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.

$data = ['name' => 'John', 'age' => 30];
json($data);

Output:

<pre>{
    "name": "John",
    "age": 30
}</pre>

Stop Execution

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

json($data, true);  // Outputs and dies

Get Client IP

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

$ip = ip_address();
echo $ip;  // 192.168.1.1

Render Views

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

$data = [
    'view_module' => 'products',
    'view_file' => 'listing',
    'products' => $products
];

display($data);

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.

// On URL: /products/list
display($data);  // Loads modules/products/views/index.php

Extract File Info

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

$info = return_file_info('document.pdf');
echo $info['file_name'];       // document
echo $info['file_extension'];  // .pdf

Sort Arrays

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

$users = [
    ['name' => 'John', 'age' => 30],
    ['name' => 'Jane', 'age' => 25],
    ['name' => 'Bob', 'age' => 35]
];

sort_by_property($users, 'age');
// Sorted by age ascending

sort_by_property($users, 'name', 'desc');
// Sorted by name descending

Sort Objects

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

$rows = [
    (object)['name' => 'John', 'age' => 30],
    (object)['name' => 'Jane', 'age' => 25]
];

sort_rows_by_property($rows, 'age', 'desc');

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).

if (from_trongate_mx()) {
    // Return JSON or partial HTML
    echo json_encode($data);
} else {
    // Return full page
    $this->template('standard', $data);
}