Load Routes From Routes.ini Config File In Zend Application Bootstrap

I spent waaaay to many hours trying to load routes via a config file in Zend Framework 1.10 and I think this might be a problem with the documentation I was following on the Zend Framework site. More on that later, let’s get to my solution first.

Here is the use case I am addressing: I want to store routes in a .ini file and have this file loaded via the Application Bootstrap. Zend Application allows me to store these in the application.ini file but I have a large number and want to store them separately.

First create your routes.ini file:

configs/routes.ini

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[production]
routes.linkA.route = "linkA"
routes.linkA.defaults.controller = "linkB"
routes.linkA.defaults.action = "linkBAction"

Where linkA is the incoming route and linkB is the outgoing route

New let’s add the function to load this file in the Bootstrap. Add the following to your boostrap.php:

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protected function _initRewrite() {
    $front = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance();
    $router = $front->getRouter();
 
    $config = new Zend_Config_Ini(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/routes.ini', 'production');      
    $router->addConfig($config,'routes');
}

That’s it, everything should be working

The above use case is addressed in the Zend Framework Documentation but I could not get their example to work:

http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.controller.router.html

Using Zend_Config with the RewriteRouter
Sometimes it is more convenient to update a configuration file with 
new routes than to change the code. This is possible via
the addConfig() method. 
 
 . . .
 
$config = new Zend_Config_Ini('/path/to/config.ini', 'production');
$router = new Zend_Controller_Router_Rewrite();
$router->addConfig($config, 'routes');

No matter how hard I tried I could not get the above to work. It is very simple code but there are no instructions on where this can/should be run. Maybe this can’t be run from the bootstrap? I even wrote a plugin and but no matter what I tried I could not get this to work using Zend_Controller_Router_Rewrite().

It is also possible that I completely mis-understood the documentation and got all mixed up, I struggle with Zend Documentation sometimes.

If you figure out how to do this using Zend_Controller_Router_Rewrite() please leave a comment it was driving me nuts!

3 Responses to “Load Routes From Routes.ini Config File In Zend Application Bootstrap”

1. Michael Gatto says:

   February 10, 2010 at 10:32 am

   I actually arrived at the same solution you did. It was just easier to work around it instead of debugging/tracing; the ZF issue tracker is chock full of unanswered bug reports…
2. Benjamin says:

   February 10, 2010 at 10:38 am

   Glad to hear I am not alone. I thought maybe I was missing something in the documentation… but I think I tried everything!
3. David Weinraub says:

   June 23, 2010 at 5:22 pm

   Hi Benjamin,

   In the example that didn’t work, I see you instantiate a new router and populate it with routes using your config file. But I don’t see code attaching the router to front controller. Could that be what’s missing?

   Cheers,