General Questions

[eluser]breastfed[/eluser]
Hello

i am new here and happy to found CI as a Framework.

Now i have some Questions after woring through the Videotuts.

Is there a main Navigationfile, wich is included in every Page?
So i dont have to edit every Page?

Is there a main File wich includes all the single Pages, or are all Pages physically on the Server?
For Example as the blog_view.php in the Tut?

I want to set a small Site with 5-8 Menupoints and diffent Content.

MAybe somebody could help me out a bit?

Thank you very much!

[eluser]sophistry[/eluser]
welcome breastfed! studies have shown that babies who are breastfed have higher IQs than their unfortunate formula-fed counterparts. so, welcome you and your big brain. thanks for joining us.

you seem to think that CI is a CMS. It is not. CI is a framework - you can build web stuff with it, including a CMS (if you want to). But, if you are looking for a CMS, the parent company of CI has one called ExpressionEngine which is currently getting redone to have CI as its foundation.

Anyhow, if you want to include menus and pages in a heirarchical way, check out the various user-contributed template libraries, view partials/fragments advice, $this->load->view() call with the third parameter set to true (as in the CI manual on views), etc... also check the wiki for the FAQ (this is a very common question).

cheers.

[eluser]breastfed[/eluser]
I dont want to use a CMS - otherwise i would have choosen one.

I want to create a smaaaall Community where User can register, have a Profil and comment certain Things.
After a few dicussions in other Boards they said: Take CI, CakePHP or Zend.

Thats why i am here.

Thank you.

[eluser]sophistry[/eluser]
[quote author="breastfed" date="1231887592"]I want to create a smaaaall Community where User can register, have a Profil and comment certain Things.[/quote]

;-) that sounds just like a CMS. Community of Users with Profiles and Comments on Things.

Anyway, I know the feeling well - "I want to make it my way and make it work better and be able to change it", but seriously, you should really take a look at Expression Engine or the other CMSs out there and play with them so you know exactly what they lack that you need.

So, were you able to find more info on making modular menus and such?

[eluser]breastfed[/eluser]
i did not get any infos.

I searched for hours.

[eluser]sophistry[/eluser]
so, you didn't find the FAQ at the wiki?

[eluser]breastfed[/eluser]
correcto!

[eluser]sophistry[/eluser]
@breastfed...

i am only doing this because you have such a funny, entertaining name.

http://codeigniter.com/wiki/FAQ/

in the future, please use the search box.

[eluser]breastfed[/eluser]
Thank you

[eluser]obiron2[/eluser]
Welcome to the CI community. I have to say that this is the most helpful and friendly group that I am a member of. Even when people ask dumharse questions they are treated with kindness and respect.

CI doesn't change the rules about programming in PHP, just the techniques and locations of the code.

If you want to fetch data from a database you still have to connect to the DB, run a query and work with the results.

If you want to create a form, you still need to output the <FORM> </FORM> tags.

Anything that you can do in PHP, you can do in CodeIgniter (OK, GTK based desktop apps may be a bit tricky coz it is designed to process URLs)

When designing a web page you need to do three things.

What data do I need = Model.
What business logic do I need = Controller.
What should it look like on the page = View.

For beginners, as an introduction, I would suggest you code in straight procedural PHP (or OOP if you are already used to it) and do the following:

Create a new controller and function in the controller.
Decide what information you need and put it in a model
Process the data into a nice relational format (normally a multi dimensional array)
Call a view file
create your HTML in the view with PHP callouts <? ... ?> whenever you need to get some data from the array.

Perhaps don't jump straight into a production system, but play with some of the functions while reading the user guide to understand what CI can and can't do for you.

It will seem long winded at first to put your code into three different files, but as your system grows you will see the benefits.

good luck and post back here if you ever need any help

Obiron