Navigation Helpers

The navigation helpers are used for rendering navigational elements from Zend\Navigation\Container <zend.navigation.containers> instances.

There are 5 built-in helpers:

Breadcrumbs <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.breadcrumbs>, used for rendering the path to the currently active page.
Links <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.links>, used for rendering navigational head links (e.g. <link rel="next" href="..." />)
Menu <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.menu>, used for rendering menus.
Sitemap <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.sitemap>, used for rendering sitemaps conforming to the Sitemaps XML format.
Navigation <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.navigation>, used for proxying calls to other navigational helpers.

All built-in helpers extend Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\HelperAbstract, which adds integration with ACL <zend.permissions.acl> and translation <zend.i18n.translating>. The abstract class implements the interface Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Helper, which defines the following methods:

getContainer() and setContainer() gets and sets the navigation container the helper should operate on by default, and hasContainer() checks if the helper has container registered.
getTranslator() and setTranslator() gets and sets the translator used for translating labels and titles. getUseTranslator() and setUseTranslator() controls whether the translator should be enabled. The method hasTranslator() checks if the helper has a translator registered.
getAcl(), setAcl(), getRole() and setRole(), gets and sets ACL (Zend\Permissions\Acl) instance and role (String or Zend\Permissions\Acl\Role\RoleInterface) used for filtering out pages when rendering. getUseAcl() and setUseAcl() controls whether ACL should be enabled. The methods hasAcl() and hasRole() checks if the helper has an ACL instance or a role registered.
__toString(), magic method to ensure that helpers can be rendered by echoing the helper instance directly.
render(), must be implemented by concrete helpers to do the actual rendering.

In addition to the method stubs from the interface, the abstract class also implements the following methods:

getIndent() and setIndent() gets and sets indentation. The setter accepts a String or an Integer. In the case of an Integer, the helper will use the given number of spaces for indentation. I.e., setIndent(4) means 4 initial spaces of indentation. Indentation can be specified for all helpers except the Sitemap helper.
getMinDepth() and setMinDepth() gets and sets the minimum depth a page must have to be included by the helper. Setting NULL means no minimum depth.
getMaxDepth() and setMaxDepth() gets and sets the maximum depth a page can have to be included by the helper. Setting NULL means no maximum depth.
getRenderInvisible() and setRenderInvisible() gets and sets whether to render items that have been marked as invisible or not.
__call() is used for proxying calls to the container registered in the helper, which means you can call methods on a helper as if it was a container. See example <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.proxy.example> below.
findActive($container, $minDepth, $maxDepth) is used for finding the deepest active page in the given container. If depths are not given, the method will use the values retrieved from getMinDepth() and getMaxDepth(). The deepest active page must be between $minDepth and $maxDepth inclusively. Returns an array containing a reference to the found page instance and the depth at which the page was found.
htmlify() renders an 'a' HTML element from a Zend\Navigation\Page\AbstractPage instance.
accept() is used for determining if a page should be accepted when iterating containers. This method checks for page visibility and verifies that the helper's role is allowed access to the page's resource and privilege.
The static method setDefaultAcl() is used for setting a default ACL object that will be used by helpers.
The static method setDefaultRole() is used for setting a default ACL that will be used by helpers

If a container is not explicitly set, the helper will create an empty Zend\Navigation container when calling $helper->getContainer().

Proxying calls to the navigation container

Navigation view helpers use the magic method __call() to proxy method calls to the navigation container that is registered in the view helper.

$this->navigation()->addPage(array(
    'type' => 'uri',
    'label' => 'New page'));

The call above will add a page to the container in the Navigation helper.

Translation of labels and titles

The navigation helpers support translation of page labels and titles. You can set a translator of type Zend\I18n\Translator in the helper using $helper->setTranslator($translator).

If you want to disable translation, use $helper->setUseTranslator(false).

The proxy helper <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.navigation> will inject its own translator to the helper it proxies to if the proxied helper doesn't already have a translator.

Note

There is no translation in the sitemap helper, since there are no page labels or titles involved in an XML sitemap.

Integration with ACL

All navigational view helpers support ACL inherently from the class Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\HelperAbstract. A Zend\Permissions\Acl object can be assigned to a helper instance with $helper->setAcl($acl), and role with $helper->setRole('member') or $helper->setRole(new ZendPermissionsAclRoleGenericRole('member')). If ACL is used in the helper, the role in the helper must be allowed by the ACL to access a page's resource and/or have the page's privilege for the page to be included when rendering.

