CodeIgniter helper inside controllers

can i call helper functions inside controller classes?

let's say i have this controller with the _open_form method

class User extends Controller {
 function _open_form($action){
  print_r(form_open($action));
 }
}

i tried echoing out the result of form_open() but it returns null. it seems that helper functions can't be called ins开发者_开发知识库ide controllers

if your wondering why i need to use it inside the controller instead in the view because we are required to use the given template parser xD

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lolololol

i figured it out. it seems that the view file did not escaped the result of form_open()

try using htmlentities(form_open($action));

it should escape < and > symbols

lol sorry for the stupid question :))

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Did you load the helper file?

$this->load->helper('form');

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Yes you just need to load it inside your function:

$this->load->helper('form');

More details here http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/helpers.html