CodeIgniter: what makes a good model

Question

What makes a good MVC model in CodeIgniter. What my 'user' model does now is basically using the same active record functions from the database library. The only difference is that you don't need to specify the database table and just do:

$this->usermodel->where('username','test'),
$user = $this->usermodel->get();

This feels kinda awkward, since its not making it 'a lot easier'.

Another way I thought of was making the user model like an user object with a load function. But this is not efficient when loading more than 1 user.

Can I get some tips from you guys? Thanks.

Answer 1

A good tip would be, not letting model an view talk with each other straight, you always(or when it's possible) have to use controller to do this kind of communication.

I've heard also the opinion that it's a bad practice to have logic inside your models...I don't know if this is true but it's a rule I have broken lots of times(if somebody knows more about the subject please correct me).

And of course always have in mind that model should be reusable , so I try to give general solution to some problems and not application specific...on the other hand controller seems to be the throwaway component so this is where you should do ugly stuff that will never be used in other projects...

Hope it helps a little