codeigniter base_url inside constants file

Question

Currently I display images in the following way:

<img src="<?php echo base_url().USER_UPLOAD_URL.$post['userPhoto'] ?>" />

USER_UPLOAD_URL is defined inside application/config/constants.php.

define('USER_UPLOAD_URL', "uploads/user_uploads/");

Is there any way to include base_url() inside constants.php? In this way I wouldn't need to write each time base_url() inside view. Is there any alternative approach?

tnx

Answer 1

You can't use base_url() in the constants file because the constants file is loaded first, and the base_url() is only loaded when you either autoload the url helper, or load it per controller.

Here's a suggestion though, you could possibly define it in your controller:

public function __construct()
{
    $this->load->helper('url');
    define('USER_UPLOAD_URL', base_url('uploads/user_uploads/'));
}

Which would then be accessible to the view.

Answer 2

constants.php loading before config.php, so you can't use $config['base_url'] from constants.php.

But you can do something like that:

constants.php:

define('BASE_URL', "http://mysite.com");
define('USER_UPLOAD_URL', BASE_URL."uploads/user_uploads/");

config.php

$config['base_url'] = BASE_URL;

Answer 3

I'd complement the @Dale answer making use of a custom controller. At first place, create the controller at /application/core/GeneralController.php:

<?php
class GeneralController extends CI_Controller{
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
        $this->load->helper('url');
        define('USER_UPLOAD_URL', base_url('uploads/user_uploads/'));
    }
}

Now, you can extends all controllers from GeneralController instead of CI_Controller, because USER_UPLOAD_URL is now defined

Answer 4

It is an old question still i overcame this issue using APPPATH. APPPATH works inside constants.php. but it returns path as var/www/html/projectfolder/application inside application folder you can store you data within a new folder or third_party folder. In constants you can define as eg define('pace-min-js',APPPATH.'third_party/luna/vendor/pacejs/pace.min.js');