Helpers Reference

app/Helpers/cms_helper.php is loaded globally by CI4's autoloader (configured in app/Config/Autoload.php). All functions are available in controllers, models, views, and plugin code without any helper() call.

active_theme(): ?object

Returns the currently active theme record from the themes table, or null if no theme is active.

$theme = active_theme();
if ($theme) {
    echo $theme->name;   // e.g. "Ember"
    echo $theme->folder; // e.g. "ember"
}

Also available as service('theme')->getActive().

widget_area(string $slug): string

Renders all widget instances assigned to the named area and returns the HTML string.

echo widget_area('sidebar');
echo widget_area('footer-1');

This is the PHP-side equivalent of the {! widget_area "slug" !} tag function in templates.

theme_url(string $path = ''): string

Returns the public URL to a file in the active theme's directory.

$css = theme_url('theme.css');
// https://example.com/themes/ember/theme.css

site_name(): string

Returns the configured site name from settings (App.siteName).

$title = site_name() . ' | Blog';

site_tagline(): string

Returns the configured site tagline from settings (App.siteTagline).

post_url(string $slug): string

Returns the public URL for a post with the given slug.

$url = post_url('my-first-post');
// https://example.com/post/my-first-post

category_url(string $slug): string

Returns the public URL for a category archive with the given slug.

$url = category_url('news');
// https://example.com/category/news

tag_url(string $slug): string

Returns the public URL for a tag archive with the given slug.

$url = tag_url('php');
// https://example.com/tag/php

render_content(object $entity): string

Runs a post or page entity through the full content rendering pipeline. Applies shortcode processing, markdown rendering (if applicable), and returns sanitised HTML.

$html = render_content($post);
echo $html; // already safe HTML, do not double-escape

The $entity must be a full object with at minimum body and format properties.

excerpt(string $text, int $length = 150): string

Strips HTML tags from $text, truncates to $length characters at a word boundary, and appends ... if truncated.

$summary = excerpt($post->body, 200);

slug_from_title(string $title): string

Converts a title string to a URL-safe slug: lowercased, spaces to hyphens, non-alphanumeric characters stripped.

$slug = slug_from_title('Hello, World! My First Post');
// hello-world-my-first-post

Useful in admin controllers when auto-generating slugs from post/page titles.