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| <h1>Plugins</h1> | |
| <p>Plugins work almost identically to <a href="helpers.html">Helpers</a>. The main difference is that a plugin usually | |
| provides a single function, whereas a Helper is usually a collection of functions. Helpers are also considered a part of | |
| the core system; plugins are intended to be created and shared by our community.</p> | |
| <p>Plugins should be saved to your <dfn>system/plugins</dfn> directory or you can create a folder called <kbd>plugins</kbd> inside | |
| your <kbd>application</kbd> folder and store them there. CodeIgniter will look first in your <dfn>system/application/plugins</dfn> | |
| directory. If the directory does not exist or the specified plugin is not located there CI will instead look in your global | |
| <dfn>system/plugins</dfn> folder.</p> | |
| <h2>Loading a Plugin</h2> | |
| <p>Loading a plugin file is quite simple using the following function:</p> | |
| <code>$this->load->plugin('<var>name</var>');</code> | |
| <p>Where <var>name</var> is the file name of the plugin, without the .php file extension or the "plugin" part.</p> | |
| <p>For example, to load the <dfn>Captcha</dfn> plugin, which is named <var>captcha_pi.php</var>, you will do this:</p> | |
| <code>$this->load->plugin('<var>captcha</var>');</code> | |
| <p>A plugin can be loaded anywhere within your <a href="../general/controllers.html">controller</a> functions (or even within your <a href="../general/views.html">View files</a>, although that's not a good practice), | |
| as long as you load it before you use it. You can load your plugins in your controller constructor so that they become available | |
| automatically in any function, or you can load a plugin in a specific function that needs it.</p> | |
| <p class="important">Note: The Plugin loading function above does not return a value, so don't try to assign it to a variable. Just use it as shown.</p> | |
| <h2>Loading Multiple Plugins</h2> | |
| <p>If you need to load more than one plugin you can specify them in an array, like this:</p> | |
| <code>$this->load->plugin( <samp>array(</samp>'<var>plugin1</var>', '<var>plugin2</var>', '<var>plugin3</var>'<samp>)</samp> );</code> | |
| <h2>Auto-loading Plugins</h2> | |
| <p>If you find that you need a particular plugin globally throughout your application, you can tell CodeIgniter to auto-load it | |
| during system initialization. This is done by opening the <var>application/config/autoload.php</var> file and adding the plugin to the autoload array.</p> | |
| <h2>Using a Plugin</h2> | |
| <p>Once you've loaded the Plugin, you'll call it the way you would a standard PHP function.</p> | |
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