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MVC Style Question... put data in view vs controller
#1

[eluser]oldblueday[/eluser]
Hello all,

I have a style question. I'm writing a testing script which has a lot of text describing a disaster scenario interspersed with questions about the scenario. The questions are generated by php/CI.

Is there a best practice on how to approach this? Right now I have a controller with a lot of HTML in it. Alternatively, I can have a view with some PHP in it.

Thanks,

- Rahul

Code:
// okay this part gets messy, not sure how to do it
        // I got a lot of HTML but I need to mix some PHP in there, too
        // should I put it in the controller or the view?
        $html_quiz .= '                        
                            <div class="case1">
                            <h2>Lunch at Blue Rice Ski Resort</h2>';    
        $html_quiz .= image_asset('scenario/blue_rice_trail.png','',array('class' =>'float_center'));
        $html_quiz .= '                <p>The Blue Rice trail is crowded by skiers when suddenly, from the north side of Snow Rice, a big thunder is heard and a white cloud rises...</p>
                            <p>SLAB AVALANCHE!</p>
                            <p>Not far from the Blue Rice trail, around 50 skiers are having a lunch in a shelter beside the ski run.</p>';
        $html_quiz .= image_asset('scenario/avalanche_1.png','',array('class' =>'float_left'));
        $html_quiz .= image_asset('scenario/avalanche_2.png','',array('class' =>'float_right'));
        $html_quiz .= '                    <div class="clearer"></div>
                            <p>Loose snow avalanche!!!!</p>
                            <p>The avalanche roared down crushing one of the shelter\'s walls and covering the shelter with up to 3 meters of snow. Many of the people made it out of the shelter on their own, but others had to be assisted.</p>
                        </div>';

        $this->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[0], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
        $this->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[1], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
        $this->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[2], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
#2

[eluser]mddd[/eluser]
Stuff that you output should be in a view. Don't you agree this code is more legible than what you pasted above?
Code:
<div class="case1">

<h2>Lunch at Blue Rice Ski Resort</h2>

&lt;?=image_asset('scenario/blue_rice_trail.png','',array('class' =>'float_center'))?&gt;

<p>The Blue Rice trail is crowded by skiers when suddenly, from the north side of Snow Rice, a big thunder is heard and a white cloud rises...</p>
<p>SLAB AVALANCHE!</p>
<p>Not far from the Blue Rice trail, around 50 skiers are having a lunch in a shelter beside the ski run.</p>

&lt;?=image_asset('scenario/avalanche_1.png','',array('class' =>'float_left')?&gt;
&lt;?=image_asset('scenario/avalanche_2.png','',array('class' =>'float_right'))?&gt;

<div class="clearer"></div>

<p>Loose snow avalanche!!!!</p>
<p>The avalanche roared down crushing one of the shelter's walls and covering the shelter with up to 3 meters of snow. Many of the people made it out of the shelter on their own, but others had to be assisted.</p>

</div>

&lt;?php
$questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[0], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
$questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[1], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
$questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[2], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
?&gt;
#3

[eluser]oldblueday[/eluser]
Absolutely. Thanks, mddd. However I am having a problem, which I'm hoping has a simple solution.

Code:
<p>Loose snow avalanche!!!!</p>
        <p>The avalanche roared down crushing one of the shelter walls and covering the shelter with up to 3 meters of snow. Many of the people made it out of the shelter on their own, but others had to be assisted.</p>    
    </div>
    &lt;?php
        // if I call a bunch of functions via a procedure, it doesn't work
        echo print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[0], $ans_key);

        // however if I call the functions outright, it works well
        // $q = $this->quizmaker->generate_question($scenario_questions[0]);
        // echo $q['HTML_question'];
        // $ans_key[] = $q['answer_key'];
    ?&gt;
    &lt;?php echo form_close(); ?&gt;


</div>


&lt;?php

/* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* PRINT SCENARIO QUESTION
*
* just shorthand to generate the HTML string for the question and update
* the answer key
*
* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/    
    
    function print_scenario_question($question, &$ak)
    {
        $q = $this->quizmaker->generate_question($question);  
        $html .=  "<li>" . $q['HTML_question'] . "</li>";
        $ak[] = $q['answer_key'];
        return $html;
    }

I've narrowed it down to the calling of the $this->quizmaker->generate_question($question) call. Why would it work well inline but not when called from a procedure?

I noticed that you had translated my

Code:
&lt;?php
$this->questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[0], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
$this->questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[1], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
$this->questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[2], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
?&gt;

...into...

Code:
&lt;?php
$questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[0], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
$questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[1], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
$questions->_print_scenario_question($scenario_questions[2], $html_quiz, $ans_key);
?&gt;

Does the $this object not need to be there? I tried removing it with no luck, though.

Thanks-Rahul
#4

[eluser]oldblueday[/eluser]
I solved the problem by doing two things:

1. Moving that procedure into a helper function (I'm not sure this made a difference, but it at least got it out of the view
2. Realized that $this does not exist in my helper function & possibly my in-line function, so I had to get an instance of the codeigniter superobject first... then it worked.

Just putting this up here in case someone has a similar problem:

Code:
function print_scenario_question($question, &$ak)
    {
        $CI =& get_instance();
        $CI->load->library('quizmaker');
                
        $q = $CI->quizmaker->generate_question($question);  
        $HTML_question =  "<li>" . $q['HTML_question'] . "</li>";
        $ak[] = $q['answer_key'];
        return $HTML_question;
    }




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