To use a helper in your view script, call it using $this->helperName(). Behind the scenes, Zend_View will load the Zend_View_Helper_HelperName class, create an object instance of it, and call its helperName() method. The object instance is persistent within the Zend_View instance, and is reused for all future calls to $this->helperName().
public function __call($name, $args)
{
// is the helper already loaded?
$helper = $this->getHelper($name);
// call the helper method
return call_user_func_array(
array($helper, $name),
$args
);
}
From above code snippets, we know that view uses plugin loader to load helper by name, then call the helper's method.