Question

When I register view helpers in application.ini, I have to make sure that there is not a space between APPLICATION_PATH and /my/view/helper/path. For example:

; Note that there is not a space after APPLICATION_PATH.
; This is the only way that I can get the helper path registered
resources.view.helperPath.MyNamespace_Zend_View_Helper = APPLICATION_PATH'/my/view/helper/path'

The following will not work and thus throw an exception stating that the “Plugin” was not found, which of course is “Zend” speak for “I can’t find the path to your class”:

; Note the space directly after 'APPLICATION_PATH' - this will not work!
resources.view.helperPath.MyNamespace_Zend_View_Helper = APPLICATION_PATH '/my/view/helper/path'

To drive the point home a little more, the space works in all other cases. For example:

; All three of the following examples have a space 
; after APPLICATION_PATH - and they work!
bootstrap.path = APPLICATION_PATH "/Bootstrap.php"
resources.frontController.moduleDirectory = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules"
resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH "/layouts/scripts"

Answer 1

I notice you’re using single-quotes in your non-working examples and double-quotes in your working ones.

From the comments on parse_ini_file()

Constants in ini files are not expanded if they are concatenated with strings quoted with single quotes, they must be in double quotes only to make constants expanded.

Simple answer, always wrap your ini file values in double-quotes.