Getting property of zend view using a helper called in the layout script

Question

I've written a helper in order to make my main nav. Part of this helper checks if there is a user logged in by checking if a user has been assigned to the view

if($this->view->user)
{
//do stuff
}

However when I call this helper in my layout script it is unable to access $this->view->user; it has NULL value (although var_dump($this->view returns the view object, jsut not with all the properties I assigned to it). It can only access the user data if, in the view script, I assign it to the layout, i.e.

$this->layout()->user = $this->user;

And then in the helper do

if($this->view->layout()->user)
{
//do stuff
}

Which is a pain as it means in each view script I have to add a line to pass the data to the layout.

Is there a way to enable helpers called in the layout script to access properties of the view?

edit*

Here's the source:

    <?php

class Zend_View_Helper_MainNav extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract {

     public function mainNav()
    {
        if ($this->view->layout()->navType == 'none'){
      $html = '<div id="nav"><a href="/" id="logo">Sum puzzles</a></div>';
     } else if($this->view->layout()->navType == 'small'){

          $html = '<div id="nav" class="small"><a href="/" id="logo">Sum puzzles</a><ul>' .
               '<li><a href="/puzzle/view" class="button">play a puzzle</a></li>' .
             '<li><a href="/sequence/play" class="button">puzzle sequences</a></li>' .
             '<li><a href="/puzzle/create" class="button">create a puzzle</a></li>';

          if(!$this->view->user)
          {
           $html .= '<li><a href="/teachers" class="button">teachers area</a></li>';
          } 
          $html .='</ul></div>'; 

        } else if($this->view->layout()->navType == 'large'){
          $html = '<div id="nav" class="large"><a href="/" id="logo">Sum puzzles</a><ul>' .
             '<li><a href="/sequence/play" class="playSequence">Play a sequence of puzzles</a></li>' .
             '<li><a href="/puzzle/create" class="createPuzzle">Create your own puzzles</a></li>';
          if(!$this->view->user)
          {
           $html .= '<li><a href="/teachers" class="teachersArea">teachers area</a></li>';
          }
        $html .= '</ul></div>'; 
        } 
     return $html;
    }
}

Answer 1

Zend_View will inject itself into the helper if you create a setView method in your helper class.

class Ldm_View_Helper_SubMenu
{
    public function subMenu($items)
    {
     // Build SubMenu
     $subMenu = '';

     $template = '
      <ul id="subnav">
       %s
      </ul>';

     $rowTemplate = '
       <li>
        <a href="%s" %s>%s</a>
       </li>';

     $rows = '';

     foreach ($items as $key => $values)
     {
      $rows .= sprintf($rowTemplate, 
                       $values['url'],
                       (($this->view->action == $key) ? 'class="selected"' : ''),
                       $values['name']);
     }

     $subMenu = sprintf($template, $rows);

     return $subMenu;
    }

    public function setView(Zend_View_Interface $view)
    {
        $this->view = $view;
    }

Answer 2

I'm inclined to think you have a logic error somewhere. Try this:

// in your controller action
$this->view->test = 'testing 123';

// at the start of your helper method, called from your layout
echo $this->view->test;die;

Did you get anything?

Answer 3

I created a basic example, which should help you

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// application/controllers/IndexController.php
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<?php
class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function init() {
        Zend_Layout::startMvc() ;
        $this->view->test_h1 = "H1 test value" ;
    }
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->view->test_h2 = "H2 test value" ;
    }
}

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// application/views/helpers/Qwer.php
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<?php
class Zend_View_Helper_Qwer extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract {
    public function qwer() {
        return "<h1>{$this->view->test_h1}</h1>"
            . "<h2>{$this->view->test_h2}</h2>" ;
    }
}

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// application/views/scripts/layout.phtml
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<?php echo $this->qwer() ?>

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Output
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<h1>H1 test value</h1><h2>H2 test value</h2>

Answer 4

When you call the Helper the first time the view is set to the current view.

If you change views later it will not point to the correct view.

Answer 5

i have similar issue , i cant access property of zend view from layout , any body help : [email protected]

Answer 6

Finally got to the root of the problem

In my application.ini file I had the line

resources.view[] =

Which I think is a legacy from older versions of Zend, copied from some online tutorial somewhere.

Deleting that line resolved the problem.