Unlike Zend Framework 1, the view layer in Zend Framework 2 separates the variables assigned to each view model. This means that when you are in the layout view script, you don't automatically have access to variables that were assigned the the action's view model and vice versa. Accessing action variables in the layout Consider this controller code: class IndexController extends ActionController { public function indexAction() { return array('myvar' => 'test'); } } If you… continue reading.

Posted on 3 April 2012 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

2 December 2012: Note that as of ZF2.0.4, this no longer works due to changes to fix a security issue. See the release notes for further information. Following yesterday's article on returning JSON from a ZF2 controller action, Lukas suggested that I should also demonstrate how to use the Accept header to get JSON. So this is how you do it! Set up the JsonStrategy We set up the JsonStrategy as we did in returning… continue reading.

Posted on 30 March 2012 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

The new view layer in Zend Framework 2 can be set up to return JSON rather than rendered HTML relatively easily. There are two steps to this: Set up the JsonStrategy Firstly we need to set up the view's JsonStrategy to check to a situation when returning JSON is required and then to render out JSON for us. The JsonStrategy will cause the JsonRenderer to be run in two situations: The view model returned by… continue reading.

Posted on 29 March 2012 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

Both the Module Manager and the MVC system use the Event Manger extensively in order to provide "hook points" for you to add your own code into the application flow. This is a list of the events triggered by each class during a standard request with the Skeleton Application: Module Manager Zend\Module\Manager: loadModules.pre For every module: Zend\Module\Manager: loadModule.resolve Zend\Module\Manager: loadModule Zend\Module\Manager: loadModules.post Application Successful: Zend\Mvc\Application: bootstrap Zend\Mvc\Application: route Zend\Mvc\Application: dispatch Zend\Mvc\Controller\ActionController: dispatch (if controller extends… continue reading.

Posted on 16 March 2012 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

With the release of Beta 3 of Zend Framework, we now have a significantly refactored the ZendView component. One of the changes made is that there is a ViewModel object that is returned from a controller which contains the variables to be used within the view script along with meta information such as the view script to render. The really nice thing about ViewModels is that they can be nested and this is how the… continue reading.

Posted on 12 March 2012 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2

Update As of Beta 4, this method no longer works. Evan Coury's post on Module-specific layouts in Zend Framework 2 is the correct way to do this. Following on from the discussion on modules, we can hook into the event system to do module specific bootstrapping. By this, I mean, if you have some code that you want to run only if the action to be called is within this module, you can hook into… continue reading.

Posted on 8 March 2012 in Zend Framework, Zend Framework 2