Bootstrap Theme Integration into CodeIgniter 4

The Codeigniter 4 has been launched. I am going to discuss How to Integrate Bootstrap Theme With Codeigniter 4. I will create a Codeigniter layout using the bootstrap ace theme.

This Codeigniter tutorial help to create a custom layout. This is a master template that will use to render the child view file, which has a partial header, footer, and sidebar file. I have already shared Creating Template in CodeIgniter 3 Using Bootstrap Theme.

I am taking same above bootstrap theme and functionalities, I’ll integrate the bootstrap theme and create a layout in CodeIgniter 4. The layout and file structure is too different from Codeigniter 3 to code 4.

I am assuming – You have configured and installed CodeIgniter 4 into your system, if not configured yet, please install and configure Codeigniter 4 using Install & Configure Codeigniter 4 In XAMPP.

Pre-Requisites for CodeIgniter 4 Template Tutorial

There are the following libs and software that need to configure-

• Download CodeIgniter 4.
• 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

The bootstrap admin theme is the popular bootstrap admin theme.Its a open source free bootstrap theme.You can change theme as per your application need.

I am creating codeigniter-blog folder into xampp/htdocs/ directory and moved all files and directories from CodeIgniter 4 downloaded folder to xampp/htdocs/codeigniter-blog folder.

I am using following files and folder

We will create and modify following CI files.

• app/Views/default_layout.php: This file will use to create an HTML layout using template.php class.
• app/Config/Routes.php: This file will use to define all application routes here.
• app/Config/app.php This file will use configure application level params.
• app/Views/about.php: This file will have home page content.
• app/Views/home.php: This file will have about page content.
• app/Controllers/Home.php: We will create a new Home controller, This file will have all handler method for routes.

Modify app.php file
We will modify the configuration parameters in app/Config/app.php file, I made the following changes into this file:

$config['base_url'] = 'http://codeigniter-blog/';

Create Default Layout In CodeIgniter 4

We will create a default_layout.php view file in the app/Views/ folder. This file will contain all js, css libraries files with HTML inner container variables.

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Test CI Application - &lt;?php echo $title;?&gt;</title>

<meta name="description" content="overview &amp; stats">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0">

<!-- bootstrap & fontawesome -->
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url(" css="" bootstrap.min.css");?="">" /&gt;
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url(" font-awesome="" css="" font-awesome.min.css");?="">" /&gt;
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url(" css="" ace.min.css");?="">" class="theme-stylesheet" id="theme-style" /&gt;
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tangerine">
<!-- page specific plugin styles -->

<div id="navbar" class="navbar navbar-default">
 <div class="navbar-container" id="navbar-container">
  <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle menu-toggler pull-left" id="menu-toggler" data-target="#sidebar">
   <span class="sr-only">Toggle sidebar</span>
   <span class="icon-bar"></span>
   <span class="icon-bar"></span>
   <span class="icon-bar"></span>
  </button>
  <div class="navbar-header pull-left">
   <a href="/" class="navbar-brand">
    <small>
     <i class="fa fa-leaf"></i>
     Sample CI Example
    </small>
   </a>
  </div>
  <div class="navbar-buttons navbar-header pull-right" role="navigation">

  <ul class="nav ace-nav">
   <li class="light-blue">
    <a data-toggle="dropdown" href="#" class="dropdown-toggle">
     <img class="nav-user-photo" src="<?php echo base_url(" avatars="" user.jpg");?="">" alt="Admin Photo" /&gt;
     <span class="user-info">
     <small>Welcome,</small>
     Admin
     </span>
     <i class="ace-icon fa fa-caret-down"></i>
    </a>
    <ul class="user-menu dropdown-menu-right dropdown-menu dropdown-yellow dropdown-caret dropdown-close">
     <li>
      <a href="#">
      <i class="ace-icon fa fa-cog"></i>
       Settings
      </a>
        </li>
     <li>
      <a href="#">
      <i class="ace-icon fa fa-user"></i>
       Profile
      </a>
     </li>
     <li class="divider"></li>
     <li>
      <a href="#">
      <i class="ace-icon fa fa-power-off"></i>
      Logout
      </a>
     </li>
    </ul>
   </li>
  </ul>
 </div>
</div>
<!-- /.navbar-container -->
</div>


