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+--- Thread: What's the best way to control the output (view) based on database entry? (/showthread.php?tid=32723)
What's the best way to control the output (view) based on database entry? - El Forum - 08-02-2010
[eluser]dynZack[/eluser]
Hi everyone,
just learning CI and already excited about the speed of developing.
This is probably easy: I have some custom fields that take user input. Each custom field is stored in:
Code:
CREATE TABLE 'fields' (
`id` INT(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`category_id` int(12) unsigned NOT NULL REFERENCES categories(id),
`name` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
`label` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
`desc` LONGTEXT NULL,
`type` ENUM( 'textbox', 'textarea', 'dropdown', 'checkbox') NOT NULL,
....
....
`required` bool NOT NULL default 1,
`field_owner` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY id (`field_id`)
) TYPE=MyISAM;;So I select all the fields that correspond to a certain category_id and generate a form. I want to be able to control the view based on the type of the fields (textbox, textarea, dropdown, checkbox).
Basically I could do this in the controller:
Code:
foreach ($allfields as $field){
if ($field['type']=textbox
$output .= $this->load->view('form_textbox', 'some data', true);
elseif ($field['type']=checkbox
$output .= $this->load->view('form_checkbox', 'some data', true);
elseif ......
else ......
}However, I'm feeling that I'm writing unnecessary code and there must be a more elegant way to achieve this. Any help?
What's the best way to control the output (view) based on database entry? - El Forum - 08-02-2010
[eluser]clip[/eluser]
You could do a helper function that accepts your data and return the expected form element using the form_helper. Something like this.
Code:
function form_magic($name, $type, $val, $attributes)
{
//this is really basic you would add your conditionals here since form_helper arguments vary from
//function to function
$form_function = 'form_'.$type;
return $form_function($name, $val);
}
//controller
$output = '';
foreach ($allfields as $field):
$output .= form_magic($field['name'], $field['type']);
endforeach;
$data['output'] = $output;
//load your view file
$this->load->view('your_view_name', $data);Keep in mind you will still have to determine where you want to start and end your form. In the controller or in your view. Hope this helps.
Edit: For this to work as I have shown, your enum values would have to corespond to the correcth form_helper functions. For example you would have to change the enum value of textbox to input.
What's the best way to control the output (view) based on database entry? - El Forum - 08-03-2010
[eluser]dynZack[/eluser]
Thanks for the help. Worked great!