How to turn a zend helper to a singleton?

Question

I need to use a view helper to make counts in a bunch of different partials. In the partials I can't access view variables, but I can access helpers, so I created this simple class.

class Zend_View_Helper_Counter extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract{
    protected $count = 0;
    public function counter(){
        return $this;
    }
    public function add($i = 1){
        $this->count = $this->count + (int) $i;
        return $this;   
    }
    public function get(){
        return $this->count;    
    }
    public function set($count){
        $this->count  = (int) $count;
        return $this;   
    }
}

However this <?php echo $this->counter()->add()->get()?> Always returns 1. I guess this is because it's always a different instance of the class. How would I need to change the counter() function so that it can count through all the views and partials?

Answer 1

1. Use statics:

   static protected $count = 0;
   public function add($i = 1){
     self::$count = self::$count + (int) $i;
     return $this;   
   }
   

2. Write a separate counter singleton and then do:

    public function get(){
      return Counter::getInstance();
    }
    public function add($i = 1){
       Counter::getInstance()->add($i);
       return $this;
    }
   

If you want, you may also extend it by using named counters and then $count would be an array.