I have a web app (cirica 2006) that I'm trying to refactor using Zend Framework 2 and a MVC architecture. The basic layout is pretty simple, but right off the bat it is not apparent to me how it should be converted to views. Ignoring for the moment all the little details, the app functions with two main panes.
The main frame holds the bulk of the content and using a route I can pass the necessary parameters to the module that that controls it. Naturally this defines the primary URL of my app:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ URL: http://example.com/module/path/parameters X +
+------------------------------------+------------------------------+
|MAIN APP |EXTRAS |
| | |
| /module/path/parameters | / |
| | |
| | |
| | ^ How does this pane know |
| | what module and path to |
| | display? |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------+
The question I have is how to control the secondary pane of the app from the URL. The content in this pane is usually related to the primary in some way, but not in such a way that can be derived automatically. The user might load various things in this view for comparison with what the main app is doing. I would like site users to be able to deep-link to whatever content is loaded in BOTH panes. This means the URL must somehow reflect what is going on with two different modules, each of which have a variable amount of parameters that might be passed along.
What format should I use for my URL and where should the route be processed such that the correct parts get passed to the correct components?
