JSON responses are rapidly becoming the response of choice when dealing with AJAX requests that expect dataset responses; JSON can be immediately parsed on the client-side, leading to quick execution. The JSON action helper does several things: Disables layouts if currently enabled. Optionally, an array of options to pass as the second argument to Zend_Json::encode(). This array of options allows enabling layouts and encoding using Zend_Json_Expr. _helper->json($data, array('enableJsonExprFinder' => true)); ]]> Disables the ViewRenderer if currently enabled. Sets the 'Content-Type' response header to 'application/json'. By default, immediately returns the response, without waiting for the action to finish execution. Usage is simple: either call it as a method of the helper broker, or call one of the methods encodeJson() or sendJson(): _helper->json($data); // or... $this->_helper->json->sendJson($data); // or retrieve the json: $json = $this->_helper->json->encodeJson($data); } } ]]> If you have a separate layout for JSON responses -- perhaps to wrap the JSON response in some sort of context -- each method in the JSON helper accepts a second, optional argument: a flag to enable or disable layouts. Passing a boolean TRUE value will keep layouts enabled: _helper->json($data, true); ]]> Optionally, you can pass an array as the second parameter. This array may contain a variety of options, including the keepLayouts option: _helper->json($data, array('keepLayouts' => true); ]]> Zend_Json::encode() allows the encoding of native JSON expressions using Zend_Json_Expr objects. This option is disabled by default. To enable this option, pass a boolean TRUE value to the enableJsonExprFinder option: _helper->json($data, array('enableJsonExprFinder' => true); ]]> If you desire to do this, you must pass an array as the second argument. This also allows you to combine other options, such as the keepLayouts option. All such options are then passed to Zend_Json::encode(). _helper->json($data, array( 'enableJsonExprFinder' => true, 'keepLayouts' => true, )); ]]>