The Placeholder
view helper is used to persist content between view scripts
and view instances. It also offers some useful features such as aggregating
content, capturing view script content for later use, and adding pre- and
post-text to content (and custom separators for aggregated content).
Basic usage of placeholders is to persist view data. Each invocation of the
Placeholder
helper expects a placeholder name; the helper then returns a
placeholder container object that you can either manipulate or echo.
<?php $this->placeholder('foo')->set("Some text for later") ?>
<?= $this->placeholder('foo'); ?>
Results in:
Some text for later
Aggregating content via placeholders can be useful at times as well. For instance, your view script may have a variable array from which you wish to retrieve messages to display later; a later view script can then determine how those will be rendered.
The Placeholder
view helper uses containers that extend ArrayObject
,
providing a rich feature set for manipulating arrays. In addition, it offers a
variety of methods for formatting the content stored in the container:
setPrefix($prefix)
sets text with which to prefix the content. Use
getPrefix()
at any time to determine what the current setting is.setPostfix($prefix)
sets text with which to append the content. Use
getPostfix()
at any time to determine what the current setting is.setSeparator($prefix)
sets text with which to separate aggregated content.
Use getSeparator()
at any time to determine what the current setting is.setIndent($prefix)
can be used to set an indentation value for content. If
an integer is passed, that number of spaces will be used; if a string is
passed, the string will be used. Use getIndent()
at any time to determine
what the current setting is.<!-- first view script -->
<?php $this->placeholder('foo')->exchangeArray($this->data) ?>
<!-- later view script -->
<?php
$this->placeholder('foo')
->setPrefix("<ul>\n <li>")
->setSeparator("</li><li>\n")
->setIndent(4)
->setPostfix("</li></ul>\n");
?>
<?= $this->placeholder('foo') ?>
The above results in an unodered list with pretty indentation.
Because the Placeholder
container objects extend ArrayObject
, you can also
assign content to a specific key in the container easily, instead of simply
pushing it into the container. Keys may be accessed either as object properties
or as array keys.
<?php $this->placeholder('foo')->bar = $this->data ?>
<?= $this->placeholder('foo')->bar ?>
<?php
$foo = $this->placeholder('foo');
echo $foo['bar'];
Occasionally you may have content for a placeholder in a view script that is
easiest to template; the Placeholder
view helper allows you to capture
arbitrary content for later rendering using the following API.
captureStart($type, $key)
begins capturing content.
$type
should be one of the Placeholder
constants APPEND
or SET
. If
APPEND
, captured content is appended to the list of current content in the
placeholder; if SET
, captured content is used as the sole value of the
placeholder (potentially replacing any previous content). By default,
$type
is APPEND
.$key
can be used to specify a specific key in the placeholder container to
which you want content captured.captureStart()
locks capturing until captureEnd()
is called; you cannot
nest capturing with the same placeholder container. Doing so will raise an
exception.captureEnd()
stops capturing content, and places it in the container object
according to how captureStart()
was called.As an example:
<!-- Default capture: append -->
<?php $this->placeholder('foo')->captureStart();
foreach ($this->data as $datum): ?>
<div class="foo">
<h2><?= $datum->title ?></h2>
<p><?= $datum->content ?></p>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>
<?php $this->placeholder('foo')->captureEnd() ?>
<?= $this->placeholder('foo') ?>
Alternately, capture to a key:
<!-- Capture to key -->
<?php $this->placeholder('foo')->captureStart('SET', 'data');
foreach ($this->data as $datum): ?>
<div class="foo">
<h2><?= $datum->title ?></h2>
<p><?= $datum->content ?></p>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>
<?php $this->placeholder('foo')->captureEnd() ?>
<?= $this->placeholder('foo')->data ?>
zend-view ships with a number of "concrete" placeholder implementations. These
are for commonly used placeholders: doctype, page title, and various <head>
elements. In all cases, calling the placeholder with no arguments returns the
element itself.
Documentation for each element is covered separately, as linked below: