Zend Framework: Layout and views (two step view)

In this article I’m going to discuss layout and views and will give a practical example.

You may have heard of two step view.

The term two step view is used when we use layout and view templates for making our page look and feel.

Mostly you will need header, menu and footer same for the entire web application, only contents in the center of the page changes. So if this is the case you can get benefits out of two step views.

Create a layout containing header, menus and footer etc and view will have the contents relevant that specific page.

To implement two step view in Zend framework you will need to make some configuration in bootstrap file.

Add the following lines to your bootstrap file.

$options = array(
    'layout'     => 'layout_name',
    'layoutPath' => '/path/to/layouts',
);
$layout = Zend_Layout::startMvc($options);

Keep in mind two things.
1. Specify correct layout_name.
2. Path to the layout file must be correct.
I usually prefer to create my layout directory in scripts directory under application/views.

If you create layout.phtml in your layouts directory you will need to define it as follows.

<?php
        include "header.phtml";
        
?>
// view contents goes here.
<?php
        
        <?=$this->layout()->content?>
 
?>
// footer goes here.
<?php
        include "footer.phtml"
?>

Now whatever request (controller/action) you made to your page, header and footer will be included in the response.

There may be cases (in some of your actions) where you don’t want your header and footer be appeared in the look and feel.

So write in those actions, the following line of code

$this->_helper->layout->disableLayout();

After including this line in your action, only the view contents will appear. It mean the contents in the header and footer will not be served.

Some time you need to execute only action code and redirect your request to another action instead of showing anything.

Write the following code in this case

    $this->_helper->layout->disableLayout();

    $this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender();

Another very important thing is when you call a specific action, Zend Framework render a template file with the name similar to the action name. for example if you request view action, Zend will look for view.phtml file in the specific template directory.

If you want to render other then the default template, view.phtml in the above example. Write the following in your action.

$this->render(’thanks’);