ZC32 - Custom Action Helpers for Firebug

public function jsonAction() {
    $this->_isJsonRequest = TRUE;
    ...
}

public function postDispatch() {
    if ($this->_isJsonRequest === TRUE) {
        $this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender(TRUE);
        $this->_helper->getHelper('layout')->disableLayout();
        // Anything else that needs to happen in an action returning a JSON response
    }
}

 
<?php
 
/**
 * If a controller action has the @ajax tag in its doc comment, then
 * the output will be a json string of the controller's json property
 */
class App_Controller_Action_Helper_Ajax extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract
{
    /**
     * @var bool
     */
    protected $_isAjax = false;
    
    /**
     * (non-PHPdoc)
     * @see library/Zend/Controller/Action/Helper/Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract#preDispatch()
     */
    public function preDispatch()
    {
        $this->_isAjax = false;
        $controller = $this->getActionController();
        $action = $this->getRequest()->getActionName();
        $methodName = $action . 'Action';
        
        if (!method_exists($controller, $methodName)) {
            return;
        }
        
        $class = new ReflectionClass(get_class($controller));
        $method = $class->getMethod($methodName);
        
        if (!preg_match('/@ajax/', $method->getDocComment())) {
            return;
        }
        
        $this->_isAjax = true;
        $controller->getHelper('layout')->disableLayout();
    }
    
    /**
     * (non-PHPdoc)
     * @see library/Zend/Controller/Action/Helper/Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract#postDispatch()
     */
    public function postDispatch()
    {
        if (!$this->_isAjax || !isset($this->getActionController()->json)) {
            return;
        }
        
        $json = $this->getActionController()->json;
        if (!is_string($json)) {
            $json = Zend_Json::encode($json);
        }
        
        $this->getActionController()->getHelper('viewRenderer')->setNoRender();
        header('Content-type: application/json');
        echo $json;
    }
}