best approach to render site-wide elements using Zend Framework

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+2 Q:

best approach to render site-wide elements using Zend Framework

I'm using the 'modules' front controller resource for the project setup. What's the best approach to render site-wide elements, like navigation?

Add the action which renders the element to the end of the action stack each request?
- is it OK to render these elements through controller actions?
Create a plugin which renders the element?
- Could I use module specific plugins?
are there other possible ways to do this?

+3 A:

I think the action stack should be avoided. See this article for why.

The plugin method could work or you can create ViewHelpers which you call from you layout script. I like the ViewHelpers method because it keeps everything very clear. You know that when you echo out $this->mainNaviation() that there is a ViewHelper called MainNavigation.

smack0007 2009-10-13 08:48:39

Thx for thr article. The view helper does idd seem a good idea. One more question: how do you call namespaced viewhelpers? $this->module_mainNav() ?

Nicky De Maeyer 2009-10-13 09:25:13

You can't really call ViewHeleprs from different namespaces. You can set which ViewHelpers will be called by setting the helperPath. See http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.view.helpers.html#zend.view.helpers.paths. You can use that to call one ViewHelper in module A, B, C but a more specific one in module D.

smack0007 2009-10-13 10:11:17

Then it becomes quite useless if I can't use it from within other components? If i have a MainNav inside a menu module, i can only display the navigation when inside the menu module.... or I should inspect my whole module directory to manually add all helper directories :s

Nicky De Maeyer 2009-10-13 12:40:30

I dont't think I explained that very well. You can create a hierarchy such that there is a default mainNav() ViewHelper and a module specific mainNav() ViewHelper. From your layout you can just call $this->mainNav(). In your modules, you can set it up so that the module ViewHelpers get called instead of the normal ViewHelpers. This explained in the link I posted. They call it stacking.

smack0007 2009-10-13 12:58:25

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best approach to render site-wide elements using Zend Framework

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