Creating Template in CodeIgniter 3 Using Bootstrap Theme

We will integrate bootstrap theme with CodeIgniter using layout. This tutorial help to create own custom layout for CodeIgniter. This is a master template that will use to render a child view file, like each website template has header, footer and sidebar view which is constant and nothing has been changed between different pages.

We will define a master layout, which has constant things as its and variable things like inner content will change based on routing or request of page.

The first question is in our mind what will be the variable in the CodeIgniter layout?, the page title, logo message, page content etc, we will use page title and content as a variable in this Codeigniter tutorial.

Pre-Requisites for CodeIgniter 3 Template Tutorial

There are following library and frameworks must be downloaded and configured

• Download CodeIgniter 3.
• Download Bootstrap Theme Bootstrap Admin Theme.
• WAMP, XAMPP or a Live Server
• Enable mod_rewrite module(for Apache)

Example of Codeigniter Templates Using Bootstrap Admin Theme

I am using bootstrap admin theme to create the CodeIgniter template. You can change the theme as per your application need. The CI templates integration process would be same like any other HTML theme.

I am creating ci_test folder into xampp/htdocs/ directory and moved all files and directories from CodeIgniter 3 downloaded folder to xampp/htdocs/ci_test folder.

I am using the following files and folder

We will create and modify the following CI files.

• libraries/template.php: This file will use to create a template class and method to render the layout.
• views/layouts/default_layout.php: This file will use to create an HTML layout using template.php class.
• config/config.php: This file will use configure application level params.
• config/autoload.php: This file will use to load libraries on project instantiate.
• config/router.php: This file will use to define the route path of the application.
• views/home.php, views/about.php: home and about view file.
• controllers/home.php: Default application controller file and use to render home, about view file using the template.

Modify config.php file
We will modify some configuration parameters in application/config/config.php file, I made the following changes to this file:

$config['uri_protocol']  = 'REQUEST_URI';
$config['base_url'] = 'http://ci_test/';
$config['index_page'] = ''; //remove index.php file from url

Added .htaccess file
We will add .htaccess file to the route of /ci_test folder. We will write some rules for SEO and User-Friendly URLs. You can access the employee list using this http://ci_test/employee url instead of http://ci_test/index.php/employee.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|resources|robots\.txt)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L,QSA]

Modify autoload.php
We will modify autoload.php file for template library class. We will add a helper library class in this file. You can find changes later in this tutorial.

Change the Default controller in the routes.php file

Let’s change the default controller name from welcome to home, whenever a page will load into the browser without the controller name, The default controller will be home and index() method will be call.

$route['default_controller'] = 'home';

How to Create Template Library in CI

Step 1: We will create a template class for rendering the template view file. Created a template.php file and stored into the /library folder.

<?php
class Template {
                //ci instance
                private $CI;
                //template Data
                var $template_data = array();
 
                public function __construct() 
                {
                                $this----->CI =&amp; get_instance();
                }
 
                function set($content_area, $value)
                {
                                $this->template_data[$content_area] = $value;
                }
 
                function load($template = '', $name ='', $view = '' , $view_data = array(), $return = FALSE)
                {
                                $this->set($name , $this->CI->load->view($view, $view_data, TRUE));
                               
                                $this->CI->load->view('layouts/'.$template, $this->template_data);
                }
                               
}
?>

Step 2: We will create a default_layout.php view file into the views/layouts/ folder.This file will contains all js, css libraries files with html inner container variable.

<title>Test CI Application - &lt;?php echo $title;?></title>
<meta name="description" content="overview &amp; stats">
<!-- bootstrap & fontawesome -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url();?>assets/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url();?>assets/font-awesome/4.2.0/css/font-awesome.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url();?>assets/css/theme.min.css" class="theme-stylesheet" id="theme-style">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url();?>assets/fonts/fonts.googleapis.com.css">
<!-- page specific plugin styles -->
<div id="navbar" class="navbar navbar-default">
</div>
<div class="page-content">
	<div class="row">
		<div class="col-xs-12">
			<!-- PAGE CONTENT BEGINS -->
			<?php echo $contents;?>
			<!-- PAGE CONTENT ENDS -->
		</div>
		<!-- /.col -->
	</div>
	<!-- /.row -->
</div>
<!-- /.page-content -->

<!-- /.main-content -->
<div class="footer">
	<div class="footer-inner">
		<div class="footer-content">
		<span class="bigger-120">
			Copyright © phpflow.com. All rights reserved.
		</span>
	</div>
</div>
</div>
<a href="#" id="btn-scroll-up" class="btn-scroll-up btn btn-sm btn-inverse">
<i class="ace-icon fa fa-angle-double-up icon-only bigger-110"></i>
</a>
<!-- /.main-container -->
 
<!-- basic scripts -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo base_url();?>assets/js/jquery.2.1.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="<?php echo base_url();?>assets/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<script src="<?php echo base_url();?>assets/js/theme.min.js"></script>

Step 3: Added template entry into config/autoload.php file to load template class when the CI has been initialized.

$autoload['libraries'] = array('template');
$autoload['helper'] = array('url');

Created Home Controller in CI

We have made a change in the config for the default controller which was home, so we will create a new php file Home.php file into the /controllers folder. Also created an index() method into it. Please add the below code into Home.php controller file.

public function index()
	{
		header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *");
		$data = array();
		$this->template->set('title', 'Home');
		$this->template->load('default_layout', 'contents' , 'home', $data);
	}

Create a Home view file

We have defined home view file in index() controller method. We will create a new home.php file into views/ folder. Please add the below code into this file,

<?php
defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
?>
Lorem Ipsum ...... Ipsum.
 

Codeigniter Pages Using Template

We will add a new page to this codeigniter tutorial, So that you can understand the use of layout.Let’s create a about page that will render on the same page layout. We just send the view to the Default Layout file and rest of the theme structure same as the home.

Step 1: Create a new entry route into route.php file.

$route['home/about'] = 'home/about';

We have mentioned home is controller and about is a method.

Step 2: Created about method into Home.php controller file.

public function about()
{
	$data = array();
	$this->template->set('title', 'about');
	$this->template->load('default_layout', 'contents' , 'about', $data);
}

Step 3: Created about.php view file into views folder.

<?php
defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
?>
It is a long .......

Conclusion

This is a codeigniter beginners tutorial help to integrate beautiful bootstrap theme with Codeigniter using Layout.You can also integrate simple HTML theme using this codeigniter tutorial.We have create new controller and view file and render them using template.

You can download source code from below link.