How to dynamically load multiple views in CI 3.0.x

Question

I am trying to load multiple views dynamically in CI 3. But I am having some challenges. I have extended the CI_controller that handles the layout:

public function layout() {
    $this->template['page_header'] = $this->load->view('global/header', $this->data, true);
    if (is_array($this->page_content)) {
      foreach ($this->page_content as $key => $value) {
        $this->template['page_content'][$key] = $this->load->view($value, $this->data, true);
      }
    }
    else {
      $this->template['page_content'] = $this->load->view($this->page_content, $this->data, true);
    }
    $this->template['page_footer'] = $this->load->view('global/footer', $this->data, true);
    $this->load->view('global/layout', $this->template);
  }

In the controller that extends MY_Controller, I have:

$this->page_content = array('cards/cards3', 'cards/cards1', 'cards/cards2');
$this->layout();

In the view I have:

if (is_array($page_content)) {
   foreach ($page_content as $content) {
      echo $content;
   }
}    
else {
   echo $page_content;
}

The problem is that on the view I am getting the last item in the array. In this case, cards/cards2 .

Any ideas why?

Answer 1

Figured it out. In My_controller i did not realize the views can be concatenated as a string.

SO i changed it to:

$this->template['page_content'] = '';
foreach ($this->page_content as $content) {
   $this->template['page_content'] .= $this->load->view($content, $this->data, true);
}