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authoradmin <devnull@localhost>2006-08-25 19:25:49 +0200
committeradmin <devnull@localhost>2006-08-25 19:25:49 +0200
commitb0dd10f8171945e0c1f3527dd1e9d18b043e01a7 (patch)
treec3583ba09e72217683c4304f4690df6ce39ba731 /user_guide/general/helpers.html
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
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+<title>Code Igniter User Guide</title>
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+<div id="masthead">
+<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width:100%">
+<tr>
+<td><h1>Code Igniter User Guide Version 1.4.0</h1></td>
+<td id="breadcrumb_right"><a href="../toc.html">Full Table of Contents</a></td>
+</tr>
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+<a href="http://www.codeigniter.com/">Code Igniter Home</a> &nbsp;&#8250;&nbsp;
+<a href="../index.html">User Guide Home</a> &nbsp;&#8250;&nbsp;
+Helper Functions
+</td>
+<td id="searchbox"><form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search"><input type="hidden" name="as_sitesearch" id="as_sitesearch" value="www.codeigniter.com/user_guide/" />Search User Guide&nbsp; <input type="text" class="input" style="width:200px;" name="q" id="q" size="31" maxlength="255" value="" />&nbsp;<input type="submit" class="submit" name="sa" value="Go" /></form></td>
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+<!-- START CONTENT -->
+<div id="content">
+
+<h1>Helper Functions</h1>
+
+<p>Helpers, as the name suggests, help you with tasks. Each helper file is simply a collection of functions in a particular
+category. There are <dfn>URL Helpers</dfn>, that assist in creating links, there are <dfn>Form Helpers</dfn>
+that help you create form elements, <dfn>Text Helpers</dfn> perform various text formatting routines,
+<dfn>Cookie Helpers</dfn> set and read cookies, <dfn>File Helpers</dfn> help you deal with files, etc.
+</p>
+
+<p>Unlike most other systems in Code Igniter, Helpers are not written in an Object Oriented format. They are simple, procedural functions.
+Each helper function performs one specific task, with no dependence on other functions.</p>
+
+<p>Code Igniter does not load Helper Files by default, so the first step in using
+a Helper is to load it. Once loaded, it becomes globally available in your <a href="../general/controllers.html">controller</a> and <a href="../general/views.html">views</a>.</p>
+
+<h2>Loading a Helper</h2>
+
+<p>Loading a helper file is quite simple using the following function:</p>
+
+<code>$this->load->helper('<var>name</var>');</code>
+
+<p>Where <var>name</var> is the file name of the helper, without the .php file extension or the "helper" part.</p>
+
+<p>For example, to load the <dfn>URL Helper</dfn> file, which is named <var>url_helper.php</var>, you would do this:</p>
+
+<code>$this->load->helper('<var>url</var>');</code>
+
+<p>A helper can be loaded anywhere within your controller functions (or even within your View files, although that's not a good practice),
+as long as you load it before you use it. You can load your helpers in your controller constructor so that they become available
+automatically in any function, or you can load a helper in a specific function that needs it.</p>
+
+<p class="important">Note: The Helper loading function above does not return a value, so don't try to assign it to a variable. Just use it as shown.</p>
+
+
+<h2>Loading Multiple Helpers</h2>
+
+<p>If you need to load more than one helper you can specify them in an array, like this:</p>
+
+<code>$this->load->helper( <samp>array(</samp>'<var>helper1</var>', '<var>helper2</var>', '<var>helper3</var>'<samp>)</samp> );</code>
+
+<h2>Auto-loading Helpers</h2>
+
+<p>If you find that you need a particular helper globally throughout your application, you can tell Code Igniter to auto-load it during system initialization.
+This is done by opening the <var>application/config/autoload.php</var> file and adding the helper to the autoload array.</p>
+
+
+<h2>Using a Helper</h2>
+
+<p>Once you've loaded the Helper File containing the function you intend to use, you'll call it the way you would a standard PHP function.</p>
+
+<p>For example, to create a link using the <dfn>anchor()</dfn> function in one of your view files you would do this:</p>
+
+<code>&lt;?=anchor('blog/comments', 'Click Here');?&gt;</code>
+
+<p>Where "Click Here" is the name of the link, and "blog/comments" is the URI to the controller/function you wish to link to.</p>
+
+
+<h2>Now What?</h2>
+
+<p>In the Table of Contents you'll find a list of all the available Helper Files. Browse each one to see what they do.</p>
+
+
+</div>
+<!-- END CONTENT -->
+
+
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