Question

I have created a Zend Framework website and I’m now updating it to switch out the layout file depending on whether or not the user is on a mobile device.

I have written a class to deal with the detection but I don’t know where is best to place this check and also trigger the layout file being used.

Code:

include(APPLICATION_PATH . "/classes/MobileDetection.php");
$detect = new MobileDetect();

if ($detect->isMobile()) {
    $layout = $layout->setLayout('mobile');
} 

I can trigger the layout from the Bootstrap function _initViewHelpers() but I get a 500 error as soon as I add the include line above.

Any recommendation on how and where to place this? I originally has a helper that dealt with the check but that was used in the layout itself rather than enabling me to swap the whole layout file out.

Answer 1

You can use a plugin, that’s what I do:

<?php

class Mobile_Layout_Controller_Plugin_Layout extends Zend_Layout_Controller_Plugin_Layout
{

    public function preDispatch(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request)
    {
        switch ($request->getModuleName()) {
            case 'mobile': $this->_moduleChange('mobile');
        }
    }

    protected function _moduleChange($moduleName) {
        $this->getLayout()->setLayoutPath(
            dirname(dirname(
                $this->getLayout()->getLayoutPath()
            ))
            . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'layouts/scripts/' . $moduleName
        );
        $this->getLayout()->setLayout($moduleName);
    }

}

I keep it in library/ProjectName/Layout/Controller/Plugin/Layout.php.

In your Bootsrap, you will need to incorporate something like this:

Zend_Layout::startMvc(
    array(
        'layoutPath' => self::$root . '/application/views/layouts/scripts',
        'layout' => 'layout',
        'pluginClass' => 'Mobile_Layout_Controller_Plugin_Layout'
    )
);

It actually took me a while to get this figured out, but once you work through it, you will be so much happier. Hope that helped 🙂