Inheritance is your friend here
You would simply create a master controller(front-controller) that extends CI_Controller
You might consider doing a SPA application, if so there are many great frameworks to help you achieve this, quite a popular one is angular.js
some more useful reading on the subject...
class MY_Controller extends CI_Controller
{
protected $currentUser;
protected $template;
public function __construct()
{
//You talked about hooks
//this constructor is the same as saying
//post_controller_constructor
$this->template = 'master/default';
}
//Ok so what functions need to be run
//throughout the application
//run them once here, keeping our app DRY
protected function isAjax()
{
return ($this->input->is_ajax_request())
? true
: show_error('Invalid Request!');
}
protected function isLoggedIN()
{
//load your auth library maybe here
$this->load->library('auth');
//check you have a "current logged In user"
//expect object or null/false
$this->currentUser = $this->auth->getLoggedInUser();
return ($this->currentUser) ?: false;
}
}
class Frontend_Controller extends MY_Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}
public function testFirst()
{
//maybe you just need to test for ajax request here
//inheritance from parent
$this->isAjax();
}
public function testSecond()
{
//maybe you DO need a user logged in here
//inheritance from parent
$this->isAjax();
//or yet again, abstract this to the parent level
if(!$this->currentUser || is_null($this->currentUser))
{
//handle errors on frontend
return $this->output->set_status_header(401); //un-authorized
}
}
}