Request Object: getRequest() may be used to retrieve the request object used to call the action.

Response Object: getResponse() may be used to retrieve the response object aggregating the final response. Some typical calls might look like:

$this->getResponse()->setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/xml');
$this->getResponse()->appendBody($content);

Invocation Arguments: the front controller may push parameters into the router, dispatcher, and action controller. To retrieve these, use getInvokeArg($key); alternatively, fetch the entire list using getInvokeArgs().

Request parameters: The request object aggregates request parameters, such as any _GET or _POST parameters, or user parameters specified in the URL's path information. To retrieve these, use _getParam($key) or _getAllParams(). You may also set request parameters using _setParam(); this is useful when forwarding to additional actions.

To test whether or not a parameter exists (useful for logical branching), use _hasParam($key).

_forward($action, $controller = null, $module = null, array $params = null): perform another action. If called in preDispatch(), the currently requested action will be skipped in favor of the new one. Otherwise, after the current action is processed, the action requested in _forward() will be executed.

_redirect($url, array $options = array()): redirect to another location. This method takes a URL and an optional set of options. By default, it performs an HTTP 302 redirect.

The options may include one or more of the following:

render($action = null, $name = null, $noController = false): render a view script. If no arguments are passed, it assumes that the script requested is [controller]/[action].phtml (where .phtml is the value of the $viewSuffix property). Passing a value for $action will render that template in the [controller] subdirectory. To override using the [controller] subdirectory, pass a true value for $noController. Finally, templates are rendered into the response object; if you wish to render to a specific named segment in the response object, pass a value to $name.

Some examples:

<?php
class MyController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function fooAction()
    {
        // Renders my/foo.phtml
        $this->render();

        // Renders my/bar.phtml
        $this->render('bar');

        // Renders baz.phtml
        $this->render('baz', null, true);

        // Renders foo/login.phtml to the 'form' segment of the response object
        $this->render('login', 'form');
        
        // Renders site.phtml to the 'page' segment of the response object
        $this->render('site', 'page', true);
    }
}

initView(): initialize the view object. render() calls initView() in order to retrieve the view object, but it may be initialized at any time; by default it populates the $view property. By default, it uses Zend_View, but any class implementing Zend_View_Interface may be used.

The default implementation makes the following assumption of the directory structure:

applicationOrModule/
    controllers/
        IndexController.php
    views/
        scripts/
            index/
                index.phtml
        helpers/
        filters/

In other words, view scripts are assumed to be in the views/scripts/ subdirectory, and the views subdirectory is assumed to be a sibling of the controllers subdirectory.

Call initView() in either init() or your action methods if you need to be able to assign variables, register filters, etc. As examples:

<?php
class MyController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function init()
    {
        // Initialize view object immediately
        $this->initView();
    }

    public function fooAction()
    {
        // Initialize some variables
        $this->view->foo = 'bar';
        $this->view->bar = 'baz';

        // render the view, with the 'foo' and 'bar' assigned variables
        $this->render();
    }
}

class FooController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function barAction()
    {
        // Initialize view on a per-action basis:
        $view = $this->initView();

        // Initialize some variables
        $view->foo = 'bar';
        $view->bar = 'baz';

        // render the view, with the 'foo' and 'bar' assigned variables
        $this->render();
    }
}

getViewScript($action = null, $noController = false): retrieve a view script path. Primarily used by render(), you can call this at any time to grab a view script path, or override the method to change how your controller determines the path to a view script.

As detailed under render(), above, the default functionality is to look for a view script named [controller]/[action].phtml. Providing $action will override the filename of the view script, and passing a true value to $noController will override looking in the controller subdirectory. You may also override the $viewSuffix property to change the file extension used (defaults to .phtml).

Override this method to provide alternate functionality when determining the view script name and path.