Helpers

Input and output

• get_input($name) - Grabs information from a form field (or any variable passed using GET or POST). Also sanitises input, stripping Javascript etc.
• set_input($name, $value) - Forces a value to a particular variable for subsequent retrieval by get_input().

Entity methods

• $entity->getURL() - Returns the URL of any entity in the system.
• $entity->getGUID() - Returns the GUID of any entity in the system.
• $entity->canEdit() - Returns whether or not the current user can edit the entity.
• $entity->getOwnerEntity() - Returns the ElggUser owner of a particular entity.

Entity and context retrieval

• get_loggedin_user() - Returns the ElggUser for the current user
• get_loggedin_userid() - Returns the GUID of the current user
• isloggedin() - Is the viewer logged in
• isadminloggedin() - Is the view an admin and logged in
• gatekeeper() - Shorthand for checking if a user is logged in. Forwards user to front page if not.
• admin_gatekeeper() - Shorthand for checking the user is logged in and is an admin. Forwards user to front page if not.
• get_user($user_guid) - Given a GUID, returns a full ElggUser entity.
• page_owner() - Returns the GUID of the current page owner, if there is one.
• page_owner_entity() - Like page_owner() but returns the full entity.
• get_context() - Returns the current page's context - eg "blog" for the blog plugin, "thewire" for the wire, etc. Returns "main" as default.
• set_context($context) - Forces the context to be a particular value.

Plugins

• enable_plugin() - Turn on a plugin
• disable_plugin() - Turn off a plugin
• is_plugin_enabled() - Check if a plugin is installed and enabled

Interface and annotations

• elgg_view_listing($icon, $info) - Return the result in a formatted list.
• elgg_count_comments(entity) - Count the comments on a particular entity.
• elgg_view_comments($entity) - Returns any comments associated with the given entity
• friendly_time($unix_timestamp) - Returns a date formatted in a friendlier way - "18 minutes ago", "2 days ago", etc.
• parse_urls($string) - Converts any URLs in the given string to clickable links.
• You can pass 'override' => 'true' to the icon view if you don't want the avatar drop down menu to appear e.g.

elgg_view("profile/icon",array('entity' => $entity, 'size' => 'small', 'override' => 'true'))