Zend Framework Layout

Question

I\'m beginning with Zend Framework and I would like to understand Bootstrap file. I\'ve learned all _init methods are executed by default but it seems confusing to

Answer 1

The line from application.ini

resources.layout[] = 

is equivalent to:

_initLayout() {}

in Bootstrap.php

Both of them are initializing new object, and this object is set as a bootstrap param, which is a container for some application resources (values returned by _init methods).

There are executed one by one, so to ensure one resource is initialized before the the current one, you force the order, using:

_initSomeResource() {
    $this->bootstrap('otherResource');
    // ..
    return $someValue; 
}

_initOtherResource() {
    // .. 
}

So the order of instantiating of the resources is:

1. otherResource
2. someResource

Now, you may also use:

$bootstrap->getParam('someResource'); // returns $someValue

Note, that you may encounter Circular Dependency error, when you try to execute each other before each one.

You may use as many _init methods you need, but to make them reusable, you may separate them to their own class, implementing Zend_Application_Resource_Abstract class.

There are some out of the box application resources, which you may find in Zend/Application/Resource directory. These are the resources, you are refering from application.ini, i.e.:

resources.view.encoding = "utf-8" ; in application.ini
Zend/Application/Resource/View.php (path to the resource class)
Zend_Application_Resource_View::setEncoding('UTF-8'); // equivalent pseudocode

Hope it's more clear now.