Checking if a user has submitted an approval with if statements

Don't use the <?php opening tag right after you closed a previous code statement with ?>
Just write the statements inside one opening and one closing tag until you switch to html in your view.

Example:

PHP Code:

<div>
<?php
$message = 'PHP is great!';
echo $message;
$message .= 'And CodeIgniter is great too!';
echo $message;
?>
</div>