Configuring a ZF2 view helper before rendering

The currencyFormat view helper is very easy to use:

echo $this->currencyFormat($value, 'GBP', 'en_GB');

1	echo $this->currencyFormat($value, 'GBP', 'en_GB');

When I was reading the documentation for the currencyFormat view helper, I discovered that you could configure the currency code and locale once rather than in every call:

// Within your view script
$this->plugin("currencyformat")->setCurrencyCode("GBP")->setLocale("en_GB");

1 2	// Within your view script $this->plugin("currencyformat")->setCurrencyCode("GBP")->setLocale("en_GB");

This is obviously useful, but even more useful would be if we could set it once by default and then override if we need to in a specific call.

The easiest way to do this is to use an event listener on the renderer.post View event within a modules's onBootstrap method, like this:

namespace Application;

use Zend\View\ViewEvent;
use Zend\View\Renderer\PhpRenderer;
class Module
{
    public function onBootstrap($e)
    {
        $events = $e->getApplication()->getEventManager();
        $sharedEvents = $events->getSharedManager();
        $sharedEvents->attach('Zend\View\View', ViewEvent::EVENT_RENDERER_POST, function($event) {
            $renderer = $event->getRenderer();
            if ($renderer instanceof PhpRenderer) {
                $renderer->plugin("currencyformat")->setCurrencyCode("GBP")->setLocale('en_GB');
            }
        });
    }
    // ...
}

namespace Application;

use Zend\View\ViewEvent;

use Zend\View\Renderer\PhpRenderer;

class Module

{

public function onBootstrap($e)

{

$events = $e->getApplication()->getEventManager();

$sharedEvents = $events->getSharedManager();

$sharedEvents->attach('Zend\View\View', ViewEvent::EVENT_RENDERER_POST, function($event) {

$renderer = $event->getRenderer();

if ($renderer instanceof PhpRenderer) {

$renderer->plugin("currencyformat")->setCurrencyCode("GBP")->setLocale('en_GB');

}

});

}

// ...

}

Now we can simply do call currencyFormat() with the value in our view script:

echo $this->currencyFormat($value);

1	echo $this->currencyFormat($value);

9 thoughts on “Configuring a ZF2 view helper before rendering”

If only the locale is needed, then you can simple use:

Locale::setDefault('en_GB');

http://de2.php.net/manual/de/locale.setdefault.php

Nice one Rob. We've also got a method in our own AbstractActionController called getViewHelper($helperName) which basically just does this:

return $this->getServiceLocator()->get('viewhelpermanager')->get($helperName);

I think it is useful if you need to "configure" a view helper on a per-action basis (rather than on a global basis like your example).

This may be a rookie question, but where does $sm from 'use($sm)' get defined in your onBootstrap method above?

Mike, It's an error based on where I copied the code from and isn't needed for this specific sample.

Fixed now. Thanks!

I think that better approach is to add initializer to the ViewHelperManager. So if you already have getViewHelperConfig() method in your Module.php, add "initializers" section to its return value:

public function getViewHelperConfig()
{
    return array(
        'initializers' => array(
            function($helper, ServiceLocatorInterface $serviceLocator) {
                if ($helper instanceof Currencyformat) {
                    $helper->setCurrencyCode("GBP")->setLocale('en_GB');
                }
            }
        ),
    );
}

public function getViewHelperConfig()

{

return array(

'initializers' => array(

function($helper, ServiceLocatorInterface $serviceLocator) {

if ($helper instanceof Currencyformat) {

$helper->setCurrencyCode("GBP")->setLocale('en_GB');

}

);

}

I use this Method to add the Dojotoolkit to the HeadScript but as test, i noticed that the 'ZendViewView' triggers twice is there any hook that calls only once during the Render event. thanks :)

Nice post. But i like the solution to set up my view helpers in module.config.php, like this:

return array(
//...
'view_helpers' => array(
		'factories' => array(
			'formElementErrors' => function($sm) {
				$helper = new FormElementErrors();
				$helper->setAttributes(array('class' => 'ul-error'));
				return $helper;
			},
			'currencyFormat' => function($sm) {
				$helper = new CurrencyFormat();
				$helper->setCurrencyCode("CHF");
				$helper->setLocale('de_CH');
				return $helper;
			},
			'dateFormat' => function($sm) {
				$helper = new DateFormat();
				$helper->setLocale('de_CH');
				return $helper;
			}
		),
)
);

return array(

//...

'view_helpers' => array(

'factories' => array(

'formElementErrors' => function($sm) {

$helper = new FormElementErrors();

$helper->setAttributes(array('class' => 'ul-error'));

return $helper;

'currencyFormat' => function($sm) {

$helper = new CurrencyFormat();

$helper->setCurrencyCode("CHF");

$helper->setLocale('de_CH');

return $helper;

'dateFormat' => function($sm) {

$helper = new DateFormat();

$helper->setLocale('de_CH');

return $helper;

}

)

);

Matt,

Be aware that if you do it that way, then the ModuleManager can no longer cache the merged config.

Regards,

Rob…

Didn't know that… thanks for the advice.

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Configuring a ZF2 view helper before rendering

9 thoughts on “Configuring a ZF2 view helper before rendering”