Just messing with same problem. Cannot load Action Controller anyhow - tried using addPath, addPrefix…

Gummi, what’s the name of your helper class? It needs to have some string prefix that ends with an underscore. For example, if your class is currently named ‘myControllerHelper’, you have to rename it to ‘_myControllerHelper’ or ‘Gummi_myControllerHelper’. Then you could use addPath(’/path/to/helper/files’), and it would work.

Take a look at line 116 of Zend/Controller/Action/HelperBroker.php in your framework library, and you’ll see why you need this underscore.

[…] this guy “steve” who wrote “Frustration with Zend Controller Action Helpers,” I lost about nine hours trying to understand how Action Helpers work. View Helpers, on the […]

That’s what brought here ,, action helper problem
thanx for your notations

I’ve got the same problem, Im switching from CakePHP to Zend Framework for work, and I have to say Im really disappointed, it looks more like a bunch of libraries together than a ready-to-use framework so far.
ZF sucks balls !
And +1 for the really helpful exception message, thats completely retarded.

Hi guys,

Given the date of this post, I’d imagine Steve (the poster) resolved his problem long ago, however for others coming to this page in search of a solution I thought I’d offer some input in the hopes it will help. When defining an action helper you need to define both the path and the action helper class prefix within your bootstrap.php file, like so:

Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addPath( ‘C:\apache\htdocs\website\application\My\Helper’, ‘My_Action_Helper’);

Your action helper will subsequently look like this:

class My_Action_Helper_InitializeStuff extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract
{
// Add methods here
}

Once in place, your action helper should work like a charm.

Hope this helps!
Jason

Hi Jason,
Thanks for posting some code that actually works as an addendum to my rant, as it seems that this page is getting a fair amount of hits these days.

Yeah, I figured out the issue, I was just complaining that ZF 1.0 requires a prefix for action helpers without making that requirement explict in the docs. In fact, I think it was obfuscated with the argument to set a prefix in the ::addPath() method. Not sure if this is still the case with ZF 1.7, but I should find out shortly, since I’m starting a new project with it now.

[…] a friend of mine sent me this article – Frustration with Zend Controller Action Helpers – that only proves that Zend Framework, and I must say, one of the best frameworks I have […]

In my case, this probably has a different cause, but that horribly unhelpful exception is still unchanged even in ZF 1.7.3. It quickly makes me go from “indifferent, I’m using this because my company demands it” to “I hate this [insert extremely powerful expletive here] and will never use it of my own volition”.

The worst part is… it actually generates a somewhat more useful message, throws that as an exception and then ignores this, creating and throwing that useless and unhelpful “Action Helper by name xxx not found”. I can think of many nasty things to do to the developer who came up with that. None of them fit for publication on a civilised blog.

Wasted 4 hours trying to fix this and counting.

Yeah, the feedback was horrible but i make it work in few minutes… follow me!!!

First…
Create your helper file YourHelperFileName.php and include it within the folder public_html\library\Zend\Controller\Action\Helper\ then name your class like this…
class Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_SendFile extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract{}

Second…
open the bootstrap.php file and write the next line inside your _initAutoload() protected function.

Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(new Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_YourHelperFileName());

Third…
Open your controller then code this line to memory it… then use it, and that’s all! Use your new helper within 5 minutes.

$this->_anyNameYouWant = $this->_helper->getHelper('YourHelperFileName');