Custom \Zend\Mvc\Controller\ActionController that passes commonly used variables to the View

gistfile1.aw

<?php

namespace MyNamespace\Mvc\Controller;

use Zend\Mvc\MvcEvent,
    Zend\View\Model\ViewModel,
    Zend\Date\Date,
    MyNamespace\Exception\InvalidArgumentException;

class ActionController extends \Zend\Mvc\Controller\ActionController
{
    protected $locale;
    protected $session;
    protected $view;


    protected function attachDefaultListeners()
    {
        parent::attachDefaultListeners();

        $this->events()->attach('dispatch', array($this, 'preDispatch') ,  100);
        $this->events()->attach('dispatch', array($this, 'postDispatch'), -100);
    }

    public function preDispatch(MvcEvent $event)
    {
        $routeMatch = $event->getRouteMatch();

        $locale = $routeMatch->getParam('locale');

        if (0 === strlen($locale)) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException('No locale has been specified.');
        }

        $this->locale  = $locale;
        
        $this->session = null;


        $this->setViewModelVariablesInternationalization($event)
             ->setViewModelVariablesSession($event)
             ->setViewModelVariablesMvc($event)
             ->setViewModelVariablesUri($event);

    }

    public function postDispatch(MvcEvent $event)
    {
    }


    /**
     * Pass language and locale related variables to ViewModel
     *
     * @param MvcEvent $event
     * @return \MyNamespace\Mvc\Controller\ActionController
     */
    protected function setViewModelVariablesInternationalization(MvcEvent $event)
    {
        if (null === $this->view) {
            $this->view = new ViewModel();
        }

        $this->view->setVariable('locale', $this->locale);


        $this->view->setVariable('date', new Date(null, null, $this->locale));

        $dateFormat = new \StdClass();

        $dateFormat->time     = Date::TIME_LONG;         // MyNamespace uses only these
        $dateFormat->date     = Date::DATE_LONG;         // time, date and datetime
        $dateFormat->datetime = Date::DATETIME_LONG;     // formats

        $this->view->setVariable('dateFormat', $dateFormat);

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Pass session related variables to ViewModel
     *
     * @param MvcEvent $event
     * @return \MyNamespace\Mvc\Controller\ActionController
     */
    protected function setViewModelVariablesSession(MvcEvent $event)
    {
        if (null === $this->view) {
            $this->view = new ViewModel();
        }

        $this->view->setVariable('session', $this->session);

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Pass MVC related variables to ViewModel
     *
     * @param MvcEvent $event
     * @return \MyNamespace\Mvc\Controller\ActionController
     */
    protected function setViewModelVariablesMvc(MvcEvent $event)
    {
        if (null === $this->view) {
            $this->view = new ViewModel();
        }

        $this->view->setVariable('module',     $event->getRouteMatch()->getParam('module'));
        $this->view->setVariable('controller', $event->getRouteMatch()->getParam('controller'));
        $this->view->setVariable('action',     $event->getRouteMatch()->getParam('action'));

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Pass Request Uri related variables to ViewModel
     *
     * @param MvcEvent $event
     * @return \MyNamespace\Mvc\Controller\ActionController
     */
    protected function setViewModelVariablesUri(MvcEvent $event)
    {
        if (null === $this->view) {
            $this->view = new ViewModel();
        }

        $uri = new \StdClass();

        $uri->absolute = $this->getRequest()->getUri();
        $uri->relative = $this->getRequest()->getRequestUri();

        $uri->scheme   = parse_url($uri->absolute, PHP_URL_SCHEME);
        $uri->host     = parse_url($uri->absolute, PHP_URL_HOST);
        $uri->port     = parse_url($uri->absolute, PHP_URL_PORT);
        $uri->user     = parse_url($uri->absolute, PHP_URL_USER);
        $uri->password = parse_url($uri->absolute, PHP_URL_PASS);
        $uri->path     = parse_url($uri->absolute, PHP_URL_PATH);
        $uri->query    = parse_url($uri->absolute, PHP_URL_QUERY);

        $this->view->setVariable('uri', $uri);

        return $this;
    }


}