If a page is not accepted by ACL, any descendant page will also be excluded from rendering.

The proxy helper <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.navigation> will inject its own ACL and role to the helper it proxies to if the proxied helper doesn't already have any.

The examples below all show how ACL affects rendering.

Navigation setup used in examples

This example shows the setup of a navigation container for a fictional software company.

Notes on the setup:

The domain for the site is www.example.com.
Interesting page properties are marked with a comment.
Unless otherwise is stated in other examples, the user is requesting the URL http://www.example.com/products/server/faq/, which translates to the page labeled FAQ under Foo Server.
The assumed ACL and router setup is shown below the container setup.

/*
 * Navigation container (config/array)

 * Each element in the array will be passed to
 * Zend\Navigation\Page\AbstractPage::factory() when constructing
 * the navigation container below.
 */
$pages = array(
    array(
        'label'      => 'Home',
        'title'      => 'Go Home',
        'module'     => 'default',
        'controller' => 'index',
        'action'     => 'index',
        'order'      => -100 // make sure home is the first page
    ),
    array(
        'label'      => 'Special offer this week only!',
        'module'     => 'store',
        'controller' => 'offer',
        'action'     => 'amazing',
        'visible'    => false // not visible
    ),
    array(
        'label'      => 'Products',
        'module'     => 'products',
        'controller' => 'index',
        'action'     => 'index',
        'pages'      => array(
            array(
                'label'      => 'Foo Server',
                'module'     => 'products',
                'controller' => 'server',
                'action'     => 'index',
                'pages'      => array(
                    array(
                        'label'      => 'FAQ',
                        'module'     => 'products',
                        'controller' => 'server',
                        'action'     => 'faq',
                        'rel'        => array(
                            'canonical' => 'http://www.example.com/?page=faq',
                            'alternate' => array(
                                'module'     => 'products',
                                'controller' => 'server',
                                'action'     => 'faq',
                                'params'     => array('format' => 'xml')
                            )
                        )
                    ),
                    array(
                        'label'      => 'Editions',
                        'module'     => 'products',
                        'controller' => 'server',
                        'action'     => 'editions'
                    ),
                    array(
                        'label'      => 'System Requirements',
                        'module'     => 'products',
                        'controller' => 'server',
                        'action'     => 'requirements'
                    )
                )
            ),
            array(
                'label'      => 'Foo Studio',
                'module'     => 'products',
                'controller' => 'studio',
                'action'     => 'index',
                'pages'      => array(
                    array(
                        'label'      => 'Customer Stories',
                        'module'     => 'products',
                        'controller' => 'studio',
                        'action'     => 'customers'
                    ),
                    array(
                        'label'      => 'Support',
                        'module'     => 'products',
                        'controller' => 'studio',
                        'action'     => 'support'
                    )
                )
            )
        )
    ),
    array(
        'label'      => 'Company',
        'title'      => 'About us',
        'module'     => 'company',
        'controller' => 'about',
        'action'     => 'index',
        'pages'      => array(
            array(
                'label'      => 'Investor Relations',
                'module'     => 'company',
                'controller' => 'about',
                'action'     => 'investors'
            ),
            array(
                'label'      => 'News',
                'class'      => 'rss', // class
                'module'     => 'company',
                'controller' => 'news',
                'action'     => 'index',
                'pages'      => array(
                    array(
                        'label'      => 'Press Releases',
                        'module'     => 'company',
                        'controller' => 'news',
                        'action'     => 'press'
                    ),
                    array(
                        'label'      => 'Archive',
                        'route'      => 'archive', // route
                        'module'     => 'company',
                        'controller' => 'news',
                        'action'     => 'archive'
                    )
                )
            )
        )
    ),
    array(
        'label'      => 'Community',
        'module'     => 'community',
        'controller' => 'index',
        'action'     => 'index',
        'pages'      => array(
            array(
                'label'      => 'My Account',
                'module'     => 'community',
                'controller' => 'account',
                'action'     => 'index',
                'resource'   => 'mvc:community.account' // resource
            ),
            array(
                'label' => 'Forums',
                'uri'   => 'http://forums.example.com/',
                'class' => 'external' // class
            )
        )
    ),
    array(
        'label'      => 'Administration',
        'module'     => 'admin',
        'controller' => 'index',
        'action'     => 'index',
        'resource'   => 'mvc:admin', // resource
        'pages'      => array(
            array(
                'label'      => 'Write new article',
                'module'     => 'admin',
                'controller' => 'post',
                'aciton'     => 'write'
            )
        )
    )
);

