Using a controller plugin to extend the existing layout in zend framework

Question

I have a layout file as follows:

<?php echo $this->doctype(); ?>
<html>
    <head>
        <?php echo $this->headTitle(); ?>
        <?php echo $this->headLink(); ?>
    </head>
    <body>
        <?php echo $this->layout()->content; ?>
    </body>
</html>

I have a menu system which is written in another template

<p>
    <div>
        menu code goes here
    </div>
    <p>
        <?php echo $this->actionContent; ?>
    </p>
</p>

I wanted the action method's output should be placed in $this->actionContent and all of that should go to the layout.

Then I wrote a Controller plugin as follows:

class ZFExt_Controller_Plugin_Addmenu extends Zend_Controller_Plugin_Abstract 
{
    public function postDispatch(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request)
    {
        $view = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()
                      ->getParam('bootstrap')
                      ->getResource('view');

        if (false !== $request->getParam('menu'))
        {
            $response = $this->getResponse();
            $content = $response->getBody(true);
            $view->menuContent = $content['default'];
            $updatedContent = $view->render('menu.phtml');
            $response->setBody($updatedContent);
        }
    }
}

In the controller class

class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action {


    public function indexAction() {

    }

    public function viewAction()
    {
          $this->getRequest()->setParam('menu', false);
    }
}

So whichever action does not want the menu there we can pass a parameter 'menu' with value 'false'.

My question is: Is this the right way to do ?

You can use zend navigation to do that – Shaolin Feb 21 '13 at 18:06 — Shaolin, Feb 21 '13 at 18:06

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '13 at 06:39

First, I probably wouldn't render the menu from an action. I tend to think of actions as corresponding to HTTP requests, building full pages/responses, rather than just page fragments, for the waiting client. I would either have a separate class/component handle menu creation or just use Zend_Navigation.

Beyond that, if I understand correctly, you simply want each action to be able to enable/disable the menu portion of the layout, right?

So, how about simply setting a switch in the view that enables/disables the menu in the layout.

The layout looks like:

<?php echo $this->doctype(); ?>
<html>
    <head>
        <?php echo $this->headTitle(); ?>
        <?php echo $this->headLink(); ?>
    </head>
    <body>
        <?php if ($this->renderMenu): ?>
            // render menu here 
        <?php endif; ?>
        <?php echo $this->layout()->content; ?>
    </body>
</html>

Then in your action, if you want to disable the menu rendering, you can set:

$this->view->renderMenu = false;

Probably also worthwhile to set a default value for the $view->renderMenu flag at some point in the request dispatch cycle - perhaps at bootstrap, or in a controller plugin, or in controller init().

I was actually trying to find out whether is there is any way to extend the layout template so that we can avoid code fragments inside the template as much as possible. I did not find anything in the web, that's why I tried my own version of extending template. So can I assume that there is no such thing as extending templates in zend ? — kaushik, Feb 22 '13 at 10:18
I have seen stuff about multi-level layouts. IIRC, another plugin intercepts the layout rendering, sonething like that. Perhaps easier would be to use a templating system like Twig which does support template inheritance. — David Weinraub, Feb 22 '13 at 15:08

Using a controller plugin to extend the existing layout in zend framework

1 Answers1