How to pass email sent success message to view in codeigniter?

Question

I'm using Codeigniter and its email and form validation libraries to create a contact form. After clicking the submit button I want to display something like "Thank you for your message" but whatever I try it doesn't work.

Here's my code: Controller:

class contact extends MY_Controller {
function  __construct() {
    parent::MY_Controller();       

}

public function index(){        
    if(!isset($data['message'])){
        $data['message']="";   
    }     
    $this->load->view('contact', $data);
}   

public function send_mail(){
$this->load->library('form_validation');
         $this->form_validation->set_rules("full_name", "Name: ", "required|xss_clean");             
         $this->form_validation->set_rules("email", "Email: ", "required|valid_email|xss_clean");
         $this->form_validation->set_rules("message", "Message: ", "required|xss_clean");
         if($this->form_validation->run()==false){
             $this->load->view('contact');
         }
         else{             
         $this->load->library("email");
         $this->email->from(set_value("email"), set_value("full_name"));
         $this->email->to("my.emailaddress@mailserver.com");
         $this->email->subject("request from ...");
         $this->email->message(set_value("message"));
         $this->email->send();
         $data['message']="Thanks for your message!";
         $this->load->view('contact', $data);
         }

    }

}

The view:

$this->load->helper('form');
echo validation_errors();
echo form_open('contact/send_mail');
echo form_label('Name: ', 'full_name');
$data=array(
    "name"=>"full_name",
    "id"=>"full_name",
    "value"=>set_value("full_name")
);
echo form_input($data);
echo form_label('Email: ', 'email');
$data=array(
    "name"=>"email",
    "id"=>"email",
    "value"=>set_value("email")
);
echo form_input($data);
echo form_label('Message: ', 'message');
$data=array(
    "name"=>"message",
    "id"=>"message",
    "value"=>set_value("message")
);
echo form_textarea($data);
echo form_submit("contact_submit", "submit");
echo form_close();

Whenever I try to var_dump $data in the view it's not defined. So how to correctly reload the contact view and pass the "email sent" message to the view after submitting/sending the mail?

Answer 1

//When you send $data from controller like
 $data['message']="Thanks for your message!"; 
 $this->load->view('contact', $data);

//You need to do below to get that values
  echo $message;

Answer 2

you need to echo $message instead of var_dump($data)

so your controller becomes

public function send_mail(){
$data['message']="";
...
if($this->form_validation->run()==false){
         $this->load->view('contact',$data);
    }
else
{             
     $this->load->library("email");
     $this->email->from(set_value("email"), set_value("full_name"));
     $this->email->to("my.emailaddress@mailserver.com");
     $this->email->subject("request from ...");
     $this->email->message(set_value("message"));
     $this->email->send();
     $data['message']="Thanks for your message!";
     $this->load->view('contact', $data);
 }

and in view

echo validation_errors();
echo $message;
echo form_open('contact/send_mail');

Answer 3

use session flashdata.

After

$this->email->send();

put this code

$this->session->set_flashdata('message','Thanks for your message!');

and following code in your contact view

echo @$this->session->flashdata('message');