Action based navigation in Zend Framework - zend-framework

Question

i have navigation menu which is displayed to users based on certain action of the controller. here is what i am doing.
//in each controller-action where i want "action navigation menu"
public function indexAction()
{
$this->_helper->navigation()->renderActionNavigation();
}
public function newAction()
{
$this->_helper->navigation()->renderActionNavigation();
}
the navigation menu is displayed accordingly. here is my navigation.xml file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configdata>
<item-index>
<new-item>
<label>New Item</label>
<route>admin-item-new</route>
</new-item>
<delete-item>
<label>Delete Item</label>
<uri>#</uri>
</delete-item>
</item-index>
<item-new>
<publish-unpublish-item>
<label>Save & Close</label>
<uri>#</uri>
</publish-unpublish-item>
<delete-item>
<label>Save & New</label>
<uri>#</uri>
</delete-item>
</item-new>
</configdata>
the parent element of each navigation menu represents a naming convention in the above navigation.xml file for example
`<item-index>` represents item{controller}index{action}
`<item-new>` represents item{controller}new{action}
//and so on
here is the action helper. Navigation.php i am using
class Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Navigation extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract
{
private $_view = null;
public function direct()
{
$this->_view = Zend_Layout::getMvcInstance()->getView();
$this->_view->placeholder('action-navigation');
return $this;
}
public function renderActionNavigation()
{
$config = new Zend_Config_Xml(
APPLICATION_PATH.'/configs/navigation.xml', strtolower(
$this->getRequest()->getControllerName().'-'.
$this->getRequest()->getActionName()
)
);
$container = new Zend_Navigation($config);
$this->_view->partial('partials/_action-navigation.phtml', array('container' => $container));
}
}
and finally _action-navigation.phtml
<?php $this->placeholder('action-navigation')->captureStart(); ?>
<div class="statsRow">
<div class="wrapper" >
<?php foreach($this->container as $page): ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php $this->placeholder('action-navigation')->captureEnd(); ?>
My directory structure is as follows
/application
/layouts
admin.phtml
default.phtml
/modules
/admin
/controllers
/helpers
/Navigation.php
IndexController.php
/views
/helpers
/scripts
/partials
_action-navigation.pthml
sidebar.phtml
/index
/item
the weird behavior i am experiencing is. in my Bootstrap.php file there is an empty _initView() method. my application works properly if this method exist. note that this method is empty. but when i remove it it gives me following error.
Application error
Exception information:
Message: script 'partials/_action-navigation.phtml' not found in path (./views/scripts/)
i am not able to understand this behavior by Zend Framework. how is action-navigation code related to _initView method in Bootstrap? what is happening and any fix for this or any suggestion for improvement of my code?
Update:
The problem lies with this line of code
$this->_view->partial('partials/_action-navigation.phtml', array('container' => $container));

Answer 1

You forgot to add the name of the admin module as second argument:
$this->_view->partial('partials/_action-navigation.phtml', 'admin', array('container' => $container));

Answer 2

I Suggest you use this clean and lightweight way, removing your dependence to inform actual module and mantaining your view script clean without captureStart and End (it's used ob_start... when u do captureStart-end)
$navigation = $this->view->navigation()->menu()->renderPartial($container, 'partials/_action-navigation.phtml');
// U can use placeholders `append` and `prepend` methods too, if u need more control in your placeholder content
$this->view->placeholder('action-navigation')->set($navigation);