What is the Event Manager?

Zend EventManager is a publish-subscribe system — it allows different parts of your app to communicate without being tightly coupled.

• Publisher = the event is triggered.
• Subscriber = listens and reacts to the event.

Like:

🧱 “When a user registers, also send a welcome email and log the action.”

👉 These are all events and listeners.

Example: Simple Usage

1. Install (if standalone):

composer require laminas/laminas-eventmanager

2. Create Event Manager, Attach Listener and Trigger the Event (module\Application\src\Controller\MainController.php)

use Laminas\EventManager\EventManager;
class MainController extends AbstractActionController
{
    protected $eventManager;
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->eventManager = new EventManager();
        $this->eventManager->attach('user.register', function($e) {
            echo "User Registered: " . $e->getParam('name');
        });
    }
    public function homeAction()
    { 
        $this->eventManager->trigger('user.register', null, ['name' => 'John']);
        return new ViewModel();
    }
}

Output:

User Registered: John

Advanced: Using Event Object (module\Application\src\Controller\MainController.php)

use Laminas\EventManager\Event;
use Laminas\EventManager\EventManager;
class MainController extends AbstractActionController
{
    protected $eventManager;
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->eventManager = new EventManager();
        $this->eventManager->attach('user.register', function($e) {
            echo "User Registered: " . $e->getParam('name');
        });
    }
    public function homeAction()
    { 
        $event = new Event();
        $event->setName('order.register');
        $event->setParams(['name' => 'Sathish']);
        return new ViewModel();
    }
}

Real World Use Case: Register Module Listener

In Module.php (module\Application\src\Module.php):

use Laminas\Mvc\MvcEvent;
use Application\Controller\MainController;

class Module
{
    public function getConfig(): array
    {
        /** @var array $config */
        $config = include __DIR__ . '/../config/module.config.php';
        return $config;
    }
    public function onBootstrap(MvcEvent $e)
    {
        $sharedManager = $e->getApplication()->getEventManager()->getSharedManager();

        $sharedManager->attach(
            'MainController', // Controller class name
            'user.register', // Event name
            function ($e) {
                $params = $e->getParams();
                echo "✅ Global Event: User registered with email " . $params['email'] . "<br>";
            }
        );
    }
}

Use in Controller (module\Application\src\Controller\MainController.php):

class MainController extends AbstractActionController
{
    public function homeAction()
    { 
        $this->getEventManager()->trigger('user.register', $this, [
            'email' => 'user@example.com',
        ]);
        return new ViewModel();
    }
}

SharedEventManager via Module.php (module\Application\src\Module.php)

If you want to attach event listener globally, do it in Module.php:

public function onBootstrap(MvcEvent $e)
{
    $sharedManager = $e->getApplication()->getEventManager()->getSharedManager();

    $sharedManager->attach(
        '*', // Listen globally to user.login
        'user.register', // Event name
        function ($e) {
            $params = $e->getParams();
            echo "✅ Global Event: User registered with email " . $params['email'] . "<br>";
        }
    );
}

Real-World Usage

The Event Manager is ideal for managing: