Download CodeIgniter 3 for Free: The Best Way to Build Dynamic Web Applications with PHP

CodeIgniter 3 Download: How to Install and Use the PHP Framework

CodeIgniter is one of the most popular and powerful PHP frameworks that is used for developing dynamic web applications. It is known for its simplicity, performance, and security. CodeIgniter 3 is the legacy version of the framework that supports PHP 5.6 and above. In this article, we will show you how to download, install, and use CodeIgniter 3 to create your own web projects.

What is CodeIgniter 3?

CodeIgniter 3 is an open-source PHP framework that follows the model-view-controller (MVC) design pattern. It provides a set of libraries and helpers that enable common web development tasks, such as database access, form validation, email sending, session management, image manipulation, and more. CodeIgniter 3 also has a lightweight core that allows for fast loading and execution of the code.

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Features of CodeIgniter 3

Some of the main features of CodeIgniter 3 are:

• Model-View-Controller Based System: CodeIgniter 3 separates the logic, presentation, and data layers of the application, making it easier to maintain and extend.

• Extremely Light Weight: CodeIgniter 3 has a small footprint of about 2 MB, which makes it fast and efficient.

• Full Featured Database Classes: CodeIgniter 3 supports several database platforms, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, MS SQL, and more. It also provides a query builder class that simplifies the creation and execution of SQL queries.

• Form and Data Validation: CodeIgniter 3 has a built-in form validation library that allows you to validate user input data using various rules and filters.

• Security and XSS Filtering: CodeIgniter 3 has several security features, such as CSRF protection, input sanitization, output escaping, encryption, and more.

• Session Management: CodeIgniter 3 has a session library that handles the creation, retrieval, and destruction of session data using various storage options, such as files, cookies, or database.

• Email Sending Class: CodeIgniter 3 has an email library that enables you to send emails using various protocols, such as mail, sendmail, or SMTP. It also supports attachments, HTML or text emails, multiple recipients, and more.

• Image Manipulation Library: CodeIgniter 3 has an image library that allows you to perform various operations on images, such as cropping, resizing, rotating, watermarking, and more. It supports GD, ImageMagick, and NetPBM libraries.

• File Uploading Class: CodeIgniter 3 has a file uploading library that facilitates the uploading of files from the user's browser to the server. It also provides options to set file size limits, file type restrictions, file name preferences, and more.

• FTP Class: CodeIgniter 3 has an FTP library that enables you to connect to an FTP server and perform various file operations, such as uploading, downloading, renaming, deleting, and more.

• Pagination Class: CodeIgniter 3 has a pagination library that helps you create links for paginated data sets.

• Template Parser Class: CodeIgniter 3 has a template parser class that allows you to use simple pseudo-variables in your views and replace them with actual data at runtime.

• Error Logging: CodeIgniter 3 has an error logging class that logs any errors or exceptions that occur in your application to a file or database.

• Benchmarking: CodeIgniter 3 has a benchmarking class that measures the execution time and memory usage of your application.

• Documentation: CodeIgniter 3 has a comprehensive and user-friendly documentation that covers all the aspects of the framework.

Requirements for CodeIgniter 3

To use CodeIgniter 3, you need to have the following requirements:

• A web server that supports PHP, such as Apache, Nginx, or IIS.

• PHP version 5.6 or higher.

• A database server, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, MS SQL, or any other supported by CodeIgniter 3.

• A web browser that supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

• A text editor or an IDE that supports PHP syntax highlighting and code completion.

How to Download and Install CodeIgniter 3

There are two ways to download and install CodeIgniter 3: manual download and installation, or composer installation.

Manual Download and Installation

To manually download and install CodeIgniter 3, follow these steps:

• Go to the official website of CodeIgniter 3 at and download the latest version of the framework.

• Extract the downloaded zip file to a folder on your local machine or your web server.

• Rename the folder to whatever you want, such as "codeigniter" or "my_project".

• Open the folder and locate the file named "index.php". This is the main entry point of your application.

Open the file with your text editor or IDE and change the value of the constant "$system_path" to point to the location of the "system" folder inside your CodeIgniter 3 folder. For example, if your CodeIgniter 3 folder is named "codeigniter" and is located in the root directory of your web server, then you can set the value as follows:

$system_path = 'codeigniter/system';

If you want to move the "system" folder outside your web root for security reasons, then you need to provide the full path to the folder. For example, if you move the "system" folder to "/var/www/system", then you can set the value as follows:

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$system_path = '/var/www/system';

Similarly, you can change the value of the constant "$application_folder" to point to the location of the "application" folder inside your CodeIgniter 3 folder. This is where you will store all your custom code, such as controllers, models, views, libraries, helpers, and more. By default, it is set to "application", which means it is located inside your CodeIgniter 3 folder. You can change it to any other name or location as per your preference.

• Save and close the file.

• You have successfully installed CodeIgniter 3 on your machine or server. You can test it by opening your web browser and typing the URL of your CodeIgniter 3 folder. For example, if your CodeIgniter 3 folder is named "codeigniter" and is located in the root directory of your web server, then you can type . You should see a welcome page that says "Welcome to CodeIgniter!"

Composer Installation

If you are familiar with Composer, a dependency manager for PHP, then you can use it to download and install CodeIgniter 3. To do so, follow these steps:

• Make sure you have Composer installed on your machine or server. If not, you can download it from and follow the installation instructions.

• Create a new project folder on your local machine or your web server and navigate to it using your terminal or command prompt.

Type the following command to create a new CodeIgniter 3 project using Composer:

composer create-project codeigniter/framework codeigniter

This will create a new folder named "codeigniter" inside your project folder and download all the necessary files and dependencies for CodeIgniter 3.

• You have successfully installed CodeIgniter 3 using Composer. You can test it by opening your web browser and typing the URL of your project folder. For example, if your project folder is named "my_project" and is located in the root directory of your web server, then you can type . You should see a welcome page that says "Welcome to CodeIgniter!"

How to Use CodeIgniter 3

Now that you have downloaded and installed CodeIgniter 3, you can start using it to create your own web applica