Zend Framework Modules

[<?php]

Hi all,

I have now been searching the internet high and low for a few weeks in hope of finding the answer I require to my Smarty / Modules problem with Zend. As always if you come to SitePoint you get help unlike others... Please bare with me on this one...

Basically, I am trying to create a module called courses so the end url would be

http://domain.com/courses/page-url

which I think is a pretty simple task.
My application Structure is as follows:

application
   Configuration
   Controllers
   Courses
      Controllers
         IndexController.php
         CourseController.php
   Smarty
   Models
   Zend

Then the in the BootStrap (index.php) in public_html I have

$controller = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance();
$controller->setControllerDirectory(array(
	'default'   =>  $config->paths->base . 'include/Controllers',
	'courses'   =>  $config->paths->base . 'include/Courses/Controllers'
	));

$controller->registerPlugin(new CustomControllerAclManager($auth));

$controller->throwExceptions(true);
	
$vr = new Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_ViewRenderer();
$vr->setView(new Templater());
$vr->setViewSuffix('tpl');
Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper($vr);
	
$router = $controller->getRouter();
$router->addConfig(new Zend_Config_Ini('../include/Configuration/routes.ini', 'routes'), 'routes');
 
$controller->dispatch();

Problem: When I goto http://domain.com/courses it seems to be showing the main front page from my templates folder (/public_html/templates/index/index.tpl)

I have spoken to Mr. Zervass from PHPRiot who's book I'm reading & he told me to add a route:

routes.course.route = "courses/:url/:action/*"
routes.course.defaults.module = courses
routes.course.defaults.controller = course
routes.course.defaults.action = index

Example uses modules as well as controllers and action (effectively adding an extra level of grouping the actions)

This basically means if the "action" parameter is blank then "index" is used.

This class is then declared as:
class Courses_CourseController extends CustomControllerAction

I have tried and tried on this for around 2 weeks now everynight and still can't seem to get it to work -

I can understand-ish why it's showing the index/index template and not courses/index.tpl template but nothing I try seems to fix it.

Is it possible to use CourseController.php as the default in the courses folder instead of IndexController.php ref: "routes.course.defaults.controller = course" ? confused

Hoping someone can shed light on this for me....

Kind regards
Nick T

[Imminent]

Hey,

I think the problem is http://domain.com/courses isn't the right URL to match what you've done.

I think it goes something like this:

http://domain.com/courses checks for a module named "courses" - which you've got. Then, since there's no Controller/Action pair after the module name it'll automatically set Controller/Action to index/index.

So http://domain.com/courses should try and load "indexAction" from /application/Courses/Controllers/IndexController.php

Try calling http://domain.com/courses/index/index

Does this resolve to the same page?

The actual URL to get to the indexAction of /application/Controllers/Courses/CourseController.php is
http://domain.com/courses/courses/index/

So, why do you need a separate module for courses when you could just have a standard Controller. E.g.

<?php

require_once "Zend/Controller/Action.php";

class CoursesController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function pageUrlAction()
    {
        echo 'Hello!';
    }
}

The URL to this action above is http://domain.com/courses/page-url/ which is what you want?

[<?php]

Hi Imminent,

Thank you for getting back to me, appreciated.

If I goto courses/index/index it still resolves to the same page

If I goto courses/courses/index then it seems to work... Is it possible to make it just Courses/index with a module?

To be honest I have been thinking alot over the weeks as to go for a standard controller or module...?

I wanted to have all sections on the site (not only courses) so they are similar to:

domain.com/courses/url

which so far I have all working from the database etc but wanted to have the url part as a different template and not use the index of the controller. I didn't want to another action such as viewAction() to make my urls like

domain.com/courses for the listings
domain.com/courses/view/url for the individual courses

Not sure if im making sense

This is what I have been building and this page is pretty much what im talking about: http://www.digitalmediastudio.co.uk/...pment-courses/

At the minute if you click a listing as it is it loads the content on the top of that page along with listings below it. What are your thoughts ???

Hope you understand and can help me

Kind regards

Nick

[Imminent]

What you should do is rename Courses_CoursesController to Courses_IndexController. There's no point "namespacing" the Courses controller a second time. Here's what Courses_IndexController should look like:

<?php

require_once "Zend/Controller/Action.php";

class Courses_IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        echo 'I should be the URL: /courses/ or /courses/index/';
    }
    
    public function viewAction()
    {
        $url = $this->_request->getParam('url');
    
        echo 'I should be the URL: /courses/index/view/ (url: ' . $url . ')';
    }
}

Once that works you can use a route so that you can make /courses/view/url work, as well as /courses/index/view/url.

So add this route:

routes.course.route           = "courses/view/:url/*"
routes.course.defaults.module         = courses # courses module
routes.course.defaults.controller      = index # the controller is now index
routes.course.defaults.action          = view # use the view action

<?php

require_once "Zend/Controller/Action.php";

class Courses_IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        echo 'I should be the URL: /courses/ or /courses/index/';
    }
    
    public function viewAction()
    {
        $url = $this->_request->getParam('url');
    
        echo 'I should be the URL: /courses/index/view/ (url: ' . $url . ')';
        echo 'I might also be the URL: /courses/view/' . $url . '/');
    }
}

I think that should work.

[<?php]

Hi Imminent,

I have followed your advise but I still seem to have the same issue. When I go to domain.com/courses it's rendering the default index/index.tpl template instead of asking for courses/index.tpl in which I want.

Is it using this template as it's using IndexController although in a module? Is it possible to have the default controller in that module something like CoursesController.php instead of IndexController.php?

Refering back to your post:
I would like to have all my pages in the style of

domain.com/events/
domain.com/events/event-name

What is the best way to link to individual events from the main events? So if no event can be found should redirect back to events main page. I nearly have this working now on a standard controller as you can see.

What I'm asking overall is without me using:

domain.com/events
domain.com/events/view/event

How can I just have:

domain.com
domain.com/events/event

but use a different template for the individual event and use the index template for the main events page. How do I assign a template to whatever the url (event) will be seperate without having to use an action etc?

I think im very confused to say the least with modules & routes etc - I don't find the official doc on it all that brilliant..

Cheers
Nick

[Imminent]

Hi,

I've attached a project that's setup to do what you want.

It has an IndexController for the homepage.
And EventsController for listing and viewing events.

Events can be accessed using the following url:

/events/event-one/
/events/event-two/

I've tried to document what I've done in each file.

[<?php]

Hi Imminent

Ihii yeah it maybe best - thanks very much again!

Will take a look

Nick

[G.Schuster]

Sounds like you don't understand the module concept of ZF.

Example WITH modules:
/ - module "default", controller "default", action "default"
/courses/ - module "controller", controller "default", action "default"
/courses/course/ - module "controller", controller "course", action "default"
/courses/course/view/ - module "controller", controller "course", action "view"

Example WITHOUT modules:
/ - module N/A, controller "default", action "default"
/courses/ - module N/A, controller "courses", action "default"
/courses/view/ - module N/A, controller "courses", action "view"

So, if you call /courses/ WITH modules it's just correct that ZF calls your index/index.tpl - as you DO HAVE the default controller "index" and default action "index" by not specifiying them explicitly.
Skip the modules - I think the most things can be done within controllers.
Personally, I use modules only for separation of different frontends, e.g. a public "frontend" and an administrative "management" module.

[<?php]

Hi Imminent & G.Schuster,

Thank you to you both for your kind help. I have gone through both of what you have sent & said and it all makes sense now.

Thank you both again

Kind regards

Nick