Zend Framework Generate HTML in Loop

Question

I am new to Zend Framework and would like advice on how best to loop through database data to generate a list of links. My understanding is that the Model should contain most of the application logic with the controllers and views being as light as possible.

I am querying the db to get a set of records and I want to loop through them and generate HTML links. Psuedocode below.

CONTROLLER:

$this->view->myList = MODEL->generateHtml();

MODEL:

function generateHtml() {
    query db

    loop through record set

    build a string of html within loop including links

    return string to controller

}

VIEW:

echo $this->myList;

This seems to put the logic in the model and leave the controller light and the view only for rendering.

One problem I have is that I want to use $this->view->url to generate routing links in the html I output but cannot do that in the model. The reading I have done online suggests that you should not be building html in the model. I can generate an array of the required data in the model and return that and then loop through that in either the controller or the view to generate the html but am unsure as to what is the correct approach and would appreciate some advice.

Thanks for any help given.

---

NEW PROBLEM - UPDATED CODE:

Hi again....have tired suggestion below but have a different issue now.

My code is now:

MODEL:

not used for this test. will return array similar to array created in controller.

CONTROLLER:

    $aStoryList = array( 
        array(
           'headline' => 'Headline 1', 
           'story' => 'Story 1' 
        ), 
        array(
           'headline' => 'Headline 2',
           'story' => 'Story 2'
        )
    );
    $this->view->aStoryList = $aStoryList;

VIEW:

echo $this->partialLoop('partials/storyList.phtml', $this->aStoryList);

storyList.phtml:

echo "<br />" . $this->headline . $this->story;

I have placed the partial thus....

views/partials/storyList.phtml

This placement and the path used in the view are derived from the answer to this stackoverflow question - Where do I save partial (views) in Zend Framework, to be accessible for all Views in my App?

When I run this I get the following error

Message: script 'partials/storyList.phtml' not found in path (/home/sites/xxxxx.com/public_html/xxxxxxx/application/views/scripts/)

Pulling my hair out now!

Answer 1

The model should be used to pull data from your data source, but should not be generating any HTML markup. Save the HTML generation for the view. The controller will be the glue between the model and view; that is the controller will do the work to fetch the data and hand it off to the view where the output is generated.

In your particular case, the PartialLoop View Helper should be useful for creating markup in a loop.

I'd propose the following Pseudocode instead of what you had posted above:

CONTROLLER:

$this->view->myList = MODEL->getListOfItems();  // return an array of data

MODEL:

function getListOfItems() {
    $results = array(); // array of data to return

    // query db

    // loop over result set
    foreach($result as $row) {
        $results[] = $row;
    }

    return $results;
}

VIEW:

<?php echo $this->partialLoop('myList.phtml', $this->myList);

myList.phtml View Partial:

<tr>
    <td><a href="<?php echo $this->url(array('id' => $this->id))"><?php echo $this->username ?></a></td>
    <td><?php echo $this->firstName ?> <?php echo $this->lastName ?></td>
    <td><?php echo $this->email ?></td>
</tr>

To summarize:

• Controller queries model for data
• Model returns an array of results
• Controller passes array directly to view
• View calls partialLoop helper and passes the array from the model
• partialLoop helper iterates over all of the results, passing them one at a time to myList.phtml (note how the variable scope becomes local to the view partial).

My example assumes the array returned by the model contains the keys id, username, firstName, lastName.

Hope that helps, feel free to comment if you have any questions.