Calling 2 controllers?

[eluser]FinalFrag[/eluser]
I'm currently working on my website and I got the following problem:

I have a header.php that is included at the top of every view.
I also have a footer.php that is included at the bottom of every view.
So basicly it comes down to this in my view files:

Code:

$this->load->view('header');

// view stuff goes here

$this->load->view('footer.php');

My menu is in the footer.php file because it needs to be parsed after the content does. So the footer.php file looks like this:

Code:

// close some open divs from the content
</div></div></div>

// include the menu
require_once 'menu.php';

// end the page completely
&lt;/body&gt;
&lt;/html&gt;

The problem is as follows:
In this menu I need information from the database. However, when I use $this->load->model('menu') it doesn't work (figures, as I am in a view, not a controller).

How can I solve this? Should I make a call to another controller (if that is at all possible) or am I doing something else wrong.

Thnx in advance...

[eluser]Seppo[/eluser]
A post-controller constructor hook would do it.

[eluser]FinalFrag[/eluser]
Could you give me a bit more info/how-to on that subject? I'm still pretty new to CodeIgniter...

[eluser]Seppo[/eluser]
Sure.
To set up a hook, take a look here, it's quite simple.
Then you should have a function that will be called on every request, something like this

Code:

function myhook()
{
  $CI =& get_instance();
  $CI->load->model('menu');
  $data['menu'] = $CI->menu->getSomeData();
  $CI->load->vars($data);
}

Then, on any view loaded you will have $menu set with the result from the controller.

[eluser]wiredesignz[/eluser]
Modular Extensions would be a better choice than using hooks. See my signature.

[eluser]zdknudsen[/eluser]
You could also try and put this experimental library of mine in your /application/libraries/ directory and simply call your other controller through

Code:

$this->load->controller('segment1/segment2/etc');

I haven't tested it very much, though.

http://www.filepanda.com/file/5wvzss2zkkp5/

Edit: Actually, you should be able to work out your problem without any fancy workarounds. First of all, why are you require_once-ing your menu.php? What kind of file is it? And why does the menu need to be parsed after the content? Usually you would probably use either a model or library to parse your menu and save it to a variable that you pass to the view.

[eluser]Seppo[/eluser]
Aren't those solutions overkill?

[eluser]gtech[/eluser]
can't you just load the model in the constructor of every controller?

[eluser]wiredesignz[/eluser]
lol gtech is right, autoload the model

[eluser]FinalFrag[/eluser]
Autoloading it every time is a bit to much work. Cause I just know I will forget some day :p

Currently I solved it like this (menu.php):

Code:

if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

$query = mysql_query("SELECT title, text FROM ff_extra WHERE status = 1 ORDER BY sequence ASC");
if (mysql_num_rows($query) > 0 ) {
    while (list($title, $text) = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
        echo '<h1>' . $title . '</h1>';
        echo '<p>' . $text . '</p>';
    }
}
else {
    echo '<h1>No info</h1>';
    echo '<p>There is no extra information available at the moment.</p>';
}

I'm looking for the 'good' way to do something like this, but it shouldn't be more code than this, because that would be kind of stupid