There are three basic ways that you can achieve that. First of all what’s the task? You’ve an array, either from a database result or whatever, and you encode it JSON with Zend_Json::encode($array)
// IndexController.php class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action { public function indexAction() { $data = array(...); $this->view->data = Zend_Json::encode($data); } }
The result in general is a specially formatted string. So you can simply set it up to a view member variable and pass it to the view.
// index/index.phtml echo $this->data
In that case you’ve a .phtml file to maintain, so lets just return the string and “setNoRender” the view in our second try.
// IndexController.php class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action { public function indexAction() { $data = array(...); echo Zend_Json::encode($data); $this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender(true); } }
Actually this is pretty much the most clear solution, but actually you can output the JSON string and simply exit() as it’s shown in our third example.
// IndexController.php class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action { public function indexAction() { $data = array(...); echo Zend_Json::encode($data); exit(); } }
Which one is to be used is up to the developer’s choice, mine is the third one as it’s the minimal one.
Related posts:
- Returning JSON in a Zend Controller’s Action – Part 2
- JSON and Zend Framework? – Zend_Json
- Bind Zend Action with Non-Default View
Please, consider the most elegant one (better than these ones): ContextSwitch or AjaxContext
The ContextSwitch action helper is intended for facilitating returning different response formats on request. The AjaxContext helper is a specialized version of ContextSwitch that facilitates returning responses to XmlHttpRequests.
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.controller.actionhelpers.html
I prefer the json action helper:
$this->_helper->json($data);
…and you’re done.
Just use $this->getHelper(‘json’)->senJson($data) and all the headers will be correct – I dislike the ‘direct’ calls in those action helpers.
Please don’t use the third method (exit), because then existing postDispatch methods or -plugins are not executed!
The second solution or ContextSwitch/AjaxSwitch is the best choice.
Its not always what or how we prefer doing things, most of the time one should stick to the official methods/ways of doing stuff.
I think this is the significant different between Zend Framework and other frameworks, ZF enforces good coding practices.
If you want to “roll your own” in a variety of ways then rather use other frameworks like Codeigniter, Yii etc.
Although ZF can be extended to suit your needs 100%, a solid convention for doing this also exist – with ZF is hardly ever a case of “where the hell do I find this method” or “Why are these classes but these ones are global functions”…like in Codeigniter etc.