Hi all.

I am new to Zend Framework and i have some questions that I could not find any answer by google-ing.

For example: i have a regular category->products website. In the index controller i have just an index method that will list some welcome messages etc. I also have a controller named products.

So in controller Products i have a method list that will handle the listing of products in specific category.

So far so good. The HTML page has some sections: on the top there is the header with a menu, on the left is a list of categories, in the center is the content area (different with each controller/method) then on the right a list of hot items, top rated etc.

The problem is: how can I populate this sections without having to write a code that will take the categories/hot products/top rated and pass it to the $this->view object in every controller's init() function? I think it can be done using Plugins or Helpers but i could not find anywhere any actual tutorials on this.

If anybody has any ideea or maybe a link would be great.

Thanks,
Adrian