How do I make a function available to several CodeIgniter methods? - codeigniter

Question

CodeIgniter 2.1.2
I have a class that contains two methods, for the purpose of this questions showone and view. The latter returns all items of a small database and can also perform a search. The other one is for permalinks like domain.com/showone/firstname-lastname
<?php
class Pages extends CI_Controller {
public function view($page)
{
//this includes a mysql search
}
public function showone($slug)
{
//abbreviated version:
$query = "SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE slug = '" . $slug . "'";
$result = $this->db->query($query);
if ($result->num_rows() == 0)
{
//here is where I'd like to use the same search that I used in showall
}
else
{
//show the one item
}
}
} //class
?>
So if a user decides to directly enter a URL that doesn't return anything from the database, I would like to direct him to search results instead of showing a 404.
So how do I set up a function searchdatabase($query) to be used by both showone and view?

Answer 1

You can use your controller functions inside your controller:
public function view($page)
{
$this->showone($slug);
}

Answer 2

Define that function in your model, load your model and then call the model->method.
<?php
//Your Model would look something like this.
class Search_Model extends CI_Model {
public function __construct(){
parent::__construct();
}
public function showone($slug)
{
//abbreviated version:
//Its best to use active record for building your queries
$this->db->where->('slug', $slug);
$result = $this->db->get('mytable');
if ($result->num_rows() == 0)
{
//here is where I'd like to use the same search that I used in showall
}
else
{
//show the one item
}
}
} //class
And then in your controller you would do this:
<?php
//Your Controllerwould look something like this.
class Index extends CI_Controller {
public function __construct(){
parent::__construct();
//model will be loaded for each method.
//if you're going to use this model across several controllers
//its best to autoload it, set that in autoload.php under /app/config
$this->load->model('search_model');
}
public function index(){
$searchResults = $this->search_model->showone('slugone');
}
Update
I just realized you are wanting to show all results if no results were returned. In which case you would perform that logic in your model as well..
In your conditional statement you would do the following:
if ($result->num_rows() == 0)
{
return $this->showall();
}
else
{
return $this->view($slug);
}
}
your showall() and view() methods would return $result->result();