Zend Action helper

Question

I am learning how to use Zend framework and realise that the action helper is something that would be useful. I have set up a default installation of Zend on my machine, but I dont know where the helper file needs to go, what I need to put in the bootstrap file and how I use it. Can anyone point me in the right direction please - the ZF user guide is not to clear to me.

Thanks John

Answer 1

Two thoughts for where to place your custom action-helpers:

1. In a separate, custom library
2. In the folder application/controllers/helpers

These ideas are not exclusive. Functionality that is general enough to work in multiple projects should probably be pulled into a separate library. But for functionality that is application-specific, there is an argument that it could be somewhere in the application folder.

@Jurian has already described the "separate-library" approach. For app-specific helpers, you can do as follows:

For a helper called myHelper, create a class Application_Controller_Helper_MyHelper in the file application/controllers/helpers/MyHelper.php. In Bootstrap, you have something like:

protected function _initAutoload()
{
    $autoloader = new Zend_Application_Module_Autoloader(array(
        'namespace' => 'Application',
        'basePath'  => APPLICATION_PATH,
    ));

    Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addPath(
        APPLICATION_PATH . '/controllers/helpers', 
        'Application_Controller_Helper_');

    return $autoloader;
}

Then your helper can be invoked in a controller by using:

$this->_helper->myHelper;

As you can see, this presumes you are using appNamespace 'Application'. If not, you can (must!) modify your class names to accommodate your circumstance.

Cheers!

Answer 2

You can place action helpers in your own library. Besides library/Zend where all the Zend stuff is around, you can create a library/MyLibrary folder (MyLibrary is arbitrary chosen) and put the action helpers there.

A good place is the library/MyLibrary/Controller/Action/Helper folder you need to create and place your action helper there (i.e. Navigation.php). In this file, create the class MyLibrary_Controller_Action_Helper_Navigation.

The next step is to add the action helper to the HelperBroker of the Zend Framework during bootstrap. Therefore, create a new method in your Bootstrap.php file and add this function:

protected function _initActionHelpers ()
{
    Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(
        new MyLibrary_Controller_Action_Helper_Navigation()
    );
}

One last remark is you need to configure the use of this library by adding this rule to your application.ini:

autoLoaderNameSpaces[] = "MyLibrary_"