How to add custom view helpers to Zend Framework 2 (beta 4)

Question

NOTE: This is an old question and the answers here no longer works (since beta5). See this question on how to do it with ZF2 stable version.

I have looked at this example from the manual. Note that this is version 2 of the Zend Framework.

I create this helper:

<?php
namespace Mats\Helper;    
use Zend\View\Helper\AbstractHelper;    
class SpecialPurpose extends AbstractHelper
{
    protected $count = 0;    
    public function __invoke()
    {
        $this->count++;
        $output = sprintf("I have seen 'The Jerk' %d time(s).", $this->count);
        return htmlspecialchars($output, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
    }
}
?>

and then try to register it like this:

return array(
    'di' => array('instance' => array(
        'Zend\View\HelperLoader' => array('parameters' => array(
            'map' => array(
                'specialpurpose' => 'Mats\Helper\SpecialPurpose',
            ),
        )),
    )),
);

but when doing this in a view, for instance add.phtml

<?php echo $this->specialPurpose(); ?>

It will crash, saying it cannot find the helper.

However, in the same add.phtml file I can do

<?php $helper = new Mats\Helper\SpecialPurpose(); ?>

and have access to it, so I guess the namespace should be right?

Currently I register it in Module.php, but I have also tried elsewhere.

My goal is to have access to the view helper in all views in my module, without having to create an instance of it in each phtml file, and not having to add it every time in the controller.

How can this be achieved? Thanks.

Crustal

Answer 1

ZF2 moved to service managers with programmatic factories, while di used as fallback factory.

For view there is view manager now and as service resolution stops as soon as it found factory, helpers configured via di no longer work.

Example how you should register helpers now you can find in ZfcUser module config

Macnair

Yeah, it felt a bit different from how I set up rest of the stuff. Will try this way when I get back to work, thanks. – Crustal

iirc there were plan to do pretty much as it is now, but with compiler feature to compile di definitions into factories. But i don't think we will have that compiler, not until after RC at best. So you should create factories yourself and this is recommended approach for now (as in performance vs RAD) – Macnair

yes, it works! Thanks! Too bad the ZF2 manual contains errors, cost me several hours. – Crustal

documentation you can see online is from ZF 2.0.0b4 i think. read docs source in master – Macnair

I'm using ZF 2.0.0b4, but still the manual in my question differs on a lot of points. So thanks for the tip, building the latest documentation now. – Crustal

Answer 2

Add custom helper is very simple, just add one line to your module config file like this:

return array(
    'view_manager' => array(
        'helper_map' => array(
            'specialPurpose' => 'Mats\Helper\SpecialPurpose',
        ),
    ),
);

Bonaventura