ZF2 nested views as array - arrays

Question

is it possible to add multiple views in a array to a parent view in Zend Framework 2?
For example:
childView.php
echo $this->data;
parentView.php:
foreach($this->views as $view)
echo '<div>'.$view.'</div>';
controller.php:
public function actionIndex(){
$children = array(1,2,3);
foreach($children as $child){
$childView = new ViewModel(array('data' => $child));
$childView->setTemplate('childView');
$childrenViews[] = $childView;
}
$view = new ViewModel();
$view->setTemplate('parentView');
// some function that adds the childrenViews to the parentView;
return $view;
}
Expected output: <div>1</div><div>2</div><div>3</div>
ps: It's dummy code so please ignore possible syntax errors.

Answer 1

You could do the following:
public function actionIndex(){
$children = array(1,2,3);
foreach($children as $child){
$childView = new ViewModel(array('data' => $child));
$childView->setTemplate('childView');
$view->addChild($childView, 'the-child-views', true);
}
$view = new ViewModel();
$view->setTemplate('parentView');
return $view;
}
This line:
$view->addChild($childView, 'the-child-views', true);
Will append the child views to this one var. So you can echo your views using:
<?php echo $this->the-child-views ?>
Hope it's what you are looking for.

Answer 2

You can just assign the array of ViewModels to your parent View Model.
<?php
public function actionIndex()
{
$children = array(1,2,3);
foreach($children as $child){
$childView = new ViewModel(array('data' => $child));
$childView->setTemplate('childView');
$childrenViews[] = $childView;
}
$view = new ViewModel();
$view->setVariable('children', $children); // assign to $children
/**
* Or set in constructor
*/
//$view = new ViewModel(array(
// 'children' => $children
//));
$view->setTemplate('parentView');
return $view;
}
Now you can just iterate over them in your parent template:
parentView.phtml
<?php // $children or $this->children to access your array of ViewModels ?>
<?php foreach($children as $child): ?>
<?php echo $child // automatically rendered for you ?>
<?php endforeach ?>

Answer 3

I think it should work with the partial helper:
http://framework.zend.com/manual/2.1/en/modules/zend.view.helpers.html#partial-helper