Yii - how to retrieve model data into a layout page?

Question

I wish to list some Categories name on my layout main.php page. Since the layout doesn\'t have any associated controller or model, I wish to create a static method like this

Answer 1

May be this answer can help you. First you must create a Widget so you can use it more effectively.

First Create a new widget. Let say the name is CategoryWidget. Put this widget under components directory protected/components.

class CategoryWidget extends CWidget {

    public function run() {
        $models = Category::model()->findAll();

        $this->render('category', array(
            'models'=>$models   
        ));
    }
}

Then create a view for this widget. The file name is category.php. Put it under protected/components/views

category.php

<?php if($models != null): ?>
<ul>
    <?php foreach($models as $model): ?>
    <li><?php echo $model->name; ?></li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>

Then call this widget from your main layout.

main.php

// your code ...

<?php $this->widget('CategoryWidget') ?>

...

Answer 2

If I'm not mistaken, you can also pass any variable available in a view, on to the layout. You just do it from the view that has your variable. This is the catch: you need to declare the variable which will receive your value, in the controller, like this:

<?php

class MyController extends Controller
{

    public $myvariable;

After this, you will assign your model or whatever to this public variable inside your view, like this:

$this->myvariable = $modeldata;

After you have assigned your model data to controller's public attribute, you can easily display it inside your layout e.g.

echo $this->myvariable;

Yii already does this by assigning menu items to column2 sidebar menu, from view, like this:

$this->menu=array(
    array('label'=>'List Item', 'url'=>array('index')),
    array('label'=>'Manage Item', 'url'=>array('admin')),
);

You can see it in all create/update views that gii crud creates.