Question

Hello I am trying to retrieve the values ​​returned by a controller action in my own library abstract in one of the methods of dispatch of Zend Framework, I wonder if this feat possible and if so how do it.

My code is as follows:

IndexController

class IndexController extends My_Controller
{

    public function init()
    {
        /* Initialize action controller here */
    }

    public function indexAction()
    {
       // action body
        return 'hello world';
    }


}

My_Controller

abstract class My_Controller extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    /**
     * Initialize Core_Controller
     * @param Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request
     * @param Zend_Controller_Response_Abstract $response
     * @param array $invokeArgs
     */
    public function __construct(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request, Zend_Controller_Response_Abstract $response, array $invokeArgs = array())
    {
        parent::__construct($request, $response, $invokeArgs);
        $this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender();
    }

    public function preDispatch()
    {
        //something here
    }

    public function postDispatch()
    {
        //something here
    }


    public function dispatch()
    {
        //something here
    }
}

I need to get the value of what was returned in the controllador in this library in order to transform it into json and then print to screen.

Thnk

Answer 1

In ZF 1 there isn’t a way to get the return value from the controller action. This value is never used or captured by Zend Framework itself.

Take a look at Zend/Controller/Action.php line 516 (ZF 1.11.11) and this is the point where ZF calls your controller action, and the return value is not captured or used.

public function dispatch($action)
{
    // Notify helpers of action preDispatch state
    $this->_helper->notifyPreDispatch();

    $this->preDispatch();
    if ($this->getRequest()->isDispatched()) {
        if (null === $this->_classMethods) {
            $this->_classMethods = get_class_methods($this);
        }

        // If pre-dispatch hooks introduced a redirect then stop dispatch
        // @see ZF-7496
        if (!($this->getResponse()->isRedirect())) {
            // preDispatch() didn't change the action, so we can continue
            if ($this->getInvokeArg('useCaseSensitiveActions') || in_array($action, $this->_classMethods)) {
                if ($this->getInvokeArg('useCaseSensitiveActions')) {
                    trigger_error('Using case sensitive actions without word separators is deprecated; please do not rely on this "feature"');
                }
                $this->$action(); // <--- line 516 - this calls your action
            } else {
                $this->__call($action, array());
            }
        }
        $this->postDispatch();
    }

    // whats actually important here is that this action controller is
    // shutting down, regardless of dispatching; notify the helpers of this
    // state
    $this->_helper->notifyPostDispatch();
}

As you can see, the value returned by the controller is never used. Also, in ZF2, they are changing the way controller actions work so the return values actually have meaning so you may want to think of a different approach.

The quickest thing I can think of at the moment would be instead of trying to return a value from the controller, just set a registry value that you can fetch later.

e.g.

public function returnAction()
{
    // ...

    Zend_Registry::set('controller_return_value', 'hello world');
}

and then later, in your plugin or wherever you are trying to get the value:

try {
    $retval = Zend_Registry::get('controller_return_value');
} catch (Zend_Exception $ex) {
    $retval = null; // no return value set by controller
}