Question

can some one tell me how zend action helpers exactly work , i mean , even though i already used them in my code i feel some thing is missing in my understanding :

e.g. i have some thing like this

$this->_helper->viewRenderer->setRender('edit',null,true);

i my code , so that i will be able to render add-actions to use edit pages (since adding is the same as editing ….. on UI basis @ least )

but my question here is , as far as i can see the _helper is an instance of

/**
 * Helper Broker to assist in routing help requests to the proper object
 *
 * @var Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker
 */
protected $_helper = null;

but when i try to see in the library folder this class “Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker” i can’t find a property named “viewRenderer”

Answer 1

The $_helper is a magical little thing that loads action helpers when needed. It looks in registered paths – which by default is Zend/Controller/Action/Helper – which is where you’ll find the viewRenderer helper.

The fact that the class doesn’t have a viewRenderer property is because the HelperBroker handles all requests via the magic __call method.

This call method looks for a helper (in this case viewRenderer) and calls the direct() method on that helper.