MY_Loader extends CI_Loader {


    function  __construct() {
        parent::__construct();
        $CI =& get_instance();
        $CI->load = $this;
    }

    public function ext_view($view, $vars = array(), $return = FALSE){

       $_ci_ext = pathinfo($view, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
       $view = ($_ci_ext == '') ? $view.'.php' : $view;

       return $this->_ci_load(array(
               '_ci_vars' =>   $this->_ci_object_to_array($vars),
               '_ci_path' => $view, '_ci_return' => $return));

    }

}

create a file MY_Controller.php in application/core/

<?php 
class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller {
    public function __construct(){
        parent::__construct();
        $this->load =& load_class('Loader', 'core', 'MY_');
        $this->load->initialize();
        log_message('debug', "Controller Class Initialized");
    } 
}

Use MY_Controller instead of CI_Controller and you can access the ext_view method with

$this->load->ext_view(path/to/the/view/file,@param2,@param3);

ex:

class Welcome extends MY_Controller {
  public function __construct() {
    parent::__construct();
  }

  public function index() {
    $this->load->ext_view('/path/to/view');
  }
}