Completing a Blogging Application with the Code Igniter PHP Framework

Introduction

As a PHP developer, you can build anything that you can think of, ranging from simple form validation programs and template processors to full-blown database-driven applications.  A blogger falls under the second category. Most of the time, developing a program like this will require that you set up a few MySQL tables, build a group of scripts that will handle blog entries, and finally create a set of templates that will render this data in the form of HTML pages.

Of course, when building such a program, you probably use your own set of classes and functions. However, you may want to save yourself some time and effort by using a framework, like Code Igniter, to develop a blog application like the one mentioned above.

If this is the case, then don’t waste more time; take a look at this group of articles. They'll provide you with a comprehensive guide on building a MySQL-driven blogger with Code Igniter, which implements the MVC pattern for separating application logic from visual presentation.

And now that I mentioned the “visual presentation,” you'll remember that I left off the last article discussing how to improve the appearance of the blogger that I developed in the previous tutorials. I added a few CSS styles to the view file that displayed a bunch of blog entries, in this way polishing considerably its look and feel.

However, the blogger includes yet another view file, which displays the comments that have been made on a particular entry and the web form that lets users post them appropriately. Therefore, in this final chapter of the series, I’m going to style this specific file, thus completing the construction of this blog application using Code Igniter.

It’s time to finish this educational journey. Let’s go!