CodeIgniter Library: 77 Free Scripts, Addons,

Tutorials and Videos

CodeIgniter is the brainchild of Ellis Labs and one of the more popular PHP frameworks available.
Its gained a reputation as a lean, mean, easy-to-learn framework that anyone comfortable with PHP
can get up and running with in a few days.
CodeIgniter is fixin to blow up even more with the release of ExpressionEngine 2.0, currently in
Beta, which is built on top of the CodeIgniter framework. Sounds great and all, but
ExpressionEngine aint cheap$299 for the commercial versionso while you sit around wondering
if ExpressionEngine is a CMS you want to get in to, why not get familiar with its CodeIgniter
foundation using these 802 77 totally free scripts, addons and tutorials?

Free/Open Source CodeIgniter Scripts

1.

CodeIgniter is a great, open source, PHP framework

for building web applicationsBackEndPro
BackEndPro is a control panel for developers written in PHP for the CodeIgniter framework. It
provides the beginnings of a solid CMS for those wanting to build their own without the need to
reinvent the wheel. Authentication, permissions, and basic look and feel for a back end control
panel are already done for you, so you have more time to focus on building your empire.
2. BambooInvoice
BambooInvoice is free, open source invoicing software intended for small businesses and
independent contractors. It features well-formed XHTML, Ajax, multiple languages, and did I
mention its free?
3. Classroombookings
Classroombookings is a free, open-source, easy-to-use room booking system for schools built on
CodeIgniter. It features lockouts to prevent double-bookings, unlimited rooms and users, and a
custom timetable.
4. ExciteCMS
If ExpressionEngines $299 price tag has you down, ExiteCMS is a completely free content

5.

6.

management system built on CodeIgniter. Its still in its Alpha 2 release, but looks pretty
promising.
PyroCMS
This CMS is a treat. Excellent code, and a very simple layout resembling ExpressionEngine 1.0
in many ways. Its lightweight and, because its built on CodeIgniter, is easily expandable.
Kohana
This isnt a script, but a framework branch of CodeIgniter that solves a number of its
shortcomings. Check out Onwireds blogfor a great summary of these shortcoming, but some of
the highlights are:
Strict PHP 5 OOP code structure
Better use of modules
Cascading architecture
Adds an ORM library to help with building database-driven applications
Makes writing libraries a bit simpler
Ionize CMS
Ionize is a content management system built on the CodeIgniter framework designed with one
thing in mind: flexibility. Utilizes a template engine to make things a little more simple for the
designers out there.
Linkster Link Directory
Linkster is a link directory script built with CodeIgniter. Check out the demo at the Linkster site
for an example of its use.
MyClientBase
MyClientBase is another open source invoicing script developed for freelancers.
MyFina
MyFina is a personal financial management system. They offer a hosted demo on the website
and if you like what you see you can download the source and install it on your own server.
68kb
68kb is a knowledge base script featuring unlimited categories, search-engine friendly URLs, a
glossary of terms, comments, attachements and a stats package. The demo is a bit lacking so
youll be better off downloading the source to give it a try.
CIMyAdmin
CIMyAdmin is meant to act as a replacement to phpMyAdmin for database management.
CIMyAdmin claims to be a cleaner, faster, better and stronger MySQL admin tool. Its
lightweight, secure and skinnable.
Sweetcron
Sweetcron is a self-hosted lifestreaming application that supports themes & plugins. That
basically means its a simple blog thats really, really easy to update. You can check out the
developers lifestream for an example at http://yongfook.com/.
Unravel The Music Clone
Unravel The Music, according to the author, is a music lyric website built on the CodeIgniter
framework that was closed down when the supplier of lyrics went out of business; so the
developer released the source for free. It features, user activity feeds, journals, blogs, most
discussed lists, user karma system, APIs, memcache integration, user profiles, file uploading,
artist/album/song tagging, amazon integration, issue reporting, and a bit more. Seems like it
could be a great starting point for someone looking to build this kind of site.
Vunsy
Think of Vunsy as a website Kernel, used as the foundation for building a complete web
application. It includes Dojo, KFM Ajax for image resizing and code editor, a data mapper for
ORM, an online CRUD system, unlimited pages and subcategories, advanced permissions, and a
package manager.
W-Script

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

W-Script is a relatively mature script for managing wall paper websites.

