lfj-zfrenderer

A library to render PHP view scripts using the Zend Framework 2 PhpRenderer

Warning: This library is in development. Please specify commit hash if you want to experiment with it.

Installation

The suggested installation method is via composer:

composer require lorenzoferrarajr/lfj-zfrenderer

Immutability

An object instantiated from the Lfj\ZfRenderer\Renderer class is immutable.

For example, the following code is used to add a custom HelperPluginManager instance to the $renderer object

$helperPluginManager = new \Zend\View\HelperPluginManager();
$helperPluginManager->setService('name', new PrintName());

$renderer = new \Lfj\ZfRenderer\Renderer();
$rendererNew = $renderer->withHelperPluginManager($helperPluginManager);

Calling $renderer->withHelperPluginManager($helperPluginManager); does not affect the $renderer object. Instead a cloned object of $renderer containing the specified $helperPluginManager is returned.

Usage

The terms template and view script are used interchangeably.

Templates are PHP scripts that mix HTML and PHP.

Rendering a simple template

This is the view/hello-world.phtml view script. No PHP is present

<!-- view/hello-world.phtml-->
Hello, World!

To render the template, the path to the view script file must be passed as first parameter of the render method

$template = realpath('view/hello-world.phtml');

$renderer = new \Lfj\ZfRenderer\Renderer();

/** @var \Zend\View\View $view */
$view = $renderer->render($template);

echo $view->getResponse()->getContent();

The render method returns an instance of \Zend\View\View. The content can be retrieved with $view->getResponse()->getContent().

Passing data to the template

A template can make use of data contained in variables. This is an example

<!-- view/hello-name.phtml -->
Hello, <?=$name?>!

To pass data to the view script, an associative array must be provided as the second argument of the render method

$template = realpath('view/hello-name.phtml');

$renderer = new \Lfj\ZfRenderer\Renderer();
$view = $renderer->render($template, array('name' => 'World'));

echo $view->getResponse()->getContent();

Including partials

It could be useful to include other view scripts from within another view script. This can be done passing a list of template path resolvers to the withResolvers method. The method returns a new instance of $renderer.

This is the view/hello-partial.phtml view script which includes a partial

Hello, <?=$this->partial('partial/name.phtml', array('name' => $name))?>!

and this is the partial/name.phtml file

<?=$name?>

The code to render the whole thing is this

$template = realpath('view/hello-partial.phtml');

$templatePathStack = new \Zend\View\Resolver\TemplatePathStack();
$templatePathStack->addPath(realpath('view'));

$renderer = new \Lfj\ZfRenderer\Renderer();
$renderer = $renderer->withResolvers(array($templatePathStack));

$renderedContent = $renderer->render(
    $template,
    array('name' => 'World')
);

echo $renderedContent->getResponse()->getContent();

The $templatePathStack object is a list of directories in which other view scripts can be found.

Adding helpers

Helpers can be added injecting an instance of Zend\View\HelperPluginManager using the setHelperPluginManager method.

The following view script uses the name helper.

Hello, <?=$this->name()?>!

An instance of the following PrintName class will be used the in the view script when $this->name() is called

use Zend\View\Helper\AbstractHelper;
use Zend\View\Helper\HelperInterface;

class PrintName extends AbstractHelper implements HelperInterface
{
    public function __invoke()
    {
        echo "World";
    }
}

The code that puts all this together is the following

$template = realpath('view/hello-helper.phtml');

$helperPluginManager = new \Zend\View\HelperPluginManager();
$helperPluginManager->setService('name', new PrintName());

$renderer = new \Lfj\ZfRenderer\Renderer();
$renderer = $renderer->withHelperPluginManager($helperPluginManager);
$renderedContent = $renderer->render(
    $template
);

echo $renderedContent->getResponse()->getContent();