// Create container from array
$container = new Zend\Navigation\Navigation($pages);

// Store the container in the proxy helper:
$view->getHelper('navigation')->setContainer($container);

// ...or simply:
$view->navigation($container);

In addition to the container above, the following setup is assumed:

// Setup router (default routes and 'archive' route):
$front = Zend\Controller\Front::getInstance();
$router = $front->getRouter();
$router->addDefaultRoutes();
$router->addRoute(
    'archive',
    new Zend\Controller\Router\Route(
        '/archive/:year',
        array(
            'module'     => 'company',
            'controller' => 'news',
            'action'     => 'archive',
            'year'       => (int) date('Y') - 1
        ),
        array('year' => '\d+')
    )
);

// Setup ACL:
$acl = new Zend\Permissions\Acl\Acl();
$acl->addRole(new Zend\Permissions\Acl\Role\GenericRole('member'));
$acl->addRole(new Zend\Permissions\Acl\Role\GenericRole('admin'));
$acl->add(new Zend\Permissions\Acl\Resource\GenericResource('mvc:admin'));
$acl->add(new Zend\Permissions\Acl\Resource\GenericResource('mvc:community.account'));
$acl->allow('member', 'mvc:community.account');
$acl->allow('admin', null);

// Store ACL and role in the proxy helper:
$view->navigation()->setAcl($acl)->setRole('member');

// ...or set default ACL and role statically:
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\HelperAbstract::setDefaultAcl($acl);
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\HelperAbstract::setDefaultRole('member');

Breadcrumbs Helper

Breadcrumbs are used for indicating where in a sitemap a user is currently browsing, and are typically rendered like this: "You are here: Home > Products > FantasticProduct 1.0". The breadcrumbs helper follows the guidelines from Breadcrumbs Pattern - Yahoo! Design Pattern Library, and allows simple customization (minimum/maximum depth, indentation, separator, and whether the last element should be linked), or rendering using a partial view script.

The Breadcrumbs helper works like this; it finds the deepest active page in a navigation container, and renders an upwards path to the root. For MVC pages, the "activeness" of a page is determined by inspecting the request object, as stated in the section on Zend\Navigation\Page\Mvc <zend.navigation.pages.mvc>.

The helper sets the minDepth property to 1 by default, meaning breadcrumbs will not be rendered if the deepest active page is a root page. If maxDepth is specified, the helper will stop rendering when at the specified depth (e.g. stop at level 2 even if the deepest active page is on level 3).

Methods in the breadcrumbs helper:

{get|set}Separator() gets/sets separator string that is used between breadcrumbs. Default is ' > '.
{get|set}LinkLast() gets/sets whether the last breadcrumb should be rendered as an anchor or not. Default is FALSE.
{get|set}Partial() gets/sets a partial view script that should be used for rendering breadcrumbs. If a partial view script is set, the helper's render() method will use the renderPartial() method. If no partial is set, the renderStraight() method is used. The helper expects the partial to be a String or an Array with two elements. If the partial is a String, it denotes the name of the partial script to use. If it is an Array, the first element will be used as the name of the partial view script, and the second element is the module where the script is found.
renderStraight() is the default render method.
renderPartial() is used for rendering using a partial view script.

Rendering breadcrumbs

This example shows how to render breadcrumbs with default settings.

In a view script or layout:
<?php echo $this->navigation()->breadcrumbs(); ?>

The two calls above take advantage of the magic __toString() method,
and are equivalent to:
<?php echo $this->navigation()->breadcrumbs()->render(); ?>

Output:
<a href="/products">Products</a> > <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a> > FAQ

Specifying indentation

This example shows how to render breadcrumbs with initial indentation.

Rendering with 8 spaces indentation:
<?php echo $this->navigation()->breadcrumbs()->setIndent(8);?>

Output:
        <a href="/products">Products</a> > <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a> > FAQ

Customize breadcrumbs output

This example shows how to customze breadcrumbs output by specifying various options.

In a view script or layout:

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->breadcrumbs()
          ->setLinkLast(true)                   // link last page
          ->setMaxDepth(1)                      // stop at level 1
          ->setSeparator(' ▶' . PHP_EOL); // cool separator with newline
?>

Output:
<a href="/products">Products</a> ▶
<a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Setting minimum depth required to render breadcrumbs:

<?php
$this->navigation()->breadcrumbs()->setMinDepth(10);
echo $this->navigation()->breadcrumbs();
?>

Output:
Nothing, because the deepest active page is not at level 10 or deeper.