17. Rapyd Framework
Another website building-block framework built to extend CodeIgniters existing features.
Update 3/1/2010: Although still under active development, this project is no longer compatible
with CodeIgniter.2
Update 2/3/2011: Just received a note from the projects author, stating, I just want to inform
that Rapyd is again compatible with CI

Plugins, Modules & Libraries

1. Ajax Pagination with jQuery
Ajax Pagination library extends the core CodeIgniter pagination with Ajax via jQuery.
2. CKEditor Helper
Helper/tutorail to integrate CKEditor WYSIWYG text editor with your CodeIgniter application
3. CURL Library
Makes using CURL with CodeIgniter a bit easier
4. DataMapper
An Object Relational Mapper designed to map your database tables into easy-to-work-with
objects, fully aware of the relationships between each other.
5. DB Session
Replaces CodeIgniters session handler to allow session data to be stored in the database rather
than as cookies. This is a great addon that some think should have been a part of the
CodeIgniter core.
6. Digg Style Pagination
Adds features to pagination to allow the user to sort based on data values, select the number of
records to display per page and other handy features.
7. Excel Plugin
A simple plugin that will generate a tab-delimited file and send it to the client as an Excel file.
8. Filters System
A plugin that allows you to execute code before, after, or around a controller, modifying a
controllers execution path without modifying the controller itself.
9. FormIgniter
Simplifies form generation. Gives user the ability to enter form information into a GUI. Once
entered, FormIgniter will output model, view and controller files. Also creates a SQL file to ease
the creation of database tables to house form data. You can see a working example at the
project website.
10. FreakAuth No longer actively maintained2
An authentication library for CodeIgniter
11. Geo Location By IP
A simple plugin that adds support for IPInfoDb.coms geo-location XML API.
12. Asset GZip-Cache Serve
A helper to aid in serving cached asset files (js, css, jpg, png, etc) and hiding full asset paths in
HTML.
13. HTML Purifier Code Igniter Plugin
Integrates the HTML Purifier framework into CodeIgniter for advanced user input sanitization.
14. HTMLTable
A library that simplifies the creation of HTML tables.
15. jQuery Ajax Helper
Helps simplify common Ajax tasks in CodeIgniter using jQuery
16. Language Packs
Add support for Arabic, Bashkir, Basque, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French,

17.

18.

Galician, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese,
Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukranian and Vienamese.
Microformats Plugin
Adds ability to easily output data to hCard or Rel-license formats.
Native Session Plugin
Enhanced session handling. Features include:
Protection against cookie fixation by regenerating cookie IDs automatically after a specified
time period
Can use all available PHP session storage drivers (database, memcache, etc)
Flash session attributes allows sessions to be created to only persist through the next
request
Compatible with CI_Session class
Panaci Charting Library
Adds charting functionality to CodeIgniter using the GD library. Includes the following features:
Supports bars, lines, dots, areas, steps and impulse charts
Supports multiple series plots on a single image
Supports automatic scaling of plot area by axis labels size
Small output filesize
PDF Generation Using DomPDF
Easy-to-use plugin that adds on-the-fly PDF generation
CI Swift Mailer
Adds support for Swiftmailer PHP email script (http://swiftmailer.org/)
Random Plugin2 This plugin has been superseded by the random_string() function
Generates a random string of a specified length. Useful for random password generation.
reCaptcha 2 Library
Adds support for reCaptcha
Redux Auth Now Ion Auth
Thanks to Phil Sturgeon2 for the correction on this one. Redux Auth is out of date and has been
picked up by Ben Edmunds under the name Ion Auth.
Shortify Plugin No longer online?
URL shortener for use with TinyURL, Tr.im, is.dg or U.nu APIs
Tank Auth
Authentication library based on DX Auth that cleans up some of DX Auths security flaws and
makes authentication a bit simpler for the developer.
Twitter API Library
Acts as an inteface between CodeIgniter and the Twitter API.
UPS Rate Tool
Get shipping rates from the UPS API with this library.
URL Redirectors No longer online, but heres a tutorial.
Although the demo site appears to be down, this plugin simplifies URL shortening so you can
run your own Bit.ly.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

