pass models data from controller to the view joomla 3.1 - php

Question

How do I pass properly the models data to the view from controller in joomla 3.1. On start I initialize one of my sub controllers method to gather data on item which should fill up my form layout. Is accessed with the following url ?option=com_unis&task=unis.edit&layout=edit&id=1 than my controllers method looks like
public function edit()
{
$input = JFactory::getApplication()->input;
$model = $this->getModel ( 'item');
$view = $this->getView('item', 'html');
$view->setModel($model);
$view->setLayout('edit');
// Display the view
$view->display();
return $this;
}
than if I try to access the model in my view is returning null
Found it! But maybe is not the best workaround
in the view I init my model like
$model = $this->getModel('mymodel');
$data = $model->my_method($args);
than associate to the layout with a public variable
$this->data = $data;

Answer 1

After all I found out the workaround. In the view I call my model as it follows
$model = $this->getModel('mymodel');
$data = $model->my_method($args);
than I created a public variable which holds the layout data
$this->data = $data;

Answer 2

The controller picks up the view to be used. The model functions can be called in the views/somefolder/view.html.php from there the assignes variables can be viewed in the template default file.
class MyPageViewMyPage extends JViewLegacy {
/**
* Display the Hello World view
*
* #param string $tpl The name of the template file to parse; automatically searches through the template paths.
*
* #return void
*/
public $data;
function display($tpl = null) {
// Assign data to the view
$this->msg = $this->get('Msg'); // call a method msg in the model defined
$model = $this->getModel(); // creating an object for the model
$this->data = $model->getFilter(1); // call a method defined in model by passing the arguments
// Check for errors.
if (count($errors = $this->get('Errors'))) {
JLog::add(implode('<br />', $errors), JLog::WARNING, 'jerror');
return false;
}
// Display the view
parent::display($tpl);
}
}
in the default template file
echo $this->msg;
print_r($this->data);