Rendering breadcrumbs using a partial view script

This example shows how to render customized breadcrumbs using a partial vew script. By calling setPartial(), you can specify a partial view script that will be used when calling render(). When a partial is specified, the renderPartial() method will be called. This method will find the deepest active page and pass an array of pages that leads to the active page to the partial view script.

In a layout:

$partial = ;
echo $this->navigation()->breadcrumbs()
                        ->setPartial(array('breadcrumbs.phtml', 'default'));

Contents of application/modules/default/views/breadcrumbs.phtml:

echo implode(', ', array_map(
        create_function('$a', 'return $a->getLabel();'),
        $this->pages));

Output:

Products, Foo Server, FAQ

Links Helper

The links helper is used for rendering HTML LINK elements. Links are used for describing document relationships of the currently active page. Read more about links and link types at Document relationships: the LINK element (HTML4 W3C Rec.) and Link types (HTML4 W3C Rec.) in the HTML4 W3C Recommendation.

There are two types of relations; forward and reverse, indicated by the keyords 'rel' and 'rev'. Most methods in the helper will take a $rel param, which must be either 'rel' or 'rev'. Most methods also take a $type param, which is used for specifying the link type (e.g. alternate, start, next, prev, chapter, etc).

Relationships can be added to page objects manually, or found by traversing the container registered in the helper. The method findRelation($page, $rel, $type) will first try to find the given $rel of $type from the $page by calling $page->findRel($type) or $page->findRel($type). If the $page has a relation that can be converted to a page instance, that relation will be used. If the $page instance doesn't have the specified $type, the helper will look for a method in the helper named search$rel$type (e.g. searchRelNext() or searchRevAlternate()). If such a method exists, it will be used for determining the $page's relation by traversing the container.

Not all relations can be determined by traversing the container. These are the relations that will be found by searching:

searchRelStart(), forward 'start' relation: the first page in the container.
searchRelNext(), forward 'next' relation; finds the next page in the container, i.e. the page after the active page.
searchRelPrev(), forward 'prev' relation; finds the previous page, i.e. the page before the active page.
searchRelChapter(), forward 'chapter' relations; finds all pages on level 0 except the 'start' relation or the active page if it's on level 0.
searchRelSection(), forward 'section' relations; finds all child pages of the active page if the active page is on level 0 (a 'chapter').
searchRelSubsection(), forward 'subsection' relations; finds all child pages of the active page if the active pages is on level 1 (a 'section').
searchRevSection(), reverse 'section' relation; finds the parent of the active page if the active page is on level 1 (a 'section').
searchRevSubsection(), reverse 'subsection' relation; finds the parent of the active page if the active page is on level 2 (a 'subsection').

Note

When looking for relations in the page instance ($page->getRel($type) or $page->getRev($type)), the helper accepts the values of type String, Array, Zend\Config, or Zend\Navigation\Page\AbstractPage. If a string is found, it will be converted to a Zend\Navigation\Page\Uri. If an array or a config is found, it will be converted to one or several page instances. If the first key of the array/config is numeric, it will be considered to contain several pages, and each element will be passed to the page factory <zend.navigation.pages.factory>. If the first key is not numeric, the array/config will be passed to the page factory directly, and a single page will be returned.

The helper also supports magic methods for finding relations. E.g. to find forward alternate relations, call $helper->findRelAlternate($page), and to find reverse section relations, call $helper->findRevSection($page). Those calls correspond to $helper->findRelation($page, 'rel', 'alternate'); and $helper->findRelation($page, 'rev', 'section'); respectively.

To customize which relations should be rendered, the helper uses a render flag. The render flag is an integer value, and will be used in a bitwise and (&) operation against the helper's render constants to determine if the relation that belongs to the render constant should be rendered.

See the example below <zend.view.helpers.initial.navigation.links.example3> for more information.

Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_ALTERNATE
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_STYLESHEET
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_START
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_NEXT
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links:::RENDER_PREV
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_CONTENTS
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_INDEX
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_GLOSSARY
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links:::RENDER_COPYRIGHT
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_CHAPTER
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_SECTION
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_SUBSECTION
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_APPENDIX
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_HELP
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_BOOKMARK
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_CUSTOM
Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_ALL

The constants from RENDER_ALTERNATE to RENDER_BOOKMARK denote standard HTML link types. RENDER_CUSTOM denotes non-standard relations that specified in pages. RENDER_ALL denotes standard and non-standard relations.

