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Create A Form - Zend Framework Quick Start
Create A Form
For our guestbook to be useful, we need a form for submitting new entries.
Our first order of business is to create the actual form class. To create the empty form
class, execute:
% zf create form Guestbook
Creating a form at application/forms/Guestbook.php
Updating project profile '.zfproject.xml'
This will create the directory application/forms/ with the classfile
Guestbook.php. Open that file and update it so it reads as follows:
// application/forms/Guestbook.php
class Application_Form_Guestbook extends Zend_Form
{
public function init()
{
// Set the method for the display form to POST
$this->setMethod('post');
// Add an email element
$this->
addElement('text',
'email',
array( 'label' => 'Your email address:',
'required' => true,
'filters' =>
array('StringTrim'),
'EmailAddress',
)
));
// Add the comment element
$this->
addElement('textarea',
'comment',
array( 'label' => 'Please Comment:',
'required' => true,
array('validator' =>
'StringLength',
'options' =>
array(0,
20)) )
));
// Add a captcha
$this->
addElement('captcha',
'captcha',
array( 'label' => 'Please enter the 5 letters displayed below:',
'required' => true,
'captcha' => 'Figlet',
'wordLen' => 5,
'timeout' => 300
)
));
// Add the submit button
$this->
addElement('submit',
'submit',
array( 'ignore' => true,
'label' => 'Sign Guestbook',
));
// And finally add some CSRF protection
$this->
addElement('hash',
'csrf',
array( 'ignore' => true,
));
}
}
The above form defines five elements: an email address field, a comment field, a
CAPTCHA for preventing spam submissions, a submit button, and a
CSRF protection token.
Next, we will add a signAction() to our
GuestbookController which will process the form upon submission. To
create the action and related view script, execute the following:
% zf create action sign Guestbook
Creating an action named sign inside controller
at application/controllers/GuestbookController.php
Updating project profile '.zfproject.xml'
Creating a view script for the sign action method
at application/views/scripts/guestbook/sign.phtml
Updating project profile '.zfproject.xml'
As you can see from the output, this will create a signAction()
method in our controller, as well as the appropriate view script.
Let's add some logic into our guestbook controller's sign action. We need to first check if
we're getting a POST or a GET request; in the latter
case, we'll simply display the form. However, if we get a POST request,
we'll want to validate the posted data against our form, and, if valid, create a new entry
and save it. The logic might look like this:
// application/controllers/GuestbookController.php
class GuestbookController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
// snipping indexAction()...
public function signAction()
{
$request = $this->getRequest();
$form = new Application_Form_Guestbook();
if ($this->getRequest()->isPost()) {
if ($form->isValid($request->getPost())) {
$comment = new Application_Model_Guestbook($form->getValues());
$mapper = new Application_Model_GuestbookMapper();
$mapper->save($comment);
return $this->_helper->redirector('index');
}
}
$this->view->form = $form;
}
}
Of course, we also need to edit the view script; edit
application/views/scripts/guestbook/sign.phtml to read:
<!-- application/views/scripts/guestbook/sign.phtml -->
Please use the form below to sign our guestbook!
<?php
$this->form->setAction($this->url());
Note: Better Looking Forms
No one will be waxing poetic about the beauty of this form anytime soon. No matter -
form appearance is fully customizable! See the decorators section in the reference guide
for details.
Additionally, you may be interested in our tutorial on form decorators.
Note: Checkpoint
Now browse to "http://localhost/guestbook/sign". You should see the following in your
browser:
