HTML Helper ¶

The HTML Helper file contains functions that assist in working with HTML.

Page Contents

HTML Helper
- Loading this Helper
- br()
- heading()
- img()
- link_tag()
- nbs()
- ol() and ul()
- meta()
- doctype()

br()¶

Generates line break tags (<br />) based on the number you submit. Example:

echo br(3);

The above would produce: <br /><br /><br />

heading()¶

Lets you create HTML <h1> tags. The first parameter will contain the data, the second the size of the heading. Example:

echo heading('Welcome!', 3);

The above would produce: <h3>Welcome!</h3>

Additionally, in order to add attributes to the heading tag such as HTML classes, ids or inline styles, a third parameter is available.

echo heading('Welcome!', 3, 'class="pink"')

The above code produces: <h3 class=”pink”>Welcome!<<h3>

img()¶

Lets you create HTML <img /> tags. The first parameter contains the image source. Example

echo img('images/picture.jpg'); // gives <img src="http://site.com/images/picture.jpg" />

There is an optional second parameter that is a TRUE/FALSE value that specifics if the src should have the page specified by $config[‘index_page’] added to the address it creates. Presumably, this would be if you were using a media controller.

echo img('images/picture.jpg', TRUE); // gives <img src="http://site.com/index.php/images/picture.jpg" alt="" />

Additionally, an associative array can be passed to the img() function for complete control over all attributes and values. If an alt attribute is not provided, CodeIgniter will generate an empty string.

$image_properties = array(
        'src'   => 'images/picture.jpg',
        'alt'   => 'Me, demonstrating how to eat 4 slices of pizza at one time',
        'class' => 'post_images',
        'width' => '200',
        'height'=> '200',
        'title' => 'That was quite a night',
        'rel'   => 'lightbox'
);

        img($image_properties);     // <img src="http://site.com/index.php/images/picture.jpg" alt="Me, demonstrating how to eat 4 slices of pizza at one time" class="post_images" width="200" height="200" title="That was quite a night" rel="lightbox" />

link_tag()¶

Lets you create HTML <link /> tags. This is useful for stylesheet links, as well as other links. The parameters are href, with optional rel, type, title, media and index_page. index_page is a TRUE/FALSE value that specifics if the href should have the page specified by $config[‘index_page’] added to the address it creates.

echo link_tag('css/mystyles.css'); // gives <link href="http://site.com/css/mystyles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

Further examples

echo link_tag('favicon.ico', 'shortcut icon', 'image/ico');     // <link href="http://site.com/favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/ico" />

echo link_tag('feed', 'alternate', 'application/rss+xml', 'My RSS Feed');     // <link href="http://site.com/feed" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="My RSS Feed" />

Additionally, an associative array can be passed to the link() function for complete control over all attributes and values.

$link = array(
        'href'  => 'css/printer.css',
        'rel'   => 'stylesheet',
        'type'  => 'text/css',
        'media' => 'print'
);

echo link_tag($link);     // <link href="http://site.com/css/printer.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" />

nbs()¶

Generates non-breaking spaces ( ) based on the number you submit. Example

echo nbs(3);

The above would produce

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

ol() and ul()¶

Permits you to generate ordered or unordered HTML lists from simple or multi-dimensional arrays. Example

$this->load->helper('html');

$list = array(
        'red',
        'blue',
        'green',
        'yellow'
);

$attributes = array(
        'class' => 'boldlist',
        'id'    => 'mylist'
);

echo ul($list, $attributes);

The above code will produce this

 <ul class="boldlist" id="mylist">
        <li>red</li>
        <li>blue</li>
        <li>green</li>
        <li>yellow</li>
</ul>

Here is a more complex example, using a multi-dimensional array

$this->load->helper('html');

$attributes = array(
        'class' => 'boldlist',
        'id'    => 'mylist'
);

$list = array(
        'colors'  => array(
                'red',
                'blue',
                'green'
        ),
        'shapes'  => array(
                'round',
                'square',
                'circles' => array(
                        'ellipse',
                        'oval',
                        'sphere'
                )
        ),
        'moods'  => array(
                'happy',
                'upset' => array(
                        'defeated' => array(
                                'dejected',
                                'disheartened',
                                'depressed'
                        ),
                        'annoyed',
                        'cross',
                        'angry'
                )
        )
);

echo ul($list, $attributes);

The above code will produce this

<ul class="boldlist" id="mylist">
        <li>colors
                <ul>
                        <li>red</li>
                        <li>blue</li>
                        <li>green</li>
                </ul>
        </li>
        <li>shapes
                <ul>
                        <li>round</li>
                        <li>suare</li>
                        <li>circles
                                <ul>
                                        <li>elipse</li>
                                        <li>oval</li>
                                        <li>sphere</li>
                                </ul>
                        </li>
                </ul>
        </li>
        <li>moods
                <ul>
                        <li>happy</li>
                        <li>upset
                                <ul>
                                        <li>defeated
                                                <ul>
                                                        <li>dejected</li>
                                                        <li>disheartened</li>
                                                        <li>depressed</li>
                                                </ul>
                                        </li>
                                        <li>annoyed</li>
                                        <li>cross</li>
                                        <li>angry</li>
                                </ul>
                        </li>
                </ul>
        </li>
</ul>

meta()¶

Helps you generate meta tags. You can pass strings to the function, or simple arrays, or multidimensional ones. Examples

echo meta('description', 'My Great site');
// Generates:  <meta name="description" content="My Great Site" />

echo meta('Content-type', 'text/html; charset=utf-8', 'equiv');
// Note the third parameter.  Can be "equiv" or "name"
// Generates:  <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

echo meta(array('name' => 'robots', 'content' => 'no-cache'));
// Generates:  <meta name="robots" content="no-cache" />

$meta = array(
        array(
                'name' => 'robots',
                'content' => 'no-cache'
        ),
        array(
                'name' => 'description',
                'content' => 'My Great Site'
        ),
        array(
                'name' => 'keywords',
                'content' => 'love, passion, intrigue, deception'
        ),
        array(
                'name' => 'robots',
                'content' => 'no-cache'
        ),
        array(
                'name' => 'Content-type',
                'content' => 'text/html; charset=utf-8', 'type' => 'equiv'
        )
);

echo meta($meta);
// Generates:
// <meta name="robots" content="no-cache" />
// <meta name="description" content="My Great Site" />
// <meta name="keywords" content="love, passion, intrigue, deception" />
// <meta name="robots" content="no-cache" />
// <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

doctype()¶

Helps you generate document type declarations, or DTD’s. XHTML 1.0 Strict is used by default, but many doctypes are available.

echo doctype(); // <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

echo doctype('html4-trans'); // <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

The following is a list of doctype choices. These are configurable, and pulled from application/config/doctypes.php

Doctype	Option	Result
XHTML 1.1	doctype(‘xhtml11’)	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd“>
XHTML 1.0 Strict	doctype(‘xhtml1-strict’)	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd“>
XHTML 1.0 Transitional	doctype(‘xhtml1-trans’)	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd“>
XHTML 1.0 Frameset	doctype(‘xhtml1-frame’)	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd“>
XHTML Basic 1.1	doctype(‘xhtml-basic11’)	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML Basic 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-basic/xhtml-basic11.dtd“>
HTML 5	doctype(‘html5’)	<!DOCTYPE html>
HTML 4 Strict	doctype(‘html4-strict’)	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd“>
HTML 4 Transitional	doctype(‘html4-trans’)	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd“>
HTML 4 Frameset	doctype(‘html4-frame’)	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd“>