Zend Framework 2 - having trouble displaying the right view, always displaying layout/layout.phtml

Question

I am new to Zend Framework 2.

I have several Modules, when a user starts the application I want to display the RecruitCore module, thats why my only route at the moment is 'route' => '/', so this is my module.config.php for RecruitCore:

return array(
    'router' => array(
        'routes' => array(
            'home' => array(
                'type' => 'Zend\Mvc\Router\Http\Literal',
                'options' => array(
                    'route'    => '/',
                    'defaults' => array(
                        'controller' => 'RecruitCore\Controller\Index',
                        'action'     => 'index',
                    ),
                ),
            ),
        ),
    ),
    'controllers' => array(
        'invokables' => array(
             'RecruitCore\Controller\Index' => 'RecruitCore\Controller\IndexController',
        ),
    ),
   'view_manager' => array(
        'display_not_found_reason' => true,
        'display_exceptions'       => true,
        'doctype'                  => 'HTML5',
        //'not_found_template'       => 'error/404',
        //'exception_template'       => 'error/index',
        'template_path_stack' => array(
          __DIR__ . '/../view',
        ),
    ),
);

I have an IndexController in src/RecruitCore/Controller/IndexController with a method indexAction which gets called, because my debug messages are getting fired. But instead of displaying the view/recruit-core/index/index.phtml layout, it always displays the layout/layout.phtml. The funny thing is, when I delete the view/recruit-core/index/index.phtml then i am getting an error message, but other then that, there is no other acknowledgment of view/recruit-core/index/index.phtml

so maybe I am missing something in module.config.php

Your question is a little confusing. By default, views should be displayed within the layout, so it's normal for the layout to always be displayed. Your layout should be echoing $this->content somewhere in it (this is where the view is shown) - do you have such a line in your layout? See the layout in the ZF2 skeleton for an example: github.com/zendframework/ZendSkeletonApplication/blob/master/… — Tim Fountain

Jurian Sluiman Jurian Sluiman · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-25T21:15:56

Zend Framework uses a two-step layout. First, for a controller action a view is rendered. This is the "inner part" of the complete html document. Then a layout is rendered. This is another view script and it's the "outer part" of the html document.

For example, a layout might look like this:

<html>
  <head>
    <title><?= $this->headTitle() ?>
  </head>

  <body>
    <div class="wrapper">
      <?= $content ?>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

A view script can look like this:

<h1>Hello world!</h1>

<p>Lorem ipsum</p>

The content of the view is injected into the $content variable of the layout.

So now some more info about your idea. By default, ZF2 renders the layout/layout.phtml as layout. For view scripts, it is a combination of the top-level module name, the controller name and the action method.

Your module is called RecruitCore so the first directory is named recruit-core. Your controller is called IndexController so the second directory is named index. Your method is the indexAction so finally your view script resolves to recruit-code/index/index.

Basically, what you ask is the correct behaviour for ZF2. This is also explained in the ZF2 manual. You can override the view script and layout name, if you want to.

Zend Framework 2 - having trouble displaying the right view, always displaying layout/layout.phtml

1 Answers