Text Tutorials
1. 6 CodeIgniter Hacks for the Masters
This is 7 tutorials in one, although the title would have you think otherwise. Topics include:
1. Autoloading models PHP5-style
2. Preventing model-controller name collisions
3. Form validation for unique values
4. Running CodeIgniter from the command line
5. Adding Doctrine ORM to CodeIgniter

2.

3.
4.
5.
6.

7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

6. Running multiple sites from a single CodeIgniter install

7. Allowing all file types for uploads
Making CodeIgniters Profiler AJAX Compatible
Helps to solve issues with profiling AJAX applications in CodeIgniter 1
Easy AJAX Post with jQuery and CodeIgniter 1
Using jQuery to Manipulate Data returned by Controller Method 1
Build an RSS 2.0 Feed
Helpers, Plugins & Libraries
How to integrate external code into CodeIgniter as a helper, plugin or library. Also goes into a
bit of detail on which of the three to choose and when. Uses Googles Graph class as an
example.
Integrating OpenFlashCharts
Setting Up Multiple Sites on One Install
Create an Event Calendar Using CodeIgniter and jQuery
Create a File Hosting Site with CodeIgniter
Creating an AJAX ToDo List
How to Build a Shopping Cart Using CodeIgniter and jQuery
How to Update Your Twitter Status
CodeIgniter and SimplePie
Library to use SimplePie within your CodeIgniter application
Textile Markup
Shows you how to integrate the Textile markup language for use in your CodeIgniter
applications.
CodeIgniter + Smarty
CodeIgniter doesnt use a template engine for performance reasons, but if youre into Smarty,
this tutorial shows you how to get it integrated.
Working with RESTful Services in CodeIgniter
Shows you how to create a RESTful API for your own applications and how to interact with
other RESTful services like Facebook and Twitter.
Twitter-Like Pagination Using CodeIgniter and jQuery
Simple AJAX pagination Twitter-style!
CodeIgniter User Guide
Of course no set of tutorials would be complete with at least a mention of the excellent
CodeIgniter docs.

Video Tutorials
1. Series of 2 Tutorials
Using the Flashdata session type
Creating a registration form
2. Creating a CodeIgniter Application From Scratch
For users already a little bit familiar with CodeIgniter, this tutorial includes a video to create
the sample application at the linked website.
3. jQuery & JSON
Simple screencast demonstration of using CodeIgniter with jQuery & JSON to send and receive
data asynchronously.
4. 2 Introductory CodeIgniter Videos from the CodeIgniter Website
A very simple Hello World! introduction to CodeIgniter
Create a blog in 20 minutes
5. Creating a CodeIgniter Image Uploader
6. Getting Started with CodeIgniter

Part 1 in a 9-part series of CodeIgniter videos from Tuts+

7. Database Selecting Methods
Part 2 in the 9-part series from Tuts+
8. Sending Emails
Part 3 in the 9-part series from Tuts+
9. Newsletter Signup
Part 4 in the 9-part series from Tuts+
10. CRUD
Part 5 in the 9-part series from Tuts+
11. Login
Part 6 in the 9-part series from Tuts+
12. Pagination
Part 7 in the 9-part series from Tuts+
13. Combining CodeIgniter and jQuery
Part 8 in the 9-part series from Tuts+
14. How to Build an Image Gallery with File Upload and Automatic Thumbnail Creation
Part 9 in the 9-part seris from Tuts+
15. Setting up jQuery with CodeIgniter
Series of 5 screencasts on setting up and using jQuery with CodeIgniter 1

Footnotes:
1
Found at 9 Ways to Integrate Ajax with CodeIgniter
2
Special thanks to Phil Sturgeon for pointing out a few mistakes in this list.