Question

We’re using ZendFramework at my workplace for our webapps. It’s ok, but it lacks some of the best modern practices (like dependency injection and inversion of control, aop, etc).

For a couple of months, I’ve been (on my own) using Ding framework as a container for DI and AOP as a test drive. I really like it, so I’d like to bring it into our projects.

But how? So there’s the question: how to properly integrate Ding in Zend Framework applications? considering ZF controllers cant be beans (as they are instantiated right from the dispatcher), how to propertly inject all dependencies in them?

P.s: Not using Zend Framework is not an option (at least in the middle term).
P.P.S: Anyone care to add “ding” as a new tag?

Answer 1

I’m glad Ding is helping you.
I contributed on this project and also needed to integrate with a Zend Framework application. I used Zend’s application resources and plugin system to achieve this.

An application resource (you can reuse among projects)

<?php
class Application_Resource_Ding extends Zend_Application_Resource_ResourceAbstract
{

    protected $_options = array(
        'factory' => array(
            'bdef' => array(
                'xml' => array(
                    'filename' => array('beans.xml')
                ),
            ),
        ),
        'cache' => array(
            'proxy' => array('impl' => 'dummy'),
            'bdef' => array('impl' => 'dummy'),
            'beans' => array('impl' => 'dummy')
        )
    );

    public function init()
    {
        // set default config dir before mergin options (cant be set statically)
        $this->_options['factory']['bdef']['xml']['directories'] = array(APPLICATION_PATH .'/configs');

        $options = $this->getOptions();

        // parse factory properties (if set)
        if (isset($options['factory']['properties'])) {
            $options['factory']['properties'] = parse_ini_file(
               $options['factory']['properties']
           );
        }

        // change log4php_properties for log4php.properties (if exists)
        if (isset($options['log4php_properties'])) {
            $options['log4php.properties'] = $options['log4php_properties'];
            unset($options['log4php_properties']);
        }
        $properties = array(
            'ding' => $options
        );

        return Ding\Container\Impl\ContainerImpl::getInstance($properties);
    }

}

An action helper to use inside the controllers:

<?php

class Application_Action_Helper_Ding extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract
{

    protected $ding = null;

    public function init()
    {
        // just once...
        if (null !== $this->ding) {
            return;
        }

        // get ding bootstrapped resource
        $bootstrap = $this->getActionController()->getInvokeArg('bootstrap');

        $ding = $bootstrap->getResource('ding');

        if (!$ding) {
            throw new Zend_Controller_Action_Exception(
                'Ding resource not bootstrapped'
            );
        }

        $this->ding = $ding;
    }

    public function getBean($bean)
    {
        return $this->ding->getBean($bean);
    }

    public function direct($bean)
    {
        return $this->getBean($bean);
    }

}

In your application.ini you should add something like this (plus any extra configuration you need)

resources.frontController.actionHelperPaths.Application_Action_Helper = "Application/Action/Helper"

resources.ding.factory.properties = APPLICATION_PATH "/configs/ding.properties"
resources.ding.log4php_properties = APPLICATION_PATH "/configs/log4php.properties"

And then in your controllers, to request a bean:

$service = $this->_helper->ding('someService');

Hope this helps!