Utilities Helpers

Utilities helpers are the odds and ends that don't fit anywhere else. Debugging, sorting, IP addresses, file info and view rendering.

Call them whenever:

• block_url() block direct URL access to controller methods
• json() debug output in pretty JSON
• ip_address() get the client's IP
• display() render views inside templates
• return_file_info() extract filename and extension
• sort_by_property() sort associative arrays
• sort_rows_by_property() sort object arrays
• from_trongate_mx() detect MX requests

Debug with JSON

The json() function dumps data in readable JSON format. Perfect for inspecting arrays and objects during development.

Output:

{
    "name": "John",
    "age": 30
}

Stop Execution

Pass true as the second argument to kill the script immediately after output:

Get Client IP

The ip_address() function returns the visitor's IP address.

Render Views

The display() function loads a view file from a module. Use it inside templates to inject content.

This loads modules/products/views/listing.php and passes $products to it.

Auto-Detection

If you don't specify view_module, it uses the first URL segment. If you don't specify view_file, it defaults to index.

Extract File Info

The return_file_info() function splits a file path into name and extension.

Sort Arrays

The sort_by_property() function sorts associative arrays by a specific key.

Sort Objects

The sort_rows_by_property() function does the same thing but for arrays of objects.

Detect Trongate MX Requests

The from_trongate_mx() function checks if the current request came from Trongate MX (Trongate's JavaScript library for dynamic page updates).