CodeIgniter - Form: Creating Menu Library

CodeIgniter Form Step By Step Tutorial - Part 4: After create simple layout, at this step, we will learn about library. For practice, we put our menu to library.

First, create a file named "MyMenu.php" within CodeIgniter\system\application\libraries. Enter following code to that file:

<?php
class MyMenu{
 	function show_menu(){
  		$obj =& get_instance();
  		$obj->load->helper('url');
  		$menu  = "<ul>";
  		$menu .= "<li>";
  		$menu .= anchor("books/main","List of Books");
  		$menu .= "</li>";
  		$menu .= "<li>";		
  		$menu .= anchor("books/input","Input Book");		
  		$menu .= "</li>";		
  		$menu .= "</ul>";
		
  		return $menu;
 	}
}
?>

At creating of menu library, we need a class (we give name "MyMenu"). It have a function show_menu(). This function access other CI classes and helpers (URL helper). URL helper will help you make url easier:

 anchor("books/input","Input Book") 
 = 
 <a href="http://localhost/CodeIgniter/index.php/
books/input">Input Book</a>

This menu, we use <ul> and <li>. We will modify layout of menu use css (at next topic about css).

Now, open our controller: books.php within CodeIgniter\system\application\controllers. Update like following code:

<?
class Books extends Controller{

 	function Books(){
  		parent::Controller();
 	}
	
 	function main(){
  		$this->load->library('MyMenu');
  		$menu = new MyMenu;
  		$data['menu'] = $menu->show_menu();
  		$this->load->view('books_main',$data);
 	}
	
 	function input(){
  		$this->load->library('MyMenu');	
  		$menu = new MyMenu;
  		$data['menu'] = $menu->show_menu();	
  		$this->load->view('books_input',$data);	
 	}
}
?>

If you still don't understand about this code, please read this tutorial series.

Next, open "books_menu.php" within CodeIgniter\system\application\views. Replace all code with:

 
<?php echo $menu; ?>

Point your browser to http://localhost/CodeIgniter/index.php/books/main