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CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP
Application Development

Improve your PHP coding productivity with the

free compact open-source MVC CodeIgniter
framework!

David Upton

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP Application Development
Improve your PHP coding productivity with the free compact
open-source MVC CodeIgniter framework!

Copyright © 2007 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of
the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold
without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing,
nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: July 2007

Production Reference: 1160707

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-847191-74-8

[Link]

Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ([Link]@[Link])

 Credits

Author Project Manager

David Upton Abhijeet Deobhakta

Reviewers Indexer
Rick Ellis Bhushan Pangoankar
Derek Allard
Proofreader
Development Editor Chris Smith
Douglas Peterson
Production Coordinator
Assistant Development Editor Shantanu Zagade
Nikhil Bangera
Cover Designer
Technical Editor Shantanu Zagade
Ajay S

Editorial Manager
Dipali Chittar
 About the Author

David Upton is a director of a specialized management consultancy company,

based in London but working around the world. His clients include some of the
world's largest companies. He is increasingly interested in web-enabling his work,
and seeking to turn ideas into robust professional applications by the simplest and
easiest route. He has so far written applications for two major companies in the UK.
His other interests include simulation, on which he writes a weblog that takes up far
too much of his time, and thinking.

I’d like to thank Rick Ellis for writing CI and for making it available,
free. This spirit of generosity with such valuable intellectual
property is what makes the Open Source movement a success, and
an example to the rest of us.

I’d also like to thank Rick, and Derek Allard, for undertaking a
technical review of the book and making many helpful suggestions.

Mark Barker inspired and helped me to understand Object

Orientation, during many Saturday evening ‘geek-outs’.

Lastly, but not least, my thanks to Julia, John, and James for their
love, support, and patience.
Unlock a wide selection of test banks and solution guides at
[Link]
 About the Reviewers

Rick Ellis is the founder and CEO of [Link], the company that develops
CodeIgniter and several other widely used web applications. Rick Ellis has a diverse
background in media technology, having worked in creative and technical capacities
on interactive projects for Disney, to feature films for Oliver Stone, and almost every
kind of web-based project in-between.

Derek Allard is a programmer, author, and award-winning instructor based

in Toronto, Canada. He builds web applications, is a standards and accessibility
supporter, a scripting and database guy, and a PHP junkie. A sought-after educator
and freelancer, Derek spends most of his time working with XHTML, PHP, XML
and JavaScript.

As a highly visible CodeIgniter community member, Derek was hired by EllisLab as

the Senior Technical Support Specialist. He devotes time to ensuring CodeIgniter
and their flagship content management system, ExpressionEngine, remain
market leaders.

He blogs about all things web at [Link].

 Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Introduction to CodeIgniter 7
What can CodeIgniter Do for You? 7
Save Time 8
Make Your Site More Robust 9
Keep Your Links Up-To-Date Automatically 9
Save Database Crashes: 'prep' Your Data Entry Forms 10
Make Your Code Bolder 11
Send Email Attachments without Hassles 11
Save Bandwidth by Zipping Files That Users Need to Download 12
Yes, But…What is CodeIgniter? What are Frameworks? 12
And Who is That Man? 14
The 'Open Source' Business Model 15
What CI Doesn't Do 16
License 18
Summary 19
Chapter 2: Two Minutes' Work: Setting up a CodeIgniter Site 21
Prerequisites 21
Installing CodeIgniter 22
Exploring the File Structure 23
The Configuration File 24
Does it Work? 25
Summary 25
Chapter 3: Navigating Your Site 27
MVC—Just Another Acronym? 28
The Structure of a CI Site: Controllers and Views 29
The Welcome Controller 31
Working with Views 32
Table of Contents

The Default Controller 33

CodeIgniter Syntax Rules 33
Controller 34
View 34
Types of Files or Classes on a CI Site 34
What are All Those Folders For? 37
Designing a Better View 37
Designing a Better Controller 39
Getting Parameters to a Function 40
Passing Data to a View 41
How CI Classes Pass Information and Control to Each Other 43
Calling Views 43
Calling Functions Directly 43
Interacting with Controllers 44
It's Just Like an Egg-Cup 45
An Example of a CI Helper: the URL Helper 46
A Simple Library Example: Creating a Menu 48
Summary 49
Chapter 4: Using CI to Simplify Databases 51
Configuration Settings 51
Designing the Database for Our Site 52
Active Record 53
Advantages of Using the Active Record Class 54
Saving Time 54
Automatic Functionality 54
Read Queries 56
Displaying Query Results 58
Create and Update Queries 59
Delete Queries 61
Mixing Active Record and 'Classic' Styles 61
Summary 62
Chapter Appendix: MYSQL Query to Set Up 'websites' Database 63
Chapter 5: Simplifying HTML Pages and Forms 67
Writing a View 67
Long and Short PHP Syntax 69
Nesting Views 70
Practical Issues of Site Architecture 73
CI's Form Helper: Entering Data 74
Form Helper Advantage One: Clarity 74
Form Helper Advantage Two: Automation 77

