Zend Framework: How to specify which view script a controller should render

04 October 2012

Need to render a different view script than the default? There are actually a few different ways to do it, depending on the situation. Given the following controller:

<?php

class MyController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function existingAction()
    {
        $this->view->foo = 'original';
    }

    public function reuseExistingViewAction()
    {
        $this->view->foo = 'bar';
    }
}

The options we have available are:

$this->render('existing')
$this->renderScript('my-controller/existing.phtml')
$this->_helper->viewRenderer->setRender('existing');
$this->_helper->viewRenderer('existing'); (calls the setRender method internally)

However, each method acts differently. Let’s see how they differ.

Using the controller’s `render()` method:

public function reuseExistingViewAction()
{
    $this->render('existing'); // renders immediately, so only useful if it's at the end of the function
    $this->view->foo = 'bar'; // this code is never added to the view ...
}

Using the `ViewRenderer` helper:

public function reuseExistingViewAction()
{
    $this->_helper->viewRenderer('existing'); // allows us to set early
    $this->view->foo = 'bar'; // works as expected
}

Zend Framework: How to specify which view script a controller should render

Using the controller’s render() method:

Using the ViewRenderer helper:

Using the controller’s `render()` method:

Using the `ViewRenderer` helper: