Accessing Variable from Controller in Another Apex Class

Question

I have a variable, that is set in a method of an Apex class that is set as the controller of a custom VF page:

public without sharing class HomeController{
  public HomeController(){
    init();
  }
  public List<People__c> people;
  public void init(){
    people = [my soql]
  }
}

I now want to access this people variable in another Apex class - caveat being that this Apex class is the controller for a VF Component that is loaded through the Template of the same VF page. How would I go about doing this?

Answer 1

Usually when I have data I've already spent governors acquiring, I pass it through using the <apex:attribute> tag in my component. On the receiving end, it would look like:

<apex:component>
    <apex:attribute name="people" type="People__c[]" description="..." />
</apex:component>

Then, on the page itself:

<c:myComponent people="{!people}" />

You can get fancier than that, but I've never had a need to do so.