<div class="main-container" id="main-container">
 <div id="sidebar" class="sidebar responsive">
  <ul class="nav nav-list">

   <li class="<?php echo $title == 'Home' ? 'active' : '' ?>">
    <a href="/">
     <i class="menu-icon fa fa-tachometer"></i>
     <span class="menu-text"> Dashboard </span>
    </a>
    <b class="arrow"></b>
   </li>
   <li class="<?php echo $title == 'about' ? 'active' : ''?>">
    <a href="/about">
     <i class="menu-icon fa fa-list-alt"></i>
     <span class="menu-text"> About us </span>
    </a>
    <b class="arrow"></b>
   </li>
  </ul>
  <!-- /.nav-list -->
  <div class="sidebar-toggle sidebar-collapse" id="sidebar-collapse">
   <i class="ace-icon fa fa-angle-double-left" data-icon1="ace-icon fa fa-angle-double-left" data-icon2="ace-icon fa fa-angle-double-right"></i>
  </div>
 </div>
 <div class="main-content">
  <div class="main-content-inner">
   <div class="breadcrumbs" id="breadcrumbs">
    <ul class="breadcrumb">
     <li>
      <i class="ace-icon fa fa-home home-icon"></i>
      <a href="/">Home</a>
     </li>
     <?php if($title != 'Home') :?>
      <li class="active"><?php echo $title;?></li>
     <?php endif;?>
    </ul>
    <div class="nav-search" id="nav-search">
     <form class="form-search">
      <span class="input-icon">
       <input type="text" placeholder="Search ..." class="nav-search-input" id="nav-search-input1" autocomplete="off">
       <i class="ace-icon fa fa-search nav-search-icon"></i>
      </span>
     </form>
    </div>
   </div>
  <div class="page-content">
   <div class="row">
    <div class="col-xs-12">
     <!-- PAGE CONTENT BEGINS -->
     <?= $this--->renderSection('content') ?&gt;
     <!-- PAGE CONTENT ENDS -->
    </div>
    <!-- /.col -->
    </div>
   <!-- /.row -->
   </div>
  <!-- /.page-content -->
  </div>
 </div>
 <!-- /.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>
</div>
<!-- /.main-container -->
 
<!-- basic scripts -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo base_url(" js/jquery.min.js");?>"></script>
<script src="<?php echo base_url("js/bootstrap.min.js");?="">"></script>

Created Home Controller in CI 4

We have created a default layout file, Let’s create a handler method into this file, I am creating Home.php file in the app/Controllers folder. Created a index() method into it. Please add the below code into Home.php controller file.

<?php namespace App\Controllers;

class Home extends BaseController
{
 public function index()
 {
  $data = array();
  return view('home');
 }
 
}

Create Home View File

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

<?= $this->extend('default_layout') ?>
<?= $this->section('content') ?>
    
Lorem Ipsum is .... Lorem Ipsum.
<?= $this->endSection() ?>

Codeigniter Pages Using Template

Let’s create a new page in Codeigniter 4 tutorial, This page will have the same above custom page layout. Create an about page into /Views folder, This page will render on the same page layout. We just send view to the Default Layout file and the rest of the theme structure same as the home.

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

$routes->get('/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();
  
  return view('about');
 }

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

<?= $this->extend('default_layout') ?>
<?= $this->section('content') ?>
    
About page -Lorem Ipsum .... Lorem Ipsum.
<?= $this->endSection() ?>

Conclusion

This is a Codeigniter beginners tutorial help to integrate a beautiful bootstrap theme with Codeigniter 4 using Layout. You can also integrate a simple HTML theme using this CodeIgniter tutorial. We have created a new controller and view file and rendered them using the template.