Thread

Thanks wiredesignz for sharing this code.  I have done something similar with a lesser compact/elegant syntax to invoke them.  In these approaches, I am not too happy w/ the following:

1) typically in a MVC world, the controller executes the biz logic and invokes the template to render.  In thus case the controller renders the template, then the template invokes the widgets which in turn calls the associated its biz logic.  The interaction is somehow doesn’t feel natural to me

2) passing parameters into the widgets is not very practical.  The controllers needs to pass the params into the template and pass back to the widget.

BTW, this may be obvious, but I didn’t understand as what would trigger the call to the render() method of the widget in your case?

Regards

Widgets display view partials only. They are not designed to process “biz” logic. Hence parameters are pushed to widgets from the view.

@victorlenus, Load the model from it’s page controller and pass it to the widget via the view.

wiredesignz, can you convert your widgets code to php 5?

Widget plugin PHP5 only

<?php if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
/**
* Widget Plugin
*
* Install this file as application/plugins/widget_pi.php
*
* @version:     0.2
* $copyright    Copyright (c) Wiredesignz 2009-08-24
*
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
* of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
* in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
* to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
*
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
* all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
* AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
* LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
* OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
* THE SOFTWARE.
*/
class Widget
{
    function run($name) {        
        $args = func_get_args();
        
        require_once APPPATH.'widgets/'.$name.EXT;
        $name = ucfirst($name);
        
        $widget =& new $name();
        return call_user_func_array(array(&$widget, 'run'), array_slice($args, 1));    
    }
    
    function render($view, $data = array()) {
        extract($data);
        include APPPATH.'widgets/views/'.$view.EXT;
    }

    function load($object) {
        $this->$object =& load_class(ucfirst($object));
    }

    function __get($var) {
        static $ci;
        isset($ci) OR $ci = get_instance();
        return $ci->$var;
    }
}

Widget plugin PHP5 only

<?php if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
/**
* Widget Plugin
*
* Install this file as application/plugins/widget_pi.php
*
* @version:     0.2
* $copyright    Copyright (c) Wiredesignz 2009-08-24
*
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
* of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
* in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
* to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
*
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
* all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
* AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
* LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
* OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
* THE SOFTWARE.
*/
class Widget
{
    function run($name) {        
        $args = func_get_args();
        
        require_once APPPATH.'widgets/'.$name.EXT;
        $name = ucfirst($name);
        
        $widget =& new $name();
        return call_user_func_array(array(&$widget, 'run'), array_slice($args, 1));    
    }
    
    function render($view, $data = array()) {
        extract($data);
        include APPPATH.'widgets/views/'.$view.EXT;
    }

    function load($object) {
        $this->$object =& load_class(ucfirst($object));
    }

    function __get($var) {
        static $ci;
        isset($ci) OR $ci = get_instance();
        return $ci->$var;
    }
}

Thank you for php 5 ver!

Functions of widget class must be public or private?

@Mikle, You make me work so hard these days. 😊

Any method not declared specifically is assumed to be public method.

Widget class does not need private method.

Wiredesignz, how do you think wigets must have config file (like Wordpress, for activation deactivation) or not? Or I should store config in db?

Widget config should maybe be part of config/application.php

I always have a dedicated application config file, this keeps all site settings available to all developers.

Use database of course for settings that may be altered regularly.

Widget config should maybe be part of config/application.php

I always have a dedicated application config file, this keeps all site settings available to all developers.

Use database of course for settings that may be altered regularly.

And if I need to set count of posts which widget renders, I should store this number in config/application.php?

Or database, This is your choice. 😉

@Mikle, You make me work so hard these days. 😊

Any method not declared specifically is assumed to be public method.

Widget class does not need private method.

I’m sorry for so much questions, but I’m newbee and learning codeigniter, and I love you extentions for CI, that save so much time in web application development. You can add paypal donation button to your site and I and many other people will send donations for your great job!

It’s ok, your questions are good ones. And thank you for the nice feedback.

If people want to donate they can always send a private message via my profile.

is it possible to make this widget plugin behave with ME5? I want to create a separate widget for each module and all this will come together in a dashboard type view.

Hi Milos, I’m sure we could work something out. I’ll do some testing.

I’m currently trying to work something out. I can get it to load the widget from a module, but when it comes to the view, well I’m having a hard time :(