Question

I just started learning Zend (& OO PHP for that matter), I have spent the last 4-5 weeks learning, tutorials, books etc. I feel good about it but will bog down in the models (thats ok, I’m learning). I am now beginning my first app (for work even); It has at least 5 major sections (including the login + will need ACL), and a couple will have up to 10-12 sub sections like admin: create user, edit user, etc.

I created a single layout, and have made most of the page views with working links, and have a few of the forms complete already.

My major concern now is should I refactor and make modules of the major sections before it gets out of hand, or am I worried about nothing. One thing I think I did wrong is that I have a ‘AdminController’ that does nothing but bring in the admin ‘view’ that is nothing more than links to each ‘user’ action in the ‘UserController’. I’m thinking maybe I should have put the user actions in the AdminController. I’m thinking too, that I should make a ‘admin’ module, ‘reports’ module, ‘auth’ module, etc. Or is it normal to end up with 8 controllers and growing? I already have the inclination to make and maintain a developer’s sitemap just for my own sanity, not to mention that I want to do the best job possible 🙂

Answer 1

In principle, I like the idea of a plugin-able module for each set of functionality – News, Users, Galleries, etc. “Plugging in” that module would provide functionality for the back-end admin and the front-end display. It is a self-contained place to put all the functionality – models, action helpers, view helpers, view scripts. etc – that you need for that content area. There might be two controllers per module – News_BackendController and News_FrontendController – dedicated to their specific areas.

But in practice, I find that ZF modules make that hard. I know that smarter guys than me – a low bar, to be sure – can make it all work, but I’ve never had luck with it.

So I usually end up with two modules – frontend and backend. For news functionality, for example, I’d have a news controller in the backend module for managing the content; another news controller in the frontend module for displaying it.

The sticky point for me in this setup is where to put model functionality that is common to both frontend and admin. One idea is to put it out a separate library and then create module-specific models that extend these for any module-specific functionality. Something like:

MyLibary_Model_News for the common news stuff.

Frontend_Model_News extends MyLibrary_Model_News for any frontend-only news functionality, if any.

Admin_Model_News extends MyLibrary_Model_News for any backend-only news fnctionality, if any.

Just some ideas. As always, YMMV.