How to render a page in zend framework 2?

Question

I used below code to render a page in the controller action.

public function userinforeceiveAction()
{   
    $renderer = new PhpRenderer();

    $map = new Resolver\TemplateMapResolver(array(
    'userinfo' => __DIR__ . '/userinfo.phtml',
        ));

        $resolver = new Resolver\TemplateMapResolver($map);
        $renderer->setResolver($resolver);
        $model = new ViewModel();
        $model->setTemplate('userinfo');

        return new ViewModel();    
}

and I echo rendering content in the view.

echo $renderer->render($model);

but it render nothing. Please help me. thanks. and also its fine work with zf1 by this two lines.

$this->userinfoAction();
$this->$render('userinfo');

Answer 1

Actually what you have done should work with following miner changes

public function userinforeceiveAction()
{   
    $renderer = new PhpRenderer();

    $map = new Resolver\TemplateMapResolver(array(
    // first mistake
    // __DIR__ is the directory of application controller, not the path of views 
    // second mistake
    // 'userinfo' should be '(controller)/(action)'
    'userinfo' => __DIR__ . '/userinfo.phtml',
        ));

        // third mistake
        // since $map is a resolver instance, this is wrong
        $resolver = new Resolver\TemplateMapResolver($map); // no need
        $renderer->setResolver($resolver);
        // should be $renderer->setResolver($map);
        $model = new ViewModel();
        // 'userinfo' should be changed
        $model->setTemplate('userinfo');

        // big mistake
        // what you are returning here is new instance of view model
        return new ViewModel();
        // instead you should return $model 
}

No need of this line within the view

echo $renderer->render($model);

But the best and recommended way is to inject through the module configuration file, as Adam said

The documentation will provide better explanation

Answer 2

If you are using the ZF2 MVC layer you don't need to instantiate your own view rendering, just return a ViewModel instance and it will take care of the rest:

public function userinforeceiveAction()
{
    $vm = new ViewModel();
    $vm->setTemplate('userinfo');
    return $vm;
}

For an example of how to use view models see Akrabat's ZF2TestApp: http://zf2test.akrabat.com/

The associated ZF2 code is linked at the bottom of that page and the template map is configured in the module configuration file

Answer 3

You might want to have a look at the skeleton application on how to render stuff in a MVC environment.

Principally you're doing it the right way. But why are you creating a renderer and a resolver without using it? I guess to set a rendering strategy and the templates? That's nothing to be done in a controller but in your application's / module's configuration.

On the other hand, you don't echo the result of the renderer in your view - the renderer returns the result of your view(s) which is then echo'd by your application (you don't do this by yourself).