HTML Helper
The HTML Helper file contains functions that assist in working with HTML.
Loading this Helper
This helper is loaded using the following code:
$this->load->helper('html');
Available Functions
The following functions are available:
- heading([$data = ''[, $h = '1'[, $attributes = '']]])
- Parameters:
$data (
string
) – Content$h (
string
) – Heading level$attributes (
mixed
) – HTML attributes
- Returns:
HTML heading tag
- Return type:
string
Lets you create HTML heading tags. The first parameter will contain the data, the second the size of the heading. Example:
echo heading('Welcome!', 3);
The above would produce: <h3>Welcome!</h3>
Additionally, in order to add attributes to the heading tag such as HTML classes, ids or inline styles, a third parameter accepts either a string or an array:
echo heading('Welcome!', 3, 'class="pink"'); echo heading('How are you?', 4, array('id' => 'question', 'class' => 'green'));
The above code produces:
<h3 class="pink">Welcome!<h3> <h4 id="question" class="green">How are you?</h4>
- img([$src = ''[, $index_page = FALSE[, $attributes = '']]])
- Parameters:
$src (
string
) – Image source data$index_page (
bool
) – Whether to treat $src as a routed URI string$attributes (
array
) – HTML attributes
- Returns:
HTML image tag
- Return type:
string
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.Example:
$image_properties = array( 'src' => 'images/picture.jpg', 'alt' => 'Me, demonstrating how to eat 4 slices of pizza at one time', 'class' => 'post_images', 'width' => '200', 'height'=> '200', 'title' => 'That was quite a night', 'rel' => 'lightbox' ); img($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([$href = ''[, $rel = 'stylesheet'[, $type = 'text/css'[, $title = ''[, $media = ''[, $index_page = FALSE]]]]]])
- Parameters:
$href (
string
) – What are we linking to$rel (
string
) – Relation type$type (
string
) – Type of the related document$title (
string
) – Link title$media (
string
) – Media type$index_page (
bool
) – Whether to treat $src as a routed URI string
- Returns:
HTML link tag
- Return type:
string
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 boolean value that specifies if the href should have the page specified by
$config['index_page']
added to the address it creates.Example:
echo link_tag('css/mystyles.css'); // gives <link href="http://site.com/css/mystyles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
Further examples:
echo link_tag('favicon.ico', 'shortcut icon', 'image/ico'); // <link href="http://site.com/favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/ico" /> echo link_tag('feed', 'alternate', 'application/rss+xml', 'My RSS Feed'); // <link href="http://site.com/feed" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="My RSS Feed" />
Additionally, an associative array can be passed to the
link()
function for complete control over all attributes and values:$link = array( 'href' => 'css/printer.css', 'rel' => 'stylesheet', 'type' => 'text/css', 'media' => 'print' ); echo link_tag($link); // <link href="http://site.com/css/printer.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" />
- ul($list[, $attributes = ''])
- Parameters:
$list (
array
) – List entries$attributes (
array
) – HTML attributes
- Returns:
HTML-formatted unordered list
- Return type:
string
Permits you to generate unordered HTML lists from simple or multi-dimensional arrays. Example:
$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:
$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, $attributes);
The above code will produce this:
<ul class="boldlist" id="mylist"> <li>colors <ul> <li>red</li> <li>blue</li> <li>green</li> </ul> </li> <li>shapes <ul> <li>round</li> <li>suare</li> <li>circles <ul> <li>elipse</li> <li>oval</li> <li>sphere</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li>moods <ul> <li>happy</li> <li>upset <ul> <li>defeated <ul> <li>dejected</li> <li>disheartened</li> <li>depressed</li> </ul> </li> <li>annoyed</li> <li>cross</li> <li>angry</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul>
- ol($list, $attributes = '')
- Parameters:
$list (
array
) – List entries$attributes (
array
) – HTML attributes
- Returns:
HTML-formatted ordered list
- Return type:
string
Identical to
ul()
, only it produces the <ol> tag for ordered lists instead of <ul>.
- meta([$name = ''[, $content = ''[, $type = 'name'[, $newline = "\n"]]]])
- Parameters:
$name (
string
) – Meta name$content (
string
) – Meta content$type (
string
) – Meta type$newline (
string
) – Newline character
- Returns:
HTML meta tag
- Return type:
string
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([$type = 'xhtml1-strict'])
- Parameters:
$type (
string
) – Doctype name
- Returns:
HTML DocType tag
- Return type:
string
Helps you generate document type declarations, or DTD’s. XHTML 1.0 Strict is used by default, but many doctypes are available.
Example:
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
Document type
Option
Result
XHTML 1.1
xhtml11
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd”>
XHTML 1.0 Strict
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
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
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
xhtml-basic11
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML Basic 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-basic/xhtml-basic11.dtd”>
HTML 5
html5
<!DOCTYPE html>
HTML 4 Strict
html4-strict
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd”>
HTML 4 Transitional
html4-trans
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd”>
HTML 4 Frameset
html4-frame
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd”>
MathML 1.01
mathml1
<!DOCTYPE math SYSTEM “http://www.w3.org/Math/DTD/mathml1/mathml.dtd”>
MathML 2.0
mathml2
<!DOCTYPE math PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD MathML 2.0//EN” “http://www.w3.org/Math/DTD/mathml2/mathml2.dtd”>
SVG 1.0
svg10
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.0//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-SVG-20010904/DTD/svg10.dtd”>
SVG 1.1 Full
svg11
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd”>
SVG 1.1 Basic
svg11-basic
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1 Basic//EN” “http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11-basic.dtd”>
SVG 1.1 Tiny
svg11-tiny
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1 Tiny//EN” “http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11-tiny.dtd”>
XHTML+MathML+SVG (XHTML host)
xhtml-math-svg-xh
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 plus MathML 2.0 plus SVG 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/2002/04/xhtml-math-svg/xhtml-math-svg.dtd”>
XHTML+MathML+SVG (SVG host)
xhtml-math-svg-sh
<!DOCTYPE svg:svg PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 plus MathML 2.0 plus SVG 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/2002/04/xhtml-math-svg/xhtml-math-svg.dtd”>
XHTML+RDFa 1.0
xhtml-rdfa-1
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.0//EN” “http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-1.dtd”>
XHTML+RDFa 1.1
xhtml-rdfa-2
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.1//EN” “http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-2.dtd”>
- br([$count = 1])
- Parameters:
$count (
int
) – Number of times to repeat the tag
- Returns:
HTML line break tag
- Return type:
string
Generates line break tags (<br />) based on the number you submit. Example:
echo br(3);
The above would produce:
<br /><br /><br />
Note
This function is DEPRECATED. Use the native
str_repeat()
in combination with<br />
instead.
- nbs([$num = 1])
- Parameters:
$num (
int
) – Number of space entities to produce
- Returns:
A sequence of non-breaking space HTML entities
- Return type:
string
Generates non-breaking spaces ( ) based on the number you submit. Example:
echo nbs(3);
The above would produce:
Note
This function is DEPRECATED. Use the native
str_repeat()
in combination with
instead.