Controller inside a folder inside a folder not working (Codeigniter)

Question

I've been doing pretty good with codeigniter but now I've hit a little snag. Instead of having everything in one controller file, I want to redistribute it throughout many files inside a sub-folder. For instance:

localhost/folderA/folderB/controllerFile

This way folder B replaces the home file for the controller and all the files can be dispersed inside this new folder since there's no need to have 10 different controller functions inside a single file (makes it large you know).

In routes I added a new line to

$route['folderA/folderB/(:any)/'] = 'folderA/folderB';

I don't even think it's even necessary to add a route but it wasn't working, always getting a 404 page no matter what. Now, the very same code for the controller works perfectly well if I bring it back by a folder. This means that /folderA/folderB/controllerFile works in /folderA/controllerFile without worries.

My objective is not to resort to moving these files up a directory but to keep the structure the same as it once was. Has anyone gone mad over something like this? I'd imagine so... lol

Thanks for reading!

Edit: For clarification this is what's going on:

  /application/controllers/file.php (OK)
  /application/controllers/folderA/file.php (OK)
  /application/controllers/folderA/folderB/file.php (This does not work)

I could do /application/controllers/folderA/file.php and have all of the functions inside of it so it works as followed:

localhost/folderA/file
localhost/folderA/file/functionb
localhost/folderA/file/functionc

But this makes the file rather unnecessarily large when the same result could be done using sub-sub directories. Makes sense?

Answer 1

Instead of having everything in one controller file, I want to redistribute it throughout many files inside a sub-folder. ... all the files can be dispersed inside this new folder since there's no need to have 10 different controller functions inside a single file.

You can already put functions into multiple controller files under one directory called controllers. There was never a requirement to put all functions into one controller file.

By default, all controllers are stored in the controllers directory...

/application/controllers/

Example:

/application/controllers/Users.php
/application/controllers/Auth.php
/application/controllers/Etc.php

I don't even think it's even necessary to add a route but it wasn't working, always getting a 404 page no matter what.

If you want to use subdirectories for controllers, then these subdirectories must be contained within the controllers directory and you need to follow the documentation.

/application/controllers/subfolderA/
/application/controllers/subfolderB/

As per the documentation:

If you are building a large application you might want to hierarchically organize or structure your controllers into sub-directories. CodeIgniter permits you to do this.

Simply create sub-directories under the main application/controllers/ one and place your controller classes within them.

When using this feature the first segment of your URI must specify the folder.

Each of your sub-directories may contain a default controller which will be called if the URL contains only the sub-directory. Simply put a controller in there that matches the name of your default_controller as specified in your application/config/routes.php file.

CodeIgniter also permits you to remap your URIs using its URI Routing feature.

---

EDIT:

I could do /application/controllers/folderA/file.php and have all of the functions inside of it so it works as followed:

localhost/folderA/file
localhost/folderA/file/functionb
localhost/folderA/file/functionc

But this makes the file rather unnecessarily large when the same result could be done using sub-sub directories. Makes sense?

Why do you keep talking about a "single large file"? You can break your functions up into as many controller files as you wish without the need of any subdirectories...

/application/controllers/Users.php
/application/controllers/Auth.php
/application/controllers/Etc.php

Respectively accessed via URL as

/users/function_foo
/auth/function_bar
/etc/function_foobar

Then using routes.php, you can achieve whatever complex URL you wish...

$route['foldera/testPage/testing'] = 'users/function_foo';

However, if you want to use a subdirectory within the controllers directory...

/application/controllers/subdirectory/Controller_a.php

Accessed via URL as...

/subdirectory/controller_a/some_function

Can be re-routed as literally anything you want...

$route['foo/bar/anything/here/tester/foobar'] = 'subdirectory/controller_a/some_function';

Answer 2

Okay so I figured out the solution using routes. While I don't understand exactly why codeigniter doesn't allow a 3-level folder, what I ended up doing is creating a new folder inside /application/controllers/test/ and within that folder I had my test.php file.

Then I went back to the routes configuration file and added the following line:

$route['foldera/testPage/testing'] = 'test/test';

What this effectively does is that when you direct your browser to the page

http://localhost/foldera/testPage/testing

It will treat that page as found in /application/controllers/test/test.php

It's basically giving it an alias. However if you go to localhost/test/test it will have no issues with this and treat it the exact same as foldera/testPage/testing.php In order to resolve this little issue, simply add another line to the routes config file

$route['test/test'] = 'notfound'; // Your 404 page controller

Now the only way to access that folder is directly from the URL that you want. Ta-da!