“Select query cannot join with another table”

What is happening here? A very simple select statement with a join is not allowed in Zend_Db_Select?
To solve this mysterious matter, I decided to Google the error message, off course. Luckily, one of the first results I got was the Zend Framework manual, a page on Zend_Db_Table. Luckily? Not really, because the documentation only mentions “You can allow JOIN clauses on a select to allow multi-table lookups”. That’s great, but… HOW?

But as always, the documentation comes to the rescue! On the Zend_Db_Select page a comment points in the right direction. There exists an undocumented function “setIntegrityCheck(false)“. And if you see the code of Zend_Db_Table_Select, in the assemble() function, it becomes even more clear: there is indeed a parameter “$_intgrityCheck” that can ensure that selected columns are only from the primary table.

So I pass this function in my Zend_Db_Select statement, and now it is possible to do joins!

    protected function _initNavigation()
    {
        $this->bootstrap('layout');
        $layout = $this->getResource('layout');
        $view = $layout->getView();
        $config = new Zend_Config_Ini(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/navigation.ini');
 
        $navigation = new Zend_Navigation($config);
        $view->navigation($navigation);
    }

This is fine for creating a menu or breadcrumbs, but there is one big problem: after this code is in use, all custom variables and the View Helper Include path are not available any more in the layout phtml file.

For example “echo $this->name” just echoes null. Or the custom view helper “$this->myHelper()” cannot be found because the View Helper include path only contains the path to Zend View Helpers.

And writing the same code in the phtml file of a simple action does work!

So what is the relation between the code above and the problems mentioned?

It all starts at the first line of the function “_initNavigation()”: there is a bootstrap function for the layout. Unfortunately it is necessary to add another line to not have the problems above. It is needed to also bootstrap the view! So the code becomes:

    protected function _initNavigation()
    {
        $this->bootstrap('layout');
        $this->bootstrap('view');
        $layout = $this->getResource('layout');
        $view = $layout->getView();
        $config = new Zend_Config_Ini(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/navigation.ini');
 
        $navigation = new Zend_Navigation($config);
        $view->navigation($navigation);
    }

Now the layout AND the view are bootstrapped, and the custom view helpers and variables can again be used in the layout phtml file.

I found this interesting issue in the ZF Jira: ZF-9537. It has already been reported, but it is not an issue (see status). So this is supposed to be normal behaviour? Does anyone has a good explanation for this?

1. Create a menu structure (ini file, php array, …)
2. add a small peace of code in the view file: “echo $this->navigation()->breadcrumbs()”
3. open your page and you see… nothing

This is what happened to me on the home page of my most recent project.  All though the ZF manual indicates you just have to echo the breadcrumbs, nothing appeared.

The problem was this: my menu started at level zero, and ZF sets the minimum level that will be displayed to one. Luckily there is the documentation, but it is really annoying that the method “setMinDepth()” is not in the API, so it took me much longer to find out this method existed.

echo $this->url(array(
    'module' => 'abc',
    'controller' => 'def',
    'action' => 'ghi',
    'param1' => '1',
    'param2' => '2'
); // output: "/abc/def/ghi/param1/1/param2/2"

If you don’t provide the module, controller or action, the current module, controller or action will be used as default values.

I think this is a very easy way to create links inside an application, without retyping every time your controllers or actions.

The 2010 event was great, and I was very happy I could be there. The schedule for this year looks very interesting too: tutorial on quality assurance and unit testing, RESTful web services, Doctrine, and ZF2.0. Those are already some of the talks I will attend.

All information can be found at conference.phpbenelux.eu

Already many thanks to the organizing crew! Hope to see you there!

Go find out more about his products on www.e-volutions.be

If you are interested in the free webshop hosting, subscribe for more information on www.e-volutions.be/gratis-webshop

I followed the Zend Certification training at Ausy/Dataflow. Gauthier Delamarre is an excellent teacher, and he helped me very good to prepare for the examination. Though it is my opinion that with only the training you cannot pass. It requires a lot of experience with the ZF, and you have to study the online reference guide really good.

Some tips for anybody who wants to do the certification:

• know the output of every function,
• know which and how many parameters every function requires, but also know the optional parameters,
• know what happens if something goes wrong (does ZF throw an Exception or do you get a Fatal Error, a warning,…),
• know the configuration settings (for example Frontend and Backend Caching have a lot of settings),
• study the reference guide in depth!

This works also in Zend Studio for Eclipse.

Again, it’s very simple:

• create a new Zend_Log
• add the Zend_Log_Writer_Firebug to it

$log = new Zend_Log();
$log->addWriter(new Zend_Log_Writer_Firebug());
$log->debug($something);

This will behave like var_dump(), with these differences/improvements:

• the output is displayed in Firebug
• the HTML output doesn’t change
• also for Ajax calls; no var_dump() info visible in the output from the Ajax call
• the output has a nice layout

Remark: to use this, you need Firebug and FirePHP

If you don’t want to use MySQL Proxy, this is a good alternative to check queries!

I have no hard data to prove it, but I don’t have the impression that it slows down my applications.
Does anybody know more about the performance of Profiler_Firebug?