Codeigniter: Is a view supposed to be reusable - codeigniter

Question

in MVC pattern, does the view need to be reusable. Are there any principles or points to be noted while outputting data via views.
So if i have a view with certain amount of text and a table with 3 columns, and if i would need another view with minute changes like the text would be a little different and a table with 4 columns, so should i use variables to store the table structure in the model itself and then pass it to the view via the controller,
or
use variables to change the flow of execution in the view,
or best define a new view?
Moreover what if i have an object with the table data, is it good to use the object in the view, use a for loop and display the data or are there better ways? Thanks
P.S I'm new to codeigniter

Answer 1

If you want to display data from 2 tables and your desired output is different I recommend you to use 2 views. In your model you should make function to get all the neccessary data and then pass it to controller. In controller you should assign them to variable and pass them to view. See the example below.
tbl_articles
article_id | article_title | article_text
1 Title of article Sample text of article
2 Title of article no. 2 sample text of article no. 2
tbl_reviews
review_id | review_title | review_text | review_rate
1 Title of review Sample text 5
2 Title of review no. 2 Sample text 2 4
Controller:
<?php
class Site extends CI_Controller {
public function articles()
{
$this->load->model('main_model');
$data['articles'] = $this->main_model->get_articles();
$this->load->view('articles', $data);
}
public function reviews()
{
$this->load->model('main_model');
$data['articles'] = $this->main_model->get_reviews();
$this->load->view('reviews', $data);
}
}
Model:
<?php
class Main_model extends CI_Model {
public function get_articles()
{
return $this->db->select('article_id, article_title, article_text')
->get('tbl_articles')
->result();
}
public function get_reviews ()
{
return $this->db->select('review_id, review_title, review_text, review_rate')
->get('tbl_reviews')
->result();
}
}
Views:
- Article view:
<?php
if (count($articles) == 0):
echo 'Nothing to show';
else:
foreach($articles as $article):
?>
<h1><?php echo $article->article_title; ?></h1>
<p><?php echo $article->article_text; ?></p>
<?php
endforeach;
endif;
?>
- Reviews view:
<?php
if (count($reviews) == 0):
echo 'Nothing to show';
else:
foreach($reviews as $ review):
?>
<h1><?php echo $ review -> review _title; ?></h1>
<p><?php echo $ review -> review text; ?></p>
<p>Rate of user: <?php echo review->review_rate; ?></p>
<?php
endforeach;
endif;
?>