How to pass variable between views? Codeigniter - codeigniter

Question

Codeigniter noob here:
I am wanting to let users click a button inside someone's profile in order to send them a message, I need to pass the variable from the view back to the controller and into another view, how can I accomplish this? The variable is $username in the first view:
View #1: (this works)
<a href="<?php echo base_url().'user/user_message';?>">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-info btn-small" title="Send Message" >Send Message</button>
</a>
<h3><?php echo $username;?>- Public Profile</h3>
Controller:
public function user_message($username)
{
if($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE)
{
$this->load->view('header_loggedin');
$this->load->view('user/send_message', $username);
$this->load->view('footer');
}
else
I basically want to grab the $username variable from my first view and make it avaliable in the user/send_message view. Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Change the following line
<a href="<?php echo base_url().'user/user_message';?>">
To
<?php echo base_url().'user/user_message/'.$username;?>
So, your public function user_message($username){ ... } will receive the $username as it's parameter. Once you get it in your controller method then you can send it to the second view when you load the view with other data, like for example,
...
$data['username'] = $username;
$this->load->view('viewname', $data);
Then you can use $username in your view.

Answer 2

Why not pass hidden field and post it to your controller. Try this.
VIEW
<a href="<?php echo base_url().'user/user_message';?>">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-info btn-small" title="Send Message" >Send
Message</button>
</a>
<input type="hidden" name="username" value="<?php echo $username; ?>"/>
CONTROLLER
public function user_message()
{
$username = $this->input->post('username');
if($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE)
{
$this->load->view('header_loggedin');
$this->load->view('user/send_message', $username);
$this->load->view('footer');
}