PHP-DI in Zend Framework 1

Set up

If you are using ZF1, PHP-DI provides easy and clean integration so that you don't have to call the container (thus avoiding the Service Locator pattern).

First, install the bridge to ZF1:

composer require php-di/zf1-bridge

To use PHP-DI in your ZF1 application, you need to change the Dispatcher used by the Front Controller in the Bootstrap.

    protected function _initContainer()
    {
        $builder = new \DI\ContainerBuilder();
        $builder->useAttributes(true);
        $container = $builder->build();

        $dispatcher = new \DI\Bridge\ZendFramework1\Dispatcher();
        $dispatcher->setContainer($container);

        Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->setDispatcher($dispatcher);
    }

That's it!

Warning: if you use Zend's autoloader (and not Composer), you will need to configure it:

$autoloader->suppressNotFoundWarnings(true);

Usage

Now you can inject dependencies in your controllers!

For example, here is the GuestbookController of the quickstart:

class GuestbookController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    /**
     * This dependency will be injected by PHP-DI
     */
    #[Inject]
    private Application_Service_GuestbookService $guestbookService;

    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->view->entries = $this->guestbookService->getAllEntries();
    }
}

Recommended layout

Here is a recommended layout for your configuration:

application/
    configs/
        application.ini          # ZF config
        config.php               # DI config
        config.development.php   # DI config for development
        config.production.php    # DI config for production
        parameters.php           # Local parameters (DB password, …) -> Don't commit this file
        parameters.php.default   # Template for parameters.php -> Commit this file
    Bootstrap.php

Here is an example of the full Bootstrap method:

    protected function _initContainer()
    {
        $configuration = new Zend_Config($this->getOptions());

        $builder = new ContainerBuilder();
        $builder->addDefinitions(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/config.php');
        $builder->addDefinitions(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/config.' . APPLICATION_ENV . '.php');
        $builder->addDefinitions(APPLICATION_PATH . '/configs/parameters.php');

        if (APPLICATION_ENV === 'production') {
            $cache = new MemcachedCache();
            $memcached = new Memcached();
            $memcached->addServer('localhost', 11211);
            $cache->setMemcached($memcached);
        } else {
            $cache = new ArrayCache();
        }
        $cache->setNamespace('MyApp');
        $builder->setDefinitionCache($cache);

        $this->container = $builder->build();

        $dispatcher = new \DI\Bridge\ZendFramework1\Dispatcher();
        $dispatcher->setContainer($this->container);
        Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->setDispatcher($dispatcher);
    }

You are not required to follow it of course.

Tests

Zend Framework 1 provides a base class to test controllers. If you are using this base class, and you want to have full control on the dependencies that will be injected inside the controller you are testing (for example to inject mocks), here is a recommended approach:

class UserControllerTest extends Zend_Test_PHPUnit_ControllerTestCase
{
    private $container;

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->bootstrap = array($this, 'appBootstrap');
        parent::setUp();
    }

    public function appBootstrap()
    {
        $builder = new ContainerBuilder();
        // Configure your container here
        $builder->addDefinitions(__DIR__ . '/../../application/config/config.php');
        $this->container = $builder->build();

        $dispatcher = new \DI\Bridge\ZendFramework1\Dispatcher();
        $dispatcher->setContainer($this->container);

        $this->frontController->setDispatcher($dispatcher);
    }

    public function testCallWithoutActionShouldPullFromIndexAction()
    {
        // Here I can override the dependencies that will be injected
        $fakeEntityManager = $this->getMock(...);
        $this->container->set('Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager', $fakeEntityManager);

        $this->dispatch('/user');
        $this->assertController('user');
        $this->assertAction('index');
    }
}

How it works: a new container is created for each test, which ensures that whatever you do with the container in one test will not affect the others.

Obviously, the setUp() and appBootstrap() methods could go in a base abstract class.

More

Read more on the ZF1-Bridge project on GitHub.