Methods in the links helper:

{get|set}RenderFlag() gets/sets the render flag. Default is RENDER_ALL. See examples below on how to set the render flag.
findAllRelations() finds all relations of all types for a given page.
findRelation() finds all relations of a given type from a given page.
searchRel{Start|Next|Prev|Chapter|Section|Subsection}() traverses a container to find forward relations to the start page, the next page, the previous page, chapters, sections, and subsections.
searchRev{Section|Subsection}() traverses a container to find reverse relations to sections or subsections.
renderLink() renders a single link element.

Specify relations in pages

This example shows how to specify relations in pages.

$container = new Zend\Navigation\Navigation(array(
    array(
        'label' => 'Relations using strings',
        'rel'   => array(
            'alternate' => 'http://www.example.org/'
        ),
        'rev'   => array(
            'alternate' => 'http://www.example.net/'
        )
    ),
    array(
        'label' => 'Relations using arrays',
        'rel'   => array(
            'alternate' => array(
                'label' => 'Example.org',
                'uri'   => 'http://www.example.org/'
            )
        )
    ),
    array(
        'label' => 'Relations using configs',
        'rel'   => array(
            'alternate' => new Zend\Config(array(
                'label' => 'Example.org',
                'uri'   => 'http://www.example.org/'
            ))
        )
    ),
    array(
        'label' => 'Relations using pages instance',
        'rel'   => array(
            'alternate' => Zend\Navigation\Page\AbstractPage::factory(array(
                'label' => 'Example.org',
                'uri'   => 'http://www.example.org/'
            ))
        )
    )
));

Default rendering of links

This example shows how to render a menu from a container registered/found in the view helper.

In a view script or layout:
<?php echo $this->view->navigation()->links(); ?>

Output:
<link rel="alternate" href="/products/server/faq/format/xml">
<link rel="start" href="/" title="Home">
<link rel="next" href="/products/server/editions" title="Editions">
<link rel="prev" href="/products/server" title="Foo Server">
<link rel="chapter" href="/products" title="Products">
<link rel="chapter" href="/company/about" title="Company">
<link rel="chapter" href="/community" title="Community">
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/?page=server-faq">
<link rev="subsection" href="/products/server" title="Foo Server">

Specify which relations to render

This example shows how to specify which relations to find and render.

Render only start, next, and prev:
$helper->setRenderFlag(Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_START |
                       Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_NEXT |
                       Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_PREV);

Output:
<link rel="start" href="/" title="Home">
<link rel="next" href="/products/server/editions" title="Editions">
<link rel="prev" href="/products/server" title="Foo Server">

Render only native link types:
$helper->setRenderFlag(Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_ALL ^
                       Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_CUSTOM);

Output:
<link rel="alternate" href="/products/server/faq/format/xml">
<link rel="start" href="/" title="Home">
<link rel="next" href="/products/server/editions" title="Editions">
<link rel="prev" href="/products/server" title="Foo Server">
<link rel="chapter" href="/products" title="Products">
<link rel="chapter" href="/company/about" title="Company">
<link rel="chapter" href="/community" title="Community">
<link rev="subsection" href="/products/server" title="Foo Server">

Render all but chapter:
$helper->setRenderFlag(Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_ALL ^
                       Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Links::RENDER_CHAPTER);

Output:
<link rel="alternate" href="/products/server/faq/format/xml">
<link rel="start" href="/" title="Home">
<link rel="next" href="/products/server/editions" title="Editions">
<link rel="prev" href="/products/server" title="Foo Server">
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/?page=server-faq">
<link rev="subsection" href="/products/server" title="Foo Server">

Menu Helper

The Menu helper is used for rendering menus from navigation containers. By default, the menu will be rendered using HTML UL and LI tags, but the helper also allows using a partial view script.

Methods in the Menu helper:

{get|set}UlClass() gets/sets the CSS class used in renderMenu().
{get|set}OnlyActiveBranch() gets/sets a flag specifying whether only the active branch of a container should be rendered.
{get|set}RenderParents() gets/sets a flag specifying whether parents should be rendered when only rendering active branch of a container. If set to FALSE, only the deepest active menu will be rendered.
{get|set}Partial() gets/sets a partial view script that should be used for rendering menu. If a partial view script is set, the helper's render() method will use the renderPartial() method. If no partial is set, the renderMenu() method is used. The helper expects the partial to be a String or an Array with two elements. If the partial is a String, it denotes the name of the partial script to use. If it is an Array, the first element will be used as the name of the partial view script, and the second element is the module where the script is found.
htmlify() overrides the method from the abstract class to return span elements if the page has no href.
renderMenu($container = null, $options = array()) is the default render method, and will render a container as a HTML UL list.

