Trying to create a page via a Controller

toymachiner62

I'm trying to create another page via a Controller. I'm reading through the documentation on this page http://www.getfuelcms.com/user_guide/general/creating-pages and what view is this page going to be looking at? I'm confused as to where the content comes from after looking at the example.

admin

If you look at the section labeled "Using Controllers - about/contact" it renders the page using the Fuel_page class. We use the Fuel_page class so that it will import all the variables from the _variables files associated with the page (if any) and if the page is created in the admin, any variables from the fuel_pagevars table. The location value passed is the key to grabbing all the variables.

Alternatively you can use the native CI $this->load->view('my_view', $vars);

toymachiner62

So are you saying that if I have a file controllers/aboutTest.php and in that file I have <?php
Class AboutTest extends CI_Controller {

function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}

function index()
{
$vars = array('page_title' => 'Contact : My Website');

//... form code goes here

//load the fuel_page library class and passit the view file you want to load
$this->load->module_library(FUEL_FOLDER, 'fuel_page', array('location' => 'aboutTest'));
$this->fuel_page->add_variables($vars);
$this->fuel_page->render();
}
}

It is going to be looking for content in the file views/aboutTest.php and it's going to look for variables to use for this page in views/_variables/global.php?

admin

If you have no page in the admin with the location of 'aboutTest' It will look for a view file that matches the location path.

Variables can come from a few places here:
1. Your $vars variable in the index controller method
2. Any variables in the views/_variables/global.php
3. Any variables in the views/_variables/aboutTest.php that match that location (read the following to learn more about the difference between page variables and controller variables)
http://www.getfuelcms.com/user_guide/general/opt-in-controllers
4. If the page was created in the admin (which takes precedence over a static view file), then it would additionally look for variables in the database associated with that page (e.g. page title, meta description, body, body_class..etc)

Also, I'd recommend not using camel casing for the controller names and view files and instead use underscores for the controller names and either underscores or hyphens for the view files.

toymachiner62

So if I use this snippet in my controller

//load the fuel_page library class and passit the view file you want to load
$this->load->module_library(FUEL_FOLDER, 'fuel_page', array('location' => 'aboutTest'));
$this->fuel_page->add_variables($vars);
$this->fuel_page->render();

The only way I can view this page is to first add it in the admin side. If I wanted to view the page without adding it to the admin side, I would just do the regular old $this->load->view('aboutTest');

Am I understanding that correctly?

admin

No... you don't need to add it to the admin. Using Fuel_page will check first to see if a page is created in the admin (if the fuel_mode is set to 'auto') and if not, will proceed to look for a view file at the uri path location. It will also gather all the variable information.

You can use $this->load->view(), however, you won't be able to take advantage of the variables in the _variables file as easily.

toymachiner62

Interesting....Well i've created the controller I posted above, created a view file with the same name, have NOT added it to the admin and when I go to the url, I get a 404 error with the main template. I haven't added the page to the admin side.

admin

Are you able to goto the AboutTest controller index page without using the above method and echo something out from inside the index method?

toymachiner62

Nope, it still has the 404 error in the main template.

toymachiner62

Wait actually yes I am.

toymachiner62

Ok nevermind. Final clarification...I can NOT echo anything out in the controller.

admin

Are you using camel casing. What happens if you name it About_test and try and access the controller as /about_test (without the capitalization)?

toymachiner62

I created a new controller and copied the same code from above and called it 'Something' so the URL should be /something . Still no echo'd content showing up.

admin

And in your index method you echoed out something correct? Do you have this problem with just a normal CI installation?
.... function index() { echo 'test'; } ...

toymachiner62

Yes I've added an echo statement in my index function. I've worked many CI projects on my pc and they work fine. Any other ideas?

p.s. how do you make your code have the yellow backround like that in this forum??

admin

Do you have .htaccess file setup? Can you browse to index.php/something ?

Use the "code" HTML tag for the yellow background.

toymachiner62

If I browse to index.php/something I get the main template with a 404 error for the content. Yes I have the .htaccess file setup that comes with the fuel package.

toymachiner62

Ok so i'm on a different computer now and I can echo content from the controller and the view loads just fine. I'm not sure why it's not working on my other computer.

admin

So are you on a different computer looking at the other computer's site or did you do a different setup on your other computer?

Where on your server is FUEL installed? If it's at the root of your web directory then the .htaccess that comes with FUEL should be OK. If not, you'll need to change the RewriteBase to the appropriate sub-directory if you haven't already.

toymachiner62

Different computer, different FuelCMS setup. I'm on mamp right, I was on xampp earlier. I'll try messing with the .htaccess file on xampp on Monday to see if that's what my problem was.