Injecting custom navigation using a View Helper through the ServiceManager - zend-framework2

Question

I'm just starting out developing for Zend Framework 2. I'm trying to add a simple menu to my Application. The menu will eventually be loaded from a database as user-definable bookmarks, so at the moment, I am trying to instantiate a view helper I've defined, add pages programmatically in the controller, and then inject the view helper's navigation into the view model. My problem is that when I try to retrieve my view helper in the controller by using the ServiceLocator, I get a ServiceNotFoundException:
Application\View\Helper\ShortcutsMenu:
namespace Application\View\Helper;
use Zend\Navigation\Navigation;
class ShortcutsMenu extends Navigation {
public function shortcutsMenu() {
//...
}
public function __construct() {
//...
}
}
and in Module.php
public function getServiceConfig() {
return array(
'view_helper' => array(
'factories' => array(
'shortcutsmenu' => function($sm) {
$smenu = new \Application\View\Helper\ShortcutsMenu();
return $smenu;
}
),
),
);
IndexController.php:
$smenu = $this->getServiceLocator()->get('shortcutsmenu'); // throws ServiceNotFoundException
//"Zend\ServiceManager\ServiceManager::get was unable to fetch or create an instance for shortcutsmenu"
$smenu->addPage(AbstractPage::factory(array(
'label' => 'Homepage',
'order' => '-1',
'uri' => '/',
)));
// ...
}
Can anyone tell me what I'm missing?
Edit:
The HTML I would like to generate in the application-wide layout would be something like:
<!-- Side tabs shortcuts -->
<ul id="shortcuts">
<li class="current">Home</li>
<li>My messages</li>
<li>Bob's calendar</li>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
probably using URI-style links rather than MVC ones.

Answer 1

There is no need to extend the navigation container Zend\Navigation\Navigation or extend the builtin view helpers to render menu's.
A container manages all pages in the navigation structure. The are several ways to create a container.
All the view helpers (menu, breadcrumbs) use the container as the provider for navigation data. You can eighter set a new container on the view helper using setContainer(). Alternatively you could just call the view helper in your view without a container setup and the view helper will create a new empty container for you.
If you need some alternate rendering because the default view helpers don't provide it you can create you own navigation view helper.
namespace MyNamespace\View\Helper\Navigation;
use Zend\View\Helper\Navigation\AbstractHelper;
class MyHelper extends AbstractHelper
{
}
Next register your view helper to the navigation pluginManager. I think you can do something like this (untested):
class Module
{
public function onBootstrap($e)
{
$application = $e->getApplication();
/** #var $serviceManager \Zend\ServiceManager\ServiceManager */
$serviceManager = $application->getServiceManager();
$pm = $serviceManager->get('ViewHelperManager')->get('Navigation')->getPluginManager();
$pm->setInvokableClass('myHelper', 'MyNamespace\View\Helper\Navigation\MyHelper');
}
}
Now call you custom helper in your view:
$this->navigation()->myHelper()