CodeIgniter Home
- What is CodeIgniter?
- Features of CodeIgniter
- Advantages over other PHP frameworks
- CodeIgniter version history
CodeIgniter Overview
- Key Components of CodeIgniter
- MVC design pattern explained
- Workflow of a CodeIgniter application
- System and Application folders overview
CodeIgniter Installing CodeIgniter
- System Requirements (PHP, MySQL, Extensions)
- Downloading & Extracting CodeIgniter
- Folder structure explained
- Setting base URL
- Configuring index.php file
- Running first application
CodeIgniter Application Architecture
- Folder structure in detail
- Application vs System folders
- Config, Controllers, Models, Views
- Helpers and Libraries placement
- User Guide access
CodeIgniter MVC Framework
- Understanding MVC flow
- Codeigniter Creating Controllers
- Creating Views
- Creating Models
- Loading Models and Views
- Data flow between MVC components
CodeIgniter Basic Concepts
- URLs in CodeIgniter
- Default controller setup
- Routing basics
- Auto-loading resources
- Naming conventions
CodeIgniter Configuration
- Configuration files overview
- Base URL and Index page settings
- Encryption key setup
- Codeigniter Database configuration
- Error logging configuration
- Custom configuration files
CodeIgniter Working with Database
- Database configuration
- Loading database library
- Query Builder class
- Running queries (select, insert, update, delete)
- Active Record class
- Transactions
- Joins, Grouping, Ordering, Limit
- Query bindings
- Result handling (row(), result())
CodeIgniter Libraries
- Built-in libraries overview
- Loading libraries
- Common libraries: Pagination, Upload, Email, Form Validation, Session, Encryption, Calendar
- Creating custom libraries
CodeIgniter Error Handling
- Error reporting levels
- Custom error pages (404, 500)
- Using log_message()
- Displaying errors in development vs production
CodeIgniter File Uploading
- Upload library setup
- File upload configuration (path, allowed types, max size)
- Handling errors in upload
- Multiple file uploads
- Securing uploads
CodeIgniter Sending Email
- Email library configuration
- Sending emails via SMTP
- Sending attachments
- Sending HTML emails
- Debugging email errors
CodeIgniter Form Validation
- Form validation library overview
- Setting validation rules
- Prepping data before validation
- Error messages customization
- Validation callbacks
- Server-side vs Client-side validation
CodeIgniter Session Management
- Session library configuration
- Storing session data
- Retrieving session data
- Flashdata in sessions
- Database-driven sessions
CodeIgniter Flashdata
- What is Flashdata?
- Creating flashdata messages
- Retrieving flashdata
- Flashdata expiration
CodeIgniter Tempdata
- Difference between flashdata & tempdata
- Creating tempdata
- Retrieving tempdata
- Removing tempdata
CodeIgniter Cookie Management
- Setting cookies
- Retrieving cookies
- Deleting cookies
- Cookie security
CodeIgniter Common Functions
- base_url()
- site_url()
- redirect()
- form_open() & form helper functions
- String helper functions
CodeIgniter Page Caching
- Enabling page caching
- Cache expiration
- Deleting cache files
- Best practices in caching
CodeIgniter Page Redirection
- Redirect helper function
- Permanent vs Temporary redirection
- Redirect with flashdata
CodeIgniter Application Profiling
- Enabling profiler
- Profiler sections (benchmarks, queries, post data, etc.)
- Customizing profiler output
CodeIgniter Benchmarking
- Benchmark class usage
- Measuring script execution time
- Measuring memory usage
- Custom benchmarks
CodeIgniter Adding JS and CSS
- Loading assets in views
- Using base_url() for assets
- Best practices for assets organization
- Versioning assets
CodeIgniter Internationalization
- Language files in CodeIgniter
- Loading language files
- Switching languages dynamically
- Multi-language website structure
CodeIgniter Security
- Input filtering and XSS cleaning
- CSRF protection
- SQL Injection prevention
- Password hashing & encryption
- Secure file uploads
- Using HTTPS with CodeIgniter

Loading Models and Views

Last modified on: September 9, 2025

<h1 data-start="442" data-end="488">📝 Loading Models and Views in CodeIgniter</h1>
<h2 data-start="490" data-end="510">🔎 Introduction</h2>
<p data-start="511" data-end="548">In CodeIgniter&rsquo;s <strong data-start="528" data-end="545">MVC framework</strong>:</p>
<ul data-start="549" data-end="761">
<li data-start="549" data-end="621">
<p data-start="551" data-end="621"><strong data-start="551" data-end="561">Models</strong> handle <strong data-start="569" data-end="596">data and business logic</strong> (database operations).</p>
</li>
<li data-start="622" data-end="674">
<p data-start="624" data-end="674"><strong data-start="624" data-end="633">Views</strong> handle <strong data-start="641" data-end="657">presentation</strong> (HTML output).</p>
</li>
<li data-start="675" data-end="761">
<p data-start="677" data-end="761"><strong data-start="677" data-end="692">Controllers</strong> load both <strong data-start="703" data-end="723">Models and Views</strong> to create dynamic web applications.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<hr data-start="763" data-end="766" />
<h2 data-start="768" data-end="793">📂 1. Loading Models</h2>
<h3 data-start="795" data-end="817">📌 CodeIgniter 4</h3>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>use App\Models\UserModel;

class Users extends BaseController
{
    public function index()
    {
        // Load Model
        $userModel = new UserModel();

// Fetch Data
        $data['users'] = $userModel-&gt;findAll();

// Pass data to View
        return view('users_list', $data);
    }
}
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h3 data-start="1139" data-end="1161">📌 CodeIgniter 3</h3>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>class Users extends CI_Controller {

public function __construct() {
        parent::__construct();
        // Load Model
        $this-&gt;load-&gt;model('User_model');
    }

public function index() {
        // Fetch Data
        $data['users'] = $this-&gt;User_model-&gt;get_users();

