Getting property of zend view using a helper called in the layout script

I've written a helper in order to make my main nav. Part of this helper checks if there is a user logged in by checking if a user has been assigned to the view

if($this->view->user)
{
//do stuff
}

However when I call this helper in my layout script it is unable to access $this->view->user; it has NULL value (although var_dump($this->view returns the view object, jsut not with all the properties I assigned to it). It can only access the user data if, in the view script, I assign it to the layout, i.e.

$this->layout()->user = $this->user;

And then in the helper do

if($this->view->layout()->user)
{
//do stuff
}

Which is a pain as it means in each view script I have to add a line to pass the data to the layout.

Is there a way to enable helpers called in the layout script to access properties of the view?

edit*

Here's the source:

    <?php

class Zend_View_Helper_MainNav extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract {

        public function mainNav()
    {
        if ($this->view->layout()->navType == 'none'){
            $html = '<div id="nav"><a href="/" id="logo">Sum puzzles</a></div>';
        } else if($this->view->layout()->navType == 'small'){

                $html = '<div id="nav" class="small"><a href="/" id="logo">Sum puzzles</a><ul>' .
                                    '<li><a href="/puzzle/view" class="button">play a puzzle</a></li>' .
                                        '<li><a href="/sequence/play" class="button">puzzle sequences</a></li>' .
                                        '<li><a href="/puzzle/create" class="button">create a puzzle</a></li>';

                if(!$this->view->user)
                {
                    $html .=    '<li><a href="/teachers" class="button">teachers area</a></li>';
                }   
                $html .='</ul></div>'; 

        } else if($this->view->layout()->navType == 'large'){
                $html = '<div id="nav" class="large"><a href="/" id="logo">Sum puzzles</a><ul>' .
                                        '<li><a href="/sequence/play" class="playSequence">Play a sequence of puzzles</a>&l开发者_JAVA技巧t;/li>' .
                                        '<li><a href="/puzzle/create" class="createPuzzle">Create your own puzzles</a></li>';
                if(!$this->view->user)
                {
                    $html .= '<li><a href="/teachers" class="teachersArea">teachers area</a></li>';
                }
                    $html .=    '</ul></div>'; 
        }   
        return $html;
    }
}

---

I created a basic example, which should help you

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// application/controllers/IndexController.php
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<?php
class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function init() {
        Zend_Layout::startMvc() ;
        $this->view->test_h1 = "H1 test value" ;
    }
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->view->test_h2 = "H2 test value" ;
    }
}

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// application/views/helpers/Qwer.php
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<?php
class Zend_View_Helper_Qwer extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract {
    public function qwer() {
        return "<h1>{$this->view->test_h1}</h1>"
            . "<h2>{$this->view->test_h2}</h2>" ;
    }
}

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// application/views/scripts/layout.phtml
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<?php echo $this->qwer() ?>

////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Output
////////////////////////////////////////////////
<h1>H1 test value</h1><h2>H2 test value</h2>

---

Zend_View will inject itself into the helper if you create a setView method in your helper class.

class Ldm_View_Helper_SubMenu
{
    public function subMenu($items)
    {
        // Build SubMenu
        $subMenu = '';

        $template = '
            <ul id="subnav">
                %s
            </ul>';

        $rowTemplate = '
                <li>
                    <a href="%s" %s>%s</a>
                </li>';

        $rows = '';

        foreach ($items as $key => $values)
        {
            $rows .= sprintf($rowTemplate, 
                             $values['url'],
                             (($this->view->action == $key) ? 'class="selected"' : ''),
                             $values['name']);
        }

        $subMenu = sprintf($template, $rows);

        return $subMenu;
    }

    public function setView(Zend_View_Interface $view)
    {
        $this->view = $view;
    }

---

I'm inclined to think you have a logic error somewhere. Try this:

// in your controller action
$this->view->test = 'testing 123';

// at the start of your helper method, called from your layout
echo $this->view->test;die;

Did you get anything?

---

When you call the Helper the first time the view is set to the current view.

If you change views later it will not point to the correct view.

---

Finally got to the root of the problem

In my application.ini file I had the line

resources.view[] =

Which I think is a legacy from older versions of Zend, copied from some online tutorial somewhere.

Deleting that line resolved the problem.

---

$this->_helper->layout->assign('vars', $val);
$this->view->layout()->vars;