Assistance in creating an Advanced Module

eriklharper

I'm creating an advanced module called "store" that will be an online store. What I have so far is a folder called "store" in the fuel/modules directory that contains the following directories:

assets
config
controllers
language
views

I've basically followed the instructions on this page in the manual: http://getfuelcms.com/user_guide/modules/advanced so this means I have 3 files in the config folder called "store_constants", "store_routes" and "store", all of which have basic settings applied that I copied from other modules. To do a hello world type test for this module, I created a store.php controller and in the index function it simply echos out "Store" to the page.

It works, but makes me login to Fuel first to see it. How do I set it so that it doesn't authenticate to Fuel to bring up this module, like it does for the blog module?

Erik

admin

If the controller inherits from Fuel_base_controller, then it will require login. For your admin store controller, name it store_module.php and your front end controller just store.php.

eriklharper

I figured out why I am being asked for a password. It is because my main store.php controller class is extending the Fuel_base_controller, which automatically checks for a logged in Fuel user:

<?php require_once(FUEL_PATH.'/libraries/Fuel_base_controller.php'); class Store extends Fuel_base_controller { function __construct() { parent::__construct(); // Initialize page_data array $this->page_data = array(); } function index() { $this->load->view('store', $this->page_data); } }

So, my question is what class should I use in this case to extend my controller class? I see that Fuel_base_controller extends CI_Controller. Should I use that? Are there any other options?

Erik

eriklharper

Cool, thanks for the tip. I didn't initially plan on having an admin view in Fuel for the store, but that gets me thinking that it might be a good idea.

I have an additional question regarding routes. I want to have routes like this:

example.com/store/checkout/annual
example.com/store/checkout/3day
example.com/store/checkout/24hour

These are routes that will allow people to purchase annual, 3day and 24hour gift certificates for the bike share system. I have a store.php and a checkout.php controller. I have this route defined in a file under the store config folder called store_routes.php:

<?php $route['store/checkout/(annual|3day|24hour)'] = "store/checkout/index/$1";

This is currently not working, its returning a 404. Any idea what might be wrong?

Thanks,
Erik

eriklharper

I was able to get this working by adding this line into my application/config/routes.php file:

$route['store/checkout/(annual|3day|24hour)'] = 'store/checkout';

It gives me a 404 if I do this:

$route['store/checkout/(annual|3day|24hour)'] = 'store/checkout/$1';

Why is the addition of the $1 causing this to break? The goal is to use the 3rd URI segment to apply a different price for each gift certificate type, so I would need that value to get passed to the store/checkout controller. I suppose the other option is to use $this->uri->segment(3) to pull it into the controller, but I still want to find out why it breaks when I add the $1 to the end.

Thanks

admin

I think it is because you can't pass URI segments to the index method unless you use a controller's _remap method

eriklharper

Awesome, thank you! I just renamed my index function to _remap and it worked. Have to say, most helpful forum on the net for one of the best CMSs on the net, thanks!

admin

Thanks. Glad to help. You are in PDX right?

eriklharper

Yep, I'm just steps away from you over on Grand and Morrison (in front of River City Bicycles). You guys I think are right in front of Clarklewis, I actually had lunch there the other day. We'll have to meet sometime, definitely see your product as a critical part of our business, its made my life a heck of a lot easier!

Cheers,
Erik

eriklharper

Ok, I have another question. I have a checkout controller that process a store transaction. Inside of that controller I have the _remap() function and a success() function. The success function gets called when a successful purchase goes through, and it simply loads a view called success.

I have an issue when I go to example.com/store/checkout/success in that it is loading the checkout view instead of the success view. The checkout view is loaded by the _remap() function in the checkout controller. If I change _remap back to index, it fixes this problem, but then I won't be able to take advantage of having the 3rd URI segment pass in as a parameter to the checkout controller.

What exactly is the reason for the _remap function? Sounds like I just need to understand the behavior of this function better so that my module can function properly.

Erik

admin

If you use _remap, it will use that method instead of "success" method in your controller. To grab parameters, you can always use $this->uri->segment(3)... etc. I found this post a while back trying to deal with a similar situation that I thought was an interesting fix to the issue but I haven't actually tried it out (about half way down by Colin Williams):

http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/135187/

You are really close. I'll email you directly about meeting up.