// Pass data to View
        $this-&gt;load-&gt;view('users_list', $data);
    }
}
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-start="1544" data-end="1655">✅ In CI3, we use <code data-start="1561" data-end="1583">$this-&gt;load-&gt;model()</code>.<br data-start="1584" data-end="1587" />✅ In CI4, Models are <strong data-start="1608" data-end="1630">namespaced classes</strong> instantiated directly.</p>
<hr data-start="1657" data-end="1660" />
<h2 data-start="1662" data-end="1686">📂 2. Loading Views</h2>
<h3 data-start="1688" data-end="1710">📌 CodeIgniter 4</h3>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>return view('users_list', $data);
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h3 data-start="1757" data-end="1779">📌 CodeIgniter 3</h3>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>$this-&gt;load-&gt;view('users_list', $data);
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h3 data-start="1832" data-end="1869">Example View (<code data-start="1850" data-end="1866">users_list.php</code>)</h3>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>&lt;h2&gt;User List&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;?php foreach($users as $user): ?&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;?= $user['name']; ?&gt; - &lt;?= $user['email']; ?&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;?php endforeach; ?&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr data-start="2028" data-end="2031" />
<h2 data-start="2033" data-end="2066">📂 3. Loading Multiple Views</h2>
<p data-start="2068" data-end="2148">You can split your Views into <strong data-start="2098" data-end="2129">header, content, and footer</strong> for reusability.</p>
<h3 data-start="2150" data-end="2177">📌 Controller Example</h3>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>echo view('header');
echo view('users_list', $data);
echo view('footer');
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h3 data-start="2264" data-end="2289">📌 Folder Structure</h3>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>app/Views/
├── header.php
├── footer.php
├── users_list.php
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr data-start="2359" data-end="2362" />
<h2 data-start="2364" data-end="2396">🔄 4. Passing Data to Views</h2>
<p data-start="2398" data-end="2452">Data is sent from Controllers to Views using arrays.</p>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>$data = [
    'title' =&gt; 'User Management',
    'users' =&gt; $userModel-&gt;findAll()
];
return view('users_list', $data);
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-start="2584" data-end="2621">Inside <strong data-start="2591" data-end="2618">View (<code data-start="2599" data-end="2615">users_list.php</code>)</strong>:</p>
<div class="contain-inline-size rounded-2xl relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary">
<div class="sticky top-9">
<div class="absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2">
<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">
<pre class="language-php"><code>&lt;h1&gt;&lt;?= $title; ?&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;?php foreach($users as $user): ?&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;?= $user['name']; ?&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;?php endforeach; ?&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr data-start="2760" data-end="2763" />
<h2 data-start="2765" data-end="2790">🎯 5. Best Practices</h2>
<ol data-start="2792" data-end="3270">
<li data-start="2792" data-end="2871">
<p data-start="2795" data-end="2871"><strong data-start="2795" data-end="2822">Keep Controllers Light:</strong> Just load models &amp; views, don&rsquo;t write queries.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2872" data-end="2945">
<p data-start="2875" data-end="2945"><strong data-start="2875" data-end="2903">Pass Only Required Data:</strong> Don&rsquo;t send unnecessary arrays to views.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="2946" data-end="3016">
<p data-start="2949" data-end="3016"><strong data-start="2949" data-end="2965">Reuse Views:</strong> Use partials like <code data-start="2984" data-end="2996">header.php</code> and <code data-start="3001" data-end="3013">footer.php</code>.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="3017" data-end="3133">
<p data-start="3020" data-end="3133"><strong data-start="3020" data-end="3054">Name Models and Views Clearly:</strong> Example: <code data-start="3064" data-end="3075">UserModel</code> for <code data-start="3080" data-end="3087">users</code> table, <code data-start="3095" data-end="3111">users_list.php</code> for user list view.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="3134" data-end="3270">
<p data-start="3137" data-end="3163"><strong data-start="3137" data-end="3161">Follow MVC Strictly:</strong></p>
<ul data-start="3167" data-end="3270">
<li data-start="3167" data-end="3198">
<p data-start="3169" data-end="3198"><strong data-start="3169" data-end="3178">Model</strong> = data operations</p>
</li>
<li data-start="3202" data-end="3239">
<p data-start="3204" data-end="3239"><strong data-start="3204" data-end="3218">Controller</strong> = request handling</p>
</li>
<li data-start="3243" data-end="3270">
<p data-start="3245" data-end="3270"><strong data-start="3245" data-end="3253">View</strong> = presentation</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<hr data-start="3272" data-end="3275" />
<h2 data-start="3277" data-end="3297">✅ 6. Conclusion</h2>
<ul data-start="3299" data-end="3428">
<li data-start="3299" data-end="3336">
<p data-start="3301" data-end="3336"><strong data-start="3301" data-end="3311">Models</strong> fetch and manage data.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="3337" data-end="3378">
<p data-start="3339" data-end="3378"><strong data-start="3339" data-end="3348">Views</strong> display that data to users.</p>
</li>
<li data-start="3379" data-end="3428">
<p data-start="3381" data-end="3428"><strong data-start="3381" data-end="3396">Controllers</strong> act as the glue between them.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="3430" data-end="3547"><strong data-start="3430" data-end="3449">Workflow Recap:</strong><br data-start="3449" data-end="3452" />User Request &rarr; Controller &rarr; <strong data-start="3480" data-end="3496">Model (data)</strong> &rarr; Controller &rarr; <strong data-start="3512" data-end="3535">View (presentation)</strong> &rarr; Browser</p>

Web Technology View More