If $container is not given, the container registered in the helper will be rendered.

$options is used for overriding options specified temporarily without rsetting the values in the helper instance. It is an associative array where each key corresponds to an option in the helper.

Recognized options:
- indent; indentation. Expects a String or an int value.
- minDepth; minimum depth. Expcects an int or NULL (no minimum depth).
- maxDepth; maximum depth. Expcects an int or NULL (no maximum depth).
- ulClass; CSS class for ul element. Expects a String.
- onlyActiveBranch; whether only active branch should be rendered. Expects a Boolean value.
- renderParents; whether parents should be rendered if only rendering active branch. Expects a Boolean value.
If an option is not given, the value set in the helper will be used.
renderPartial() is used for rendering the menu using a partial view script.
renderSubMenu() renders the deepest menu level of a container's active branch.

Rendering a menu

This example shows how to render a menu from a container registered/found in the view helper. Notice how pages are filtered out based on visibility and ACL.

In a view script or layout:
<?php echo $this->navigation()->menu()->render() ?>

Or simply:
<?php echo $this->navigation()->menu() ?>

Output:
<ul class="navigation">
    <li>
        <a title="Go Home" href="/">Home</a>
    </li>
    <li class="active">
        <a href="/products">Products</a>
        <ul>
            <li class="active">
                <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>
                <ul>
                    <li class="active">
                        <a href="/products/server/faq">FAQ</a>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/products/server/editions">Editions</a>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/products/server/requirements">System Requirements</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/studio">Foo Studio</a>
                <ul>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/products/studio/customers">Customer Stories</a>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/products/studio/support">Support</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a title="About us" href="/company/about">Company</a>
        <ul>
            <li>
                <a href="/company/about/investors">Investor Relations</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a class="rss" href="/company/news">News</a>
                <ul>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/company/news/press">Press Releases</a>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/archive">Archive</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="/community">Community</a>
        <ul>
            <li>
                <a href="/community/account">My Account</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a class="external" href="http://forums.example.com/">Forums</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
</ul>

Calling renderMenu() directly

This example shows how to render a menu that is not registered in the view helper by calling the renderMenu() directly and specifying a few options.

<?php
// render only the 'Community' menu
$community = $this->navigation()->findOneByLabel('Community');
$options = array(
    'indent'  => 16,
    'ulClass' => 'community'
);
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->renderMenu($community, $options);
?>
Output:
                <ul class="community">
                    <li>
                        <a href="/community/account">My Account</a>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <a class="external" href="http://forums.example.com/">Forums</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>

Rendering the deepest active menu

This example shows how the renderSubMenu() will render the deepest sub menu of the active branch.

Calling renderSubMenu($container, $ulClass, $indent) is equivalent to calling renderMenu($container, $options) with the following options:

array(
    'ulClass'          => $ulClass,
    'indent'           => $indent,
    'minDepth'         => null,
    'maxDepth'         => null,
    'onlyActiveBranch' => true,
    'renderParents'    => false
);

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->renderSubMenu(null, 'sidebar', 4);
?>

The output will be the same if 'FAQ' or 'Foo Server' is active:
    <ul class="sidebar">
        <li class="active">
            <a href="/products/server/faq">FAQ</a>
        </li>
        <li>
            <a href="/products/server/editions">Editions</a>
        </li>
        <li>
            <a href="/products/server/requirements">System Requirements</a>
        </li>
    </ul>

Rendering a menu with maximum depth

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->setMaxDepth(1);
?>

Output:
<ul class="navigation">
    <li>
        <a title="Go Home" href="/">Home</a>
    </li>
    <li class="active">
        <a href="/products">Products</a>
        <ul>
            <li class="active">
                <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/studio">Foo Studio</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a title="About us" href="/company/about">Company</a>
        <ul>
            <li>
                <a href="/company/about/investors">Investor Relations</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a class="rss" href="/company/news">News</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="/community">Community</a>
        <ul>
            <li>
                <a href="/community/account">My Account</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a class="external" href="http://forums.example.com/">Forums</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
</ul>