[ ii ]
 Table of Contents

My 'Display' Model 78
CI's Validation Class: Checking Data Easily 79
Set Up Validation 80
Set Up the Controller 81
Set Up the Forms 81
Summary 83
Chapter 6: Simplifying Sessions and Security 85
Starting to Design a Practical Site with CI 85
Moving Around the Site 86
Security/Sessions: Using Another CI Library Class 91
Turning Sessions into Security 94
Security 96
Summary 98
Chapter 7: CodeIgniter and Objects 99
Object-Oriented Programming 99
Working of the CI 'Super-Object' 100
Copying by Reference 103
Adding Your own Code to the CI 'Super-Object' 105
Problems with the CI 'Super-Object' 106
Summary 109
Chapter 8: Using CI to Test Code 111
Why Test, and What For? 111
CI's Error Handling Class 113
CI's Unit Test Class 115
When to Use Unit Tests 117
Example of a Unit Test 118
CI's Benchmarking Class 121
CI's Profiler Class 122
Testing with Mock Databases 123
Control and Timing 124
Summary 125
Chapter 9: Using CI to Communicate 127
Using the FTP Class to Test Remote Files 127
Machines Talking to Machines Again—XML-RPC 129
Getting the XML-RPC Server and Client in Touch with Each Other 131
Formatting XML-RPC Exchanges 132
Debugging 134
Issues with XML-RPC? 135
Talking to Humans for a Change: the Email Class 136
Summary 139

[ iii ]
Find comprehensive test banks and solution manuals right now
at [Link]
Table of Contents

Chapter 10: How CI Helps to Provide Dynamic Information 141

The Date Helper: Converting and Localizing Dates 142
Working with Text: the Text Helper and Inflector Helper 145
Going International: the Language Class 146
Making HTML Tables the Easy Way: the Table Class 150
Caching Pages 152
Summary 154
Chapter 11: Using CI to Handle Files and Images 155
The File Helper 156
The Download Helper 158
The File Upload Class 160
CI's Image Class 165
Easy File Compression with the CI Zip Class 169
Summary 169
Chapter 12: Production Versions, Updates, and Big Decisions 171
Connections: Check the Config Files 172
URLs 172
Databases 172
Other config Files 173
Look Out for PHP 4/5 and Operating System Differences 173
Diagnostic Tools 174
Coping with Changes in New CI Versions 177
How to Load Models, and What to Call Them 178
How to Initialize Your Own 'library' Classes 179
So Should I Update If a New CI Version Comes Out? 179
How to Add On to CI's Basic Classes 181
Summary 183
Chapter 13: Instant CRUD—or Putting it All Together 185
The CRUD Model: Design Philosophy 186
The Standard Controller Format 187
The Database Tables 189
The Heart of the Model: the Array 189
Function by Function: the CRUD Model 192
Showall 192
Reading the Data 195
Delete and Trydelete 196
Insert 201
Insert2 208
The Test Suite 209
Summary 214

[ iv ]
 Table of Contents

Chapter 14: The Verdict on CI 215

Some Code: the 'do_test' Model 216
A Balance Sheet 225
Where CI Helped: Structure 225
Where CI Helped: Simplicity 226
Where CI Helped: Extra Functionality 226
Problems with CI 226
Completeness 227
Ease of Use 227
Summary 228
Chapter 15: Resources and Extensions 229
CI's User Forums 230
Video Tutorials 232
Available Plug-ins and Libraries 232
AJAX/Javascript 233
Authentication 233
External Sites 235
Comparisons: Which Charting Library to Use? 235
CRUD: the Final Frontier 238
Resources for Other Programmes, e.g. Xampplite, MySQL, PHP 239
Summary 240
Index 241

[]
 Preface
This book sets out to explain some of the main features of CI. It doesn't cover them
all, or cover any of them in full detail. CI comes with an excellent on-line User Guide
that explains most things. This is downloaded with the CI files.

This book doesn't try to duplicate the User Guide. Instead it tries to make it easier for
you to pick up how the CI framework works, so you can decide whether it is right
for you, and start using it quickly.

In some places, this book goes beyond the User Guide, though, when it tries to
explain how CI works. (The User Guide is more practically oriented.) This means
that there are some fairly theoretical chapters in between the "here's how" pages. I've
found that it helps to understand what CI is doing under the hood; otherwise you
sometimes get puzzling error messages that aren't easy to resolve.

I've tried to use a 'real-world' example when showing sections of CI code. I want
to show that CI can be used to develop a serious website with a serious purpose.
I'm currently running several websites for clients, and I want a program that will
monitor them, test them in ways I specify, keep a database of what it has done, and
let me have reports when I want them.

The examples in this book don't show it in full detail, of course: but they do, I hope,
demonstrate that you can use CI to make pretty well any common coding simpler,
and some uncommon stuff as well.

This book steps you through the main features of CodeIgniter in a systematic way,
explaining them clearly with illustrative code examples.
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