Question

I’d like to name my default layout file something other than layout.phtml, since it doesn’t really describe what type of layout it is. How can I do this? Thanks!

Answer 1

From your Bootstrap.php file, you could do something like this:

protected function _initLayoutName()
{
    // use sitelayout.phtml as the main layout file
    Zend_Layout::getMvcInstance()->setLayout('sitelayout');
}

If you want to use a different layout for a different module, you need to register a plugin in the Bootstrap and have the plugin contain the following code:

class Application_Plugin_LayoutSwitcher extends Zend_Controller_Plugin_Abstract
{
    public function dispatchLoopStartup(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request)
    {
        $module = $request->getModuleName(); // get the name of the current module

        if ('admin' == $module) {
            // set the layout to admin.phtml if we are in admin module
            Zend_Layout::getMvcInstance()->setLayout('admin');
        } else if ('somethingelse' == $module) {
            Zend_Layout::getMvcInstance()->setLayout('somethingelse');
        }
    }
}

From within your application.ini, you can do this to set the layout script:

resources.layout.layout = "layoutname"

This will not work on a per layout basis, however. If you need to change the layout based on the module, you will have to use a plugin, but you can use the setting in application.ini to set the default layout name.