Rendering a menu with minimum depth

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->setMinDepth(1);
?>

Output:
<ul class="navigation">
    <li class="active">
        <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>
        <ul>
            <li class="active">
                <a href="/products/server/faq">FAQ</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/server/editions">Editions</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/server/requirements">System Requirements</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="/products/studio">Foo Studio</a>
        <ul>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/studio/customers">Customer Stories</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/studio/support">Support</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="/company/about/investors">Investor Relations</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a class="rss" href="/company/news">News</a>
        <ul>
            <li>
                <a href="/company/news/press">Press Releases</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/archive">Archive</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="/community/account">My Account</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a class="external" href="http://forums.example.com/">Forums</a>
    </li>
</ul>

Rendering only the active branch of a menu

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->setOnlyActiveBranch(true);
?>

Output:
<ul class="navigation">
    <li class="active">
        <a href="/products">Products</a>
        <ul>
            <li class="active">
                <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>
                <ul>
                    <li class="active">
                        <a href="/products/server/faq">FAQ</a>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/products/server/editions">Editions</a>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <a href="/products/server/requirements">System Requirements</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
</ul>

Rendering only the active branch of a menu with minimum depth

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->setOnlyActiveBranch(true)
          ->setMinDepth(1);
?>

Output:
<ul class="navigation">
    <li class="active">
        <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>
        <ul>
            <li class="active">
                <a href="/products/server/faq">FAQ</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/server/editions">Editions</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/server/requirements">System Requirements</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
</ul>

Rendering only the active branch of a menu with maximum depth

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->setOnlyActiveBranch(true)
          ->setMaxDepth(1);
?>

Output:
<ul class="navigation">
    <li class="active">
        <a href="/products">Products</a>
        <ul>
            <li class="active">
                <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>
            </li>
            <li>
                <a href="/products/studio">Foo Studio</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>
</ul>

Rendering only the active branch of a menu with maximum depth and no parents

<?php
echo $this->navigation()
          ->menu()
          ->setOnlyActiveBranch(true)
          ->setRenderParents(false)
          ->setMaxDepth(1);
?>

Output:
<ul class="navigation">
    <li class="active">
        <a href="/products/server">Foo Server</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="/products/studio">Foo Studio</a>
    </li>
</ul>

Rendering a custom menu using a partial view script

This example shows how to render a custom menu using a partial vew script. By calling setPartial(), you can specify a partial view script that will be used when calling render(). When a partial is specified, the renderPartial() method will be called. This method will assign the container to the view with the key container.

In a layout:

$partial = array('menu.phtml', 'default');
$this->navigation()->menu()->setPartial($partial);
echo $this->navigation()->menu()->render();

In application/modules/default/views/menu.phtml:

foreach ($this->container as $page) {
    echo $this->navigation()->menu()->htmlify($page), PHP_EOL;
}

Output:

<a title="Go Home" href="/">Home</a>
<a href="/products">Products</a>
<a title="About us" href="/company/about">Company</a>
<a href="/community">Community</a>

Sitemap Helper

The Sitemap helper is used for generating XML sitemaps, as defined by the Sitemaps XML format. Read more about Sitemaps on Wikpedia.

By default, the sitemap helper uses sitemap validators <zend.validator.sitemap> to validate each element that is rendered. This can be disabled by calling $helper->setUseSitemapValidators(false).

Note

If you disable sitemap validators, the custom properties (see table) are not validated at all.

The sitemap helper also supports Sitemap XSD Schema validation of the generated sitemap. This is disabled by default, since it will require a request to the Schema file. It can be enabled with $helper->setUseSchemaValidation(true).

Sitemap XML elements

Element	Description
loc	Absolute URL to page. An absolute URL will be generated by the helper.
lastmod	The date of last modification of the file, in W3C Datetime format. This time portion can be omitted if desired, and only use YYYY-MM-DD. The helper will try to retrieve the lastmod value from the page's custom property lastmod if it is set in the page. If the value is not a valid date, it is ignored.
changefreq	How frequently the page is likely to change. This value provides general information to search engines and may not correlate exactly to how often they crawl the page. Valid values are: alwayshourlydailyweeklymonthlyyearlynever The helper will try to retrieve the changefreq value from the page's custom property changefreq if it is set in the page. If the value is not valid, it is ignored.
priority	The priority of this URL relative to other URLs on your site. Valid values range from 0.0 to 1.0. The helper will try to retrieve the priority value from the page's custom property priority if it is set in the page. If the value is not valid, it is ignored.

