php model-view-controller zend-framework zend-navigation

Zend_Navigation for displaying different menus in Layout

trying to print out about 3 menus on ZF. Currently I can't even get one out. Not quite sure what's going on and why theres no mention of how to get it working on the manual.

So this is my layout.phtml:

<body>
    <?php echo $this->layout()->nav; ?>
    <?php echo $this->layout()->content; ?>
</body>

Not entirely sure if this is how I'm meant to create the navigation but I plan on changing the routes eventually for localization:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
    <nav>
        <register>
            <label>Register</label>
            <controller>register</controller>
            <action>index</action>
        </register>
</nav>
</config>

I've got this in my bootstrap:

    protected function _initNavigation() 
{

    // Navigation
    $config = new Zend_Config_Xml(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/navigation.xml', 'nav');
    $container = new Zend_Navigation($config);

}

Only the content displays... Wanted to be able to have different menu types like... show(topMenu), show(loggedinSideMenu) sort of thing

Any idea? Thanks

Solution

Couple of things here...

First, to display navigation, use the appropriate helper. In your layout file...

<?php echo $this->navigation()->menu()
    ->renderMenu($zendNavigationContainer) ?>

See http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.navigation.introduction.html and http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.view.helpers.html#zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation

Secondly, Zend_Application has a resource plugin for navigation however it's only able to handle one container which doesn't really help you. I'd recommend something like this in your Bootstrap method...

protected function _initNavigation()
{
    // get config and create containers as before

    // bootstrap layout resource and retrieve it
    $this->bootstrap('layout');
    $layout = $this->getResource('layout');

    // add containers as layout properties
    $layout->topMenu = $topMenuContainer;
    $layout->loggedInSideMenu = $sideMenuContainer;
}

Then, in your layout

<!-- top menu -->
<?php echo $this->navigation()->menu()
    ->renderMenu($this->layout()->topMenu) ?>

<!-- side menu -->
<?php echo $this->navigation()->menu()
    ->renderMenu($this->layout()->loggedInSideMenu) ?>