You can get similar functionality by just passing the names in with the view variables and loading them in the layout view.
$data['something'] = 'something';
$data['main_content'] = 'content';
$this->load->view('layout');
And then in the layout view.
<div id="header">
<?=$something?>
</div>
<div id="content">
<?php $this->load->view($main_content); ?>
</div>
The nested views automatically inherit the data you pass in. It’s a little longer, but you can probably write a helper to do this pretty well.
