Whilst this generally does the job for XML, JSON and AJAX HTML snippets where any layout is disabled, sometimes you just need to wrap that content in something.

I often find myself writing small configuration screens that work nicely in modal style dialogs as opposed to a devoted web page. Generally I’ll render these screens as inline frames using my favourite JavaScript library and DOM Window (a ThickBox successor). The problem with iframes is they require a complete HTML document. ContextSwitch just wasn’t cutting it as I needed some kind of layout but obviously not the full blown, menus and all default.

The solution was to implement my own custom context, complete with a post-processing callback function to alter the layout script. Here’s how I’ve done it.

First, I added a static method to my Bootstrap class to add a suffix to the layout script name should a context be present.

public static function setLayoutContext()
{
    $layout = Zend_Layout::getMvcInstance();
    if (null !== $layout && $layout->isEnabled()) {
        $context = Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::getStaticHelper('ContextSwitch')->getCurrentContext();
        if (null !== $context) {
            $layout->setLayout($layout->getLayout() . '.' . $context);
        }
    }
}

For example, given the default layout script layout.phtml and context iframe, this method will set the layout script to layout.iframe.phtml

Now I just need to add the context to the action helper. Again, in my Bootstrap class.

public static function setupActionHelpers()
{
    // This method is called during application bootstrapping
 
    // Add "iframe" context
    $iframeContext = array(
        'suffix'    => 'iframe',
        'callbacks' => array(
            'post' => array(__CLASS__, 'setLayoutContext')
        )
    );
 
    $contextSwitch = Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::getStaticHelper('ContextSwitch');
 
    $contextSwitch->addContext('iframe', $iframeContext);
}

Ok, that’s all the preparation work out of the way. To add this context to a controller action, you simply, well, add it.

class MyController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function init()
    {
        $this->_helper->contextSwitch->addActionContext('config', 'iframe')
                                     ->setAutoDisableLayout(false)
                                     ->initContext();
    }
 
    public function configAction()
    {
        // Controller tasks here
    }
}

All that’s left to do is ensure your links to the context enabled controller action include the correct format parameter, for example /my/config/format/iframe or /my/config?format=iframe.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the ContextSwitch helper should be configured after your view and layout are initialised.

Thanks to Jeff Carouth for the inspiration for this post.