Why is the value not being passed?

Question

Yii

I understand that I do not understand anything. Therefore, I asked the question of how to transfer data from the database to the template (layouts-> main) I was advised through the widget. From all the documentation about widgets, I found only how to create a HelloWidget, I tried it myself, here is the widget code:

<?php
    namespace common\widgets;
    
    use yii\base\Widget;
    use common\models\Category;
    use yii\helpers\ArrayHelper;
    class Menus extends Widget{
        public $menu;
        public function init()
        {
            parent::init();
            $cat=Category::find()->where('tags=0')->all();
            $this->menu=ArrayHelper::toArray($cat,[
                'common\models\Category' => [
                    'id',
                    'name_category',
                    
                ],
            ]);
        }
    
        public function run()
        {
            return $this->menu;
        }
    }

this is how i try to get it in the template

use common\widgets\Menus;
    ...
    
            <?=Menus::widget(); ?>

I get just an Array (nothing else) please explain why, and what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Menu::widget() will output what the run() function returns on the given widget.
Those. you need to return not an array, but a string with a list of links.
You can make a view for the widget and in run() do return $this->render('menu'). In views/menu.php you will have your menu template. The views folder must be in the same place as the widget itself, otherwise the full path must be passed to render.

Answer 2

Cramming all the logic into a widget is a very quick and easy solution, but a bad one. You can imagine that you have a small black hole in your view that receives information from somewhere. Widgets are needed only to encapsulate the output logic, and not to receive and process data.
The question arises, how to pass data from the model / controller to the layout. Answer: by overriding the renderContent method . If there are many controllers, create a base class with renderContent implemented and inherit from it.