Creating a database-generated menu on every page in CodeIgniter?

Question

I'm using CodeIgniter and have a menu on the site that needs to read a list of cities from the database. This is simple to do if it's just on one or two pages - I load the model and call a function from the controller, and pass the data into the view.

But if I want it on every page, that means I have to keep copying the same code to every single controller function and pass the data into the view. (Note, I'm using a separate "header" view that contains the menu.)

What's the best way to automatically load some data on every page load and have it available to my view?

Answer 1

Create a new root controller class like MY_Controller.

You can read how here: https://www.codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/core_classes.html

Then make all your controllers extend that class.

Add a function in MY_Controller like this:

function show_view_with_menu($view_name, $data) {
   $menu_data = $this->menu_model->get_menu(); // load your menu data from the db
   $this->load->view('header', $menu_data); // display your header by giving it the menu
   $this->load->view($view_name, $data); // the actual view you wanna load
   $this->load->view('footer'); // footer, if you have one
}

Whenever you normally do load a view, instead do this:

$this->show_view_with_menu('view_for_this_controller', $data);