template – How to Provide Properties to Views in Magento

layoutprogrammingtemplatezend-framework

In Zend Framework we provide properties to layouts which are then consumed in the view. An example of this would be:

$this->layout = new Zend_Layout();
$this->layout->username = 'John';
$this->layout->email = 'john@foofoobunnies.edu';

Which I would later echo in my view.phtml:

<?= $this->username; ?>
<?= $this->email; ?>

However I find myself in Magento writing block methods that return entire objects to be consumed by the view – for instance:

Block/User.php

public function getUser(){
    return Mage::getModel('mymodule/user')->load($this->getUserId());
}

And in my user.phtml:

$user = $this->getUser();
echo $user->getUsername();
echo $this->getEmail();

Is there any way to cut out this step of having to write block methods to return relevant data? I've been using this method for 2-3 years so I'm no stranger to it, but it just seems like the Zend Two-Step/Composite view layout paradigm is much faster to hack on.

Edit

It just occurred to me that it may be possible to utilize block properties in the same manner that I utilize the block methods, e.g. $this->username where $this may be an object of type Mymodule_User_Block_User; though I don't know if this is an understood or accepted practice in Magento, as I haven't seen this too often.

Best Answer

There's always assign() and the aforementioned getters and setters via Varien_Object::_call()

Related Solutions

Magento – ‘Gang of Four’ Design Patterns in Magento Core

There is a list of design patterns which are used in Magento on Stack Overflow

From the article:

The obvious ones are:

Factory:

$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product');

Singleton:

$category = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/session');

Registry:

$currentCategory = Mage::registry('current_category');

View Helper:

Mage::helper('core');

Prototype:

Mage:getModel('catalog/product')->getTypeInstance();

Object Pool:

$id = Mage::objects()->save($object);
$object = Mage::objects($id);

Iterator:

Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection();

Event/Listeners:

Mage::dispatchEvent('model_load_before', $params);

EDIT

Active record
$product->save()
$product->getName()
Null object
$collection->getFirstItem()
Lazy loading - collections are loaded when iterated

There are also 5 articles on Ryan Street blog about MVC, Front Controller, Factory, Singleton and Registry in Magento

Edit
I might add that the Magento 'singleton' is more a pseudo-singleton. It's a combination of 'Factory' because Mage::getSingleton() is a factory and 'Registry' because inside the getSingleton() method this is called

self::register($registryKey, self::getModel($modelClass, $arguments))

Provide Frontend Layout Handle to Adminhtml to Render Frontend Page/Blocks

In general, the cheapest way to achieve this is via environment app emulation, which it seems you're already doing. I would go ahead and pursue this route and look elsewhere in your layout definitions and local.xml for remove and unset definitions.

Something the below should coax the admin into loading the frontend root block for your design, but you should expect to have to refactor your domain logic out of controllers because it seems like your layout depends on the controller route. This can easily be handled by rather depending on assign:

public function indexAction()
{
    $product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load(24); //obviously this is being loaded in some other way

    $appEmulation = Mage::getSingleton('core/app_emulation');

    $initialEnvironmentInfo = $appEmulation->startEnvironmentEmulation('default','frontend');

    $this->loadLayout();
    $this->getLayout()->getBlock('root')->assign(array('current_product',$product));
    $this->renderLayout();

    $appEmulation->stopEnvironmentEmulation($initialEnvironmentInfo);

}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Magento – ‘Gang of Four’ Design Patterns in Magento Core

Provide Frontend Layout Handle to Adminhtml to Render Frontend Page/Blocks

Related Topic