Kohana Forums

I have a layout controller where I define an array of css paths and an array of JS paths and pass them to the template view.
Then in the template view I check for the css and js arrays and just echo and echo the paths.

This way you can define a base array for the general css and js files that has to be included on every page and you can define per controller the css and js files.

Similar to above, I have a Website_Controller that extends the base Template_Controller. The Website_Controller has a $page array property that stores most of the basic page information along with defaults for elements such as css, js, meta tags, etc. I then have a few public methods in the Website_Controller such as "add_js()", "add_css()" that can be called by the various controllers that extend the Website_Controller to add per page js and css.

I also hold all paths in a config file, the same as @feketegy.

However, I offload all view processing to an extended View class, and never use a template controller.

That way you can load up a primary view with a bunch of add_whatever() methods, and even extend when you need views with even more specific functionality, have an RSS_View, XML_View, etc.

$this->view = new SuperView; // SuperView extends view, constructor takes care of core CSS, JS, metatags, titling, etc
$this->view->add_css('custom.css') // add anything else you like

Why clog up controllers with something that's not controller-related?

@neovive - In regards to Dave's comment 'why clog up controllers with something that's not controller-related', you might find the following articles interesting:

Why the view has access to the model
Using View Helpers to increase view reusability

along with some discussions here on the forum, they got me interested in playing around with zombor's KOstache module and getting some nice, thin and reusable controllers.

@LordZicon: Those links are very interesting indeed.

I've found a way to make reusable views and controllers. However, I do read GET and POST, validation, etc... on the controller.

In other note, I personally try to avoid non standards like Mustache, LESS, etc.

@LordZicon quite interesting articles, thank you for sharing

You're halfway there.

If you want to use a factory, create the static method on your SuperView Class. Essentially you're just moving any view-related code to the extended view class.

So instead of your 3 view lines, you could only have one:

echo SuperView::factory('optional/path/to/file.php')->add_css('an/optional/css/file.css')->render();

I'd only bother passing through a (optional) path to the template files when you really want customisation - otherwise, your View file defaults should really take care of that.

You'll need to override the render() method to correctly output the head and body code. It's not voodoo by any stretch of the imagination, it's just more logically placing view related code where it belongs. Have courage! Forget what you know about "dumb templates" and embrace a certain amount of logic in your views, and accept that a Master View class is a good thing.

Here's a Template View class from one of my projects. I haven't looked at it in 9 months though - so if you find any glaring errors, do let me know!

<?php<br />
/**
 * Template View
 * 
 * The Template View class sets up a variety of core page elements, such as 
 * page title, adding scripts, stylesheets, and groups of assets from the
 * "assets" configuration file.
 * 
 * The variables $title, $css, and $scripts are assumed to be set in the template. 
 *
 */
class Template_View extends View
{
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // VARIABLES
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
        // template and auto-render
            protected $template        = 'template';
            protected $auto_render    = TRUE;
            
        // default page variables
            public $title            = NULL;
            
        // scripts and css arrays (these are converted to strings upon rendering)
            public $scripts            = array();
            public $css                = array();
            
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // INITIALIZE
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
        /**
         * Template_View constructor
         */
        public function __construct($template = NULL, $data = NULL)
        {
            // default path
                if($template == NULL)
                {
                    $template = $this->template;
                }
            
            // default title
                if($data == NULL)
                {
                    $data = $this->title;
                }
                if(is_string($data))
                {
                    $data = array('title' => $data);
                }
                
            // constructor
                parent::__construct($template, $data);
                
            // auto-render
                if ($this->auto_render == TRUE)
                {
                    Event::add('system.post_controller', array($this, '_render'));
                }

        }
    
        /**
         * Chainable method to create an instance of Template_View
         */
        public static function factory($template = NULL, $data = NULL)
        {
            return new Template_View($template, $data);
        }
        
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // CORE PROPERTIES
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
        /**
         * Chainable method to change the view template file
         */
        public function set_template($template)
        {
            $this->set_filename($template);
            return $this;
        }
        
        /**
         * Chainable method to set the title variable of the view
         */
        public function set_title($value)
        {
            $this->title = $value;
            return $this;
        }
        
        /**
         * Load single or multiple stylesheets, searching in the paths set up in the assets configuration file
         */
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // ASSETS
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
        public function css($file)
        {
            if(is_array($file))self::css($file);
            else $this->css[$file] = html::stylesheet(Kohana::config('assets.paths.css') . $file);
            return $this;
        }
        
        /**
         * Load single or multiple scripts, searching in the paths set up in the assets configuration file
         */
        public function script($file)
        {
            if(is_array($file))self::script($file);
            else $this->scripts[$file] = html::script(Kohana::config('assets.paths.scripts') . $file);
            return $this;
        }
        
        /**
         * Load groups of assets specified by values set in the assets configuration file
         */
        public function assets($key)
        {
            $assets = Kohana::config('assets.assets.' . $key);
            if($assets != NULL)
            {
                if(array_key_exists('css', $assets))
                {
                    foreach($assets['css'] as $file)
                    {
                        $this->css($file);
                    }
                }
                if(array_key_exists('scripts', $assets))
                {
                    foreach($assets['scripts'] as $file)
                    {
                        $this->script($file);
                    }
                }
            }
            return $this;
        }
        
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // CORE
    // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
        /**
         * Set all stored variables in the view and render
         */
        public function render($print = FALSE)
        {
            // set variables
                $this
                    ->set('title', htmlentities($this->title))
                    ->set('css', implode('', $this->css) . "\n")
                    ->set('scripts', implode('', $this->scripts) . "\n");
                    
            // render
                parent::render($print);
        }    

        /**
         * Callback for auto-rendering
         */
        public function _render()
        {
            if ($this->auto_render == TRUE)
            {
                $this->render(TRUE);
            }
        }
        
    /**
     * Override parent class to magically set view variables
     *
     * @param   string   variable key
     * @param   string   variable value
     * @return  void
     */
    public function __set($key, $value)
    {
        $protected = array('template', 'auto_render');
        if(!in_array($key, $protected))
        {
            $this->kohana_local_data[$key] = $value;
        }
    }



}

?>

Thanks for sharing that. It's very helpful.

By the way - more info here (this is the thread that started it all!)

http://forum.kohanaframework.org/discussion/4094/moving-view-related-logic-out-of-my-controllers/