Helpers in CodeIgniter

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In Codeigniter, a helper is a collection of independent procedural functions in a particular category.
Each helper function performs one specific task, with no dependence on other functions.

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Models in Codeigniter

Codeigniter Interview Questions

Different types of CodeIgniter Helpers

There are three types of helpers:

1 Built-in helpers: These helpers are stored in the system/helpers directory. The Codeigniter developers community network provides many built-in helpers which cover a rich set of topics.

Array Helper
CAPTCHA Helper
Cookie Helper
Date Helper
Directory Helper
Download Helper
Email Helper
File Helper
Form Helper
HTML Helper
Inflector Helper
Language Helper
Number Helper
Path Helper
Security Helper
Smiley Helper
String Helper
Text Helper
Typography Helper
URL Helper
XML Helper

2 Third-party helpers: These are third-party helpers through which we can integrate third-party facilities in our application. These helpers are stored in the application/helpers directory.

ssl_helper.php
html_manipulator_helper.php

Related Topics:

Codeigniter Introduction

Codeigniter features

3 Custom helpers: These helpers are created into the application/helpers directory. The helper file must be in the following format:

application/helpers/helper_name_helper.php

Where helper_name is the name of the helper which we want to create.

Loading a helper:

We can load a helper automatically or by the controller.

We can load a helper automatically by application/config/autoload.php file. Go to the given path, open the autoload.php file and write the given line.

$autoload['helper'] = array('helper_name');

Where helper_name is the name of helper which we want to load.

To loading a helper into a certain controller use the following lines.

$this->load->helper('helper_name');

Where helper_name is the name of helper which we want to load.

Example: In this example, we will use the URL helper function site_url() which returns the site URL, and base_url() which will return the base URL as specified in the config file.

Put this code into your controller file application/controllers/Demo.php

Demo.php

<?php
defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
class Demo extends CI_Controller{
	public function index()
	{
		$this->load->helper("url"); //loading built-in URL helper
		$this->load->view("First_view"); //loading view First_view
	}
}
?>

Now, put the below code into the application/views/First_view.php file.

First_view.php

<html>
<head>
<title>First View</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>This is the very first view of my application</h2>
<a href="<?php echo site_url(); ?>">Click here to go on index page</a>
<br>
<a href="<?php echo base_url(); ?>">Click here to go on CodingTag</a>
</body>
</html>

Now check the result by entering the given URL into the browser.

http://localhost/ci/index.php/Demo

Output:

After clicking on the link, you will reach the index page of your application.