Un script de vista puede usarse para instanciar y manipular un objeto de plantilla independiente, como una plantilla al estilo PHPLIB. El script de vista para ese tipo de actividad podría parecerse a esto:

include_once 'template.inc';
$tpl = new Template();

if ($this->books) {
    $tpl->setFile(array(
        "booklist" => "booklist.tpl",
        "eachbook" => "eachbook.tpl",
    ));

    foreach ($this->books as $key => $val) {
        $tpl->set_var('author', $this->escape($val['author']);
        $tpl->set_var('title', $this->escape($val['title']);
        $tpl->parse("books", "eachbook", true);
    }

    $tpl->pparse("output", "booklist");
} else {
    $tpl->setFile("nobooks", "nobooks.tpl")
    $tpl->pparse("output", "nobooks");
}

Estos serían los archivos de plantilla relacionados:

<!-- booklist.tpl -->
<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Author</th>
        <th>Title</th>
    </tr>
    {books}
</table>

<!-- eachbook.tpl -->
    <tr>
        <td>{author}</td>
        <td>{title}</td>
    </tr>

<!-- nobooks.tpl -->
<p>There are no books to display.</p>

Algunos pueden encontrar más fácil simplemente proporcionar un motor de plantillas compatible con Zend_View. Zend_View_Interface define la interfaz mínima necesaria para la compatibilidad:

/**
 * Return the actual template engine object
 */
public function getEngine();

/**
 * Set the path to view scripts/templates
 */
public function setScriptPath($path);

/**
 * Set a base path to all view resources
 */
public function setBasePath($path, $prefix = 'Zend_View');

/**
 * Add an additional base path to view resources
 */
public function addBasePath($path, $prefix = 'Zend_View');

/**
 * Retrieve the current script paths
 */
public function getScriptPaths();

/**
 * Overloading methods for assigning template variables as object
 * properties
 */
public function __set($key, $value);
public function __isset($key);
public function __unset($key);

/**
 * Manual assignment of template variables, or ability to assign
 * multiple variables en masse.
 */
public function assign($spec, $value = null);

/**
 * Unset all assigned template variables
 */
public function clearVars();

/**
 * Render the template named $name
 */
public function render($name);

Usando esta interfaz, resulta relativamente fácil envolver un motor de plantillas de terceros como una clase compatible con Zend_View. Como ejemplo, el siguiente es un posible wrapper para Smarty:

class Zend_View_Smarty implements Zend_View_Interface
{
    /**
     * Smarty object
     * @var Smarty
     */
    protected $_smarty;

    /**
     * Constructor
     *
     * @param string $tmplPath
     * @param array $extraParams
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct($tmplPath = null, $extraParams = array())
    {
        $this->_smarty = new Smarty;

        if (null !== $tmplPath) {
            $this->setScriptPath($tmplPath);
        }

        foreach ($extraParams as $key => $value) {
            $this->_smarty->$key = $value;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Return the template engine object
     *
     * @return Smarty
     */
    public function getEngine()
    {
        return $this->_smarty;
    }

    /**
     * Set the path to the templates
     *
     * @param string $path The directory to set as the path.
     * @return void
     */
    public function setScriptPath($path)
    {
        if (is_readable($path)) {
            $this->_smarty->template_dir = $path;
            return;
        }

        throw new Exception('Invalid path provided');
    }

    /**
     * Retrieve the current template directory
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getScriptPaths()
    {
        return array($this->_smarty->template_dir);
    }

    /**
     * Alias for setScriptPath
     *
     * @param string $path
     * @param string $prefix Unused
     * @return void
     */
    public function setBasePath($path, $prefix = 'Zend_View')
    {
        return $this->setScriptPath($path);
    }

    /**
     * Alias for setScriptPath
     *
     * @param string $path
     * @param string $prefix Unused
     * @return void
     */
    public function addBasePath($path, $prefix = 'Zend_View')
    {
        return $this->setScriptPath($path);
    }

    /**
     * Assign a variable to the template
     *
     * @param string $key The variable name.
     * @param mixed $val The variable value.
     * @return void
     */
    public function __set($key, $val)
    {
        $this->_smarty->assign($key, $val);
    }

    /**
     * Allows testing with empty() and isset() to work
     *
     * @param string $key
     * @return boolean
     */
    public function __isset($key)
    {
        return (null !== $this->_smarty->get_template_vars($key));
    }

    /**
     * Allows unset() on object properties to work
     *
     * @param string $key
     * @return void
     */
    public function __unset($key)
    {
        $this->_smarty->clear_assign($key);
    }

    /**
     * Assign variables to the template
     *
     * Allows setting a specific key to the specified value, OR passing
     * an array of key => value pairs to set en masse.
     *
     * @see __set()
     * @param string|array $spec The assignment strategy to use (key or
     * array of key => value pairs)
     * @param mixed $value (Optional) If assigning a named variable,
     * use this as the value.
     * @return void
     */
    public function assign($spec, $value = null)
    {
        if (is_array($spec)) {
            $this->_smarty->assign($spec);
            return;
        }

        $this->_smarty->assign($spec, $value);
    }

    /**
     * Clear all assigned variables
     *
     * Clears all variables assigned to Zend_View either via
     * {@link assign()} or property overloading
     * ({@link __get()}/{@link __set()}).
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function clearVars()
    {
        $this->_smarty->clear_all_assign();
    }

    /**
     * Processes a template and returns the output.
     *
     * @param string $name The template to process.
     * @return string The output.
     */
    public function render($name)
    {
        return $this->_smarty->fetch($name);
    }
}

En este ejemplo, usted instanciaría la clase Zend_View_Smarty en lugar de Zend_View, y luego la usaría de forma aproximadamente igual que Zend_View:

//Example 1. In initView() of initializer.
$view = new Zend_View_Smarty('/path/to/templates');
$viewRenderer =
    Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::getStaticHelper('ViewRenderer');
$viewRenderer->setView($view)
             ->setViewBasePathSpec($view->_smarty->template_dir)
             ->setViewScriptPathSpec(':controller/:action.:suffix')
             ->setViewScriptPathNoControllerSpec(':action.:suffix')
             ->setViewSuffix('tpl');

//Example 2. Usage in action controller remains the same...
class FooController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function barAction()
    {
        $this->view->book   = 'Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide';
        $this->view->author = 'Davey Shafik and Ben Ramsey'
    }
}

//Example 3. Initializing view in action controller
class FooController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function init()
    {
        $this->view   = new Zend_View_Smarty('/path/to/templates');
        $viewRenderer = $this->_helper->getHelper('viewRenderer');
        $viewRenderer->setView($this->view)
                     ->setViewBasePathSpec($view->_smarty->template_dir)
                     ->setViewScriptPathSpec(':controller/:action.:suffix')
                     ->setViewScriptPathNoControllerSpec(':action.:suffix')
                     ->setViewSuffix('tpl');
    }