Methods in the sitemap helper:

{get|set}FormatOutput() gets/sets a flag indicating whether XML output should be formatted. This corresponds to the formatOutput property of the native DOMDocument class. Read more at PHP: DOMDocument - Manual. Default is FALSE.
{get|set}UseXmlDeclaration() gets/sets a flag indicating whether the XML declaration should be included when rendering. Default is TRUE.
{get|set}UseSitemapValidators() gets/sets a flag indicating whether sitemap validators should be used when generating the DOM sitemap. Default is TRUE.
{get|set}UseSchemaValidation() gets/sets a flag indicating whether the helper should use XML Schema validation when generating the DOM sitemap. Default is FALSE. If TRUE.
{get|set}ServerUrl() gets/sets server URL that will be prepended to non-absolute URLs in the url() method. If no server URL is specified, it will be determined by the helper.
url() is used to generate absolute URLs to pages.
getDomSitemap() generates a DOMDocument from a given container.

Rendering an XML sitemap

This example shows how to render an XML sitemap based on the setup we did further up.

// In a view script or layout:

// format output
$this->navigation()
      ->sitemap()
      ->setFormatOutput(true); // default is false

// other possible methods:
// ->setUseXmlDeclaration(false); // default is true
// ->setServerUrl('http://my.otherhost.com');
// default is to detect automatically

// print sitemap
echo $this->navigation()->sitemap();

Notice how pages that are invisible or pages with ACL roles incompatible with the view helper are filtered out:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server/faq</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server/editions</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server/requirements</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/studio</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/studio/customers</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/studio/support</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/about</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/about/investors</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/news</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/news/press</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/archive</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/community</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/community/account</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://forums.example.com/</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

Render the sitemap using no ACL role (should filter out /community/account):

echo $this->navigation()
          ->sitemap()
          ->setFormatOutput(true)
          ->setRole();

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server/faq</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server/editions</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server/requirements</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/studio</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/studio/customers</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/studio/support</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/about</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/about/investors</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/news</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/news/press</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/archive</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/community</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://forums.example.com/</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

Render the sitemap using a maximum depth of 1.

echo $this->navigation()
          ->sitemap()
          ->setFormatOutput(true)
          ->setMaxDepth(1);

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/server</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/products/studio</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/about</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/about/investors</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/company/news</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/community</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/community/account</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://forums.example.com/</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

Note

UTF-8 encoding used by default

By default, Zend Framework uses UTF-8 as its default encoding, and, specific to this case, Zend\View does as well. Character encoding can be set differently on the view object itself using the setEncoding() method (or the the encoding instantiation parameter). However, since Zend\View\Interface does not define accessors for encoding, it's possible that if you are using a custom view implementation with the Dojo view helper, you will not have a getEncoding() method, which is what the view helper uses internally for determining the character set in which to encode.

If you do not want to utilize UTF-8 in such a situation, you will need to implement a getEncoding() method in your custom view implementation.

Navigation Helper

The Navigation helper is a proxy helper that relays calls to other navigational helpers. It can be considered an entry point to all navigation-related view tasks. The aforementioned navigational helpers are in the namespace Zend\View\Helper\Navigation, and would thus require the path Zend/View/Helper/Navigation to be added as a helper path to the view. With the proxy helper residing in the Zend\View\Helper namespace, it will always be available, without the need to add any helper paths to the view.

The Navigation helper finds other helpers that implement the Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\Helper interface, which means custom view helpers can also be proxied. This would, however, require that the custom helper path is added to the view.

When proxying to other helpers, the Navigation helper can inject its container, ACL/role, and translator. This means that you won't have to explicitly set all three in all navigational helpers, nor resort to injecting by means of static methods.

findHelper() finds the given helper, verifies that it is a navigational helper, and injects container, ACL/role and translator.
{get|set}InjectContainer() gets/sets a flag indicating whether the container should be injected to proxied helpers. Default is TRUE.
{get|set}InjectAcl() gets/sets a flag indicating whether the ACL/role should be injected to proxied helpers. Default is TRUE.
{get|set}InjectTranslator() gets/sets a flag indicating whether the translator should be injected to proxied helpers. Default is TRUE.
{get|set}DefaultProxy() gets/sets the default proxy. Default is 'menu'.
render() proxies to the render method of the default proxy.

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zend.view.helpers.navigation.rst

zend.view.helpers.navigation.rst

Navigation Helpers

Translation of labels and titles

Integration with ACL

Navigation setup used in examples

Links Helper

Menu Helper

Sitemap Helper

Navigation Helper

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Navigation Helpers

Translation of labels and titles

Integration with ACL

Navigation setup used in examples

Breadcrumbs Helper

Links Helper

Menu Helper

Sitemap Helper

Navigation Helper