Render action to HTML email in Zend Framework

Question

I have an action which is rendering some content via a layout.

I actually want to send this output in an email. What is the best way to achieve this in the Zend Framework?

I know I need to use the Zend_Mail component to send the email, but I'm unclear about how to attach the output of my action to Zend_Mail.

I've done some reading on the ContextSwitch action helper, and I think that might be appropriate, but I'm still not convinced.

I'm still new to Zend Framework. I'm used to using techniques like output buffering to capture output, which I don't think is the correct way to do this in Zend.

Answer 1

I can't give you a super-detailed answer, but if you want the full output (including the layout), I think you want to write your email function as an Action helper, and insert it at the PostDispatch hook of the Zend_Controller_Action->dispatch() loop.

See http://nethands.de/download/zenddispatch%5Fen.pdf for the full Zend Framework Dispatch Process Overview.

If you don't need the layout included in your email content, then you could do this at many points, including by the use of a context switch, as you mentioned.

Answer 2

when you dispatch the action, you can catch the event in postDispatch() method of plugin, that you can dynamically add to the stack from desired action. In that you recieve the contents of response by

//in action
//...some php code
Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->registerPlugin(new My_Plugin());
//in plugin
$htmlCode = $this->_response->getBody();

Answer 3

From your controller:

// do this if you're not using the default layout
$this->_helper->layout()->disableLayout();

$this->view->data = $items;

$htmlString = $this->view->render('foo/bar.phtml');

If you're doing this from a class that's not an instance of Zend_Controller_Action, you may have to create an instance of a Zend_view first, to do this:

$view = new Zend_view();

// you have to explicitly define the path to the template you're using
$view->setScriptPath(array($pathToTemplate)); 

$view->data = $data;

$htmlString = $view->render('foo/bar.phtml');