Override default Zend_Form element renderer with custom HTML template?

Question

I'm dissatisfied with the way Zend_Form renders form elements by default, and want to override it for all forms produced by instantiating a helper class I have that inherits from Zend_Form to take care of some things that I do on all of my forms.

The changes I want to make seem more complicated than is reasonable/possible with decorators, so I'd like to use a custom HTML template to accomplish this, where I get to plug form values into a custom HTML snippet.

How can I set all HTML elements rendered by my class to use an HTML template? And what properties/functions should I call from the template to get the stuff Zend_Form renders by default? Lastly, I would prefer to do this without having to manually set the template on each input element I create in my code.

konradwww · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-24 07:06:35Z

1

You can extend the defualt Zend_Form class with your own Custom_Form class. In the init() method overwrite the default element decorators. Here my code snippet:

//class Custom_Form extends Zend_Form
public function init()
{
    $this->setElementDecorators(
            array(array('ViewScript', array('viewScript' => '/controller_name/forms/fields/input-text.phtml'))),
            array('email', 'firstname', 'lastname')
        );
}

answered Apr 24, 2013 at 7:06

konradwww

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2 Comments

spiffytech Over a year ago

Is there any documentation for how I should write viewscripts that work for individual, generic form elements? All I've seen is how to write a viewscript for an entire form, which isn't what I'm after. I love that I can just pass element objects to Zend_Form and it renders stuff without me writing HTML for each form I need, I just want it to render stuff differently.

konradwww Over a year ago

search for setElementDecorators()

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:57:18Z

1

I've done my share of coding with ZF1 and the best way I found to render nice forms was to use Twitter Bootstrap along with it.

Check the following links to see if that's also a satisfactory solution for you too:

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:57

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 23, 2013 at 23:57

Rolando Isidoro

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Comments

spiffytech · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-24 22:59:02Z

I wound up using a custom viewscript that I genericized to work with arbitrary forms.

Using this approach, I was able to do the following things:

Add an asterisk after the label of required form elements
Group inputs and errors together in one div, so that when I float the labels to the left things still line up
Add a special class to erroring inputs so I can highlight them
Change certain error messages to include the name of the element instead of "Value"
Pass a text note along with the form elements to be displayed under the input
Not wrap labels and inputs in special elements

Some of these things are impossible without a viewscript, and some are just a pain to implement. I think this solution will be much more flexible for me going forward.

In my helper class' render() function:

$view = new Zend_View();
$view->setBasePath(SRC_ROOT . "/templates/forms");
$this->setDecorators(array(array('ViewScript', array('viewScript' => 'viewscript.php'))));

And here's my viewscript:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/styles.css" />

<form id="<?php echo $this->element->html_id ?>" class="<?php echo $this->element->html_class ?>" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" action="" method="post">
    <?php foreach($this->element as $element) { ?>
        <?php

        $decorators = $element->getDecorators();
        if(isset($decorators["Zend_Form_Decorator_Label"])) {
            $label = $element->getLabel();
        } else {
            $label = "";
        }

        if($element->isRequired() === true) {
            $label .= " *";
        }
        ?>
        <label class="label" for="<?php echo $element->getName(); ?>"><?php echo $label; ?></label>

        <div class="formInput">
            <?php
            // Add the error class to make the form inputs highlight in red
            if($element->hasErrors()) { 
                $attribs = $element->getAttribs();
                if(!isset($attribs["class"])) {
                    $attribs["class"] = "";
                }
                $attribs["class"] .= " inputError";
                $element->setAttribs($attribs);
            }

            // Print the input using Zend_Form's own mechanisms
            $element->setDecorators(array('ViewHelper'));  // Removes all decorators (labels, etc.)
            $v = new Zend_View();
            $element->setView($v);
            echo $element->render();

            if(isset($element->note)) {
                echo "<p>{$element->note}</p>";
            }

            // Print the error messages
            if($element->hasErrors()) {
                $errors = $element->getMessages();
            ?>
                <ul class="errors <?php echo sizeof($errors) == 1 ? "noDecorations" : "" ?>">
                <?php 
                foreach($errors as $error => $message) {
                    // Custom error messages
                    if($error === "isEmpty") {
                        $message = $element->getLabel() . " cannot be empty";
                    } ?>
                    <li><?php echo $message ?></li>
                <?php } ?>
                </ul>
            <?php } ?>
        </div>
        <div style="float: clear;"></div>
    <?php } ?>
</form>

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