It is not uncommon to load a common header, footer and other views in each controller. While this can be achieved like so…

$this->load->view('header', $header_data);
$this->load->view('content', $content_data);
$this->load->view('footer', $footer_data);

I wanted the ability to do the same thing with a single line of code. So I decided to extend the core Loader library by creating “application/core/MY_Loader.php” with the following code…

class MY_Loader extends CI_Loader {
    /**
     * Load Multiple Views
     *
     * This function is used to load multiple "view" files.  It has three parameters:
     *
     * 1. An array of the "view" file to be included.
     * 2. An associative array of data to be extracted for use in the views.
     * 3. TRUE/FALSE - whether to return the data or load it.  In
     * some cases it's advantageous to be able to return data so that
     * a developer can process it in some way.
     *
     * @access   public
     * @param    mixed
     * @param    array
     * @param    bool
     * @return   mixed
     */
    function multiview($view = array(), $vars = array(), $return = FALSE)
    {
        $return_value = '';
        if (is_array($view)) {
            foreach ($view as $current_index => $current_view) {
                $current_vars = $vars;
                if (is_array($vars[$current_index])) {
                    $current_vars = $vars[$current_index];
                }
                $result = $this->view($current_view, $current_vars, $return);
                if (is_string($result)) {
                    $return_value .= $result;
                }
            }
            return $return_value;
        } else {
            return $this->view($view, $vars, $return);
        }
    }
}
/* End of file MY_Loader.php */
/* Location: ./application/core/MY_Loader.php */

Now I can load multiple views with a single call…

$this->load->multiview(array('header','content','footer'), array($header_data, $content_data, $footer_data));

Or simplify the call with all of the data combined (though CI technically does this in the core Loader anyhow).

$this->load->multiview(array('header','content','footer'), $combined_data);

Feel free to use my example in your own project or post up some questions/comments below 😉