Zend Framework University

This is a brief explanation on how to add theme support to your Zend Framework application and how to ensure those themes are self-contained, easy to distribute and install.

Themes are very powerful and extremely easy to develop. They allow you to quickly switch between layouts and change the look and feel of your application. You can use themes to show, for example, a mobile friendly version of your site.

Making a Zend Framework application theme-able is a three-step process.

First, modify your directory structure:

application/
    controllers/
library/
public/
    themes/
        default/
            css/
            images/
            templates/
        custom/
            css/
            images/
            templates/

Then, edit your Bootstrap class:

class Bootstrap extends Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap
{
    protected function _initView()
    {
        $theme = 'default';
        if (isset($this->config->app->theme)) {
            $theme = $this->config->app->theme;
        }
        $path = PUBLIC_PATH.'/themes/'.$theme.'/templates';

        $layout = Zend_Layout::startMvc()
            ->setLayout('layout')
            ->setLayoutPath($path)
            ->setContentKey('content');

        $view = new Zend_View();
        $view->setBasePath($path);
        $view->setScriptPath($path);

        return $view;
    }
}

And finally, copy your view scripts and layouts to the templates directory:

application/
library/
public/
    themes/
        full-site/
            css/
            images/
            templates/
                error/
                index/
                partials/
                layout.phtml
        mobile-site/
            css/
            images/
            templates/

Voila, mission accomplished.

Posted in Frameworks, Open-source, PHP