ZF: Form array field - how to display values in the view correctly
- by Wojciech Fracz
Let's say I have a Zend_Form form that has a few text fields, e.g:
$form = new Zend_Form();
$form->addElement('text', 'name', array(
'required' => true,
'isArray' => true,
'filters' => array( /* ... */ ),
'validators' => array( /* ... */ ),
));
$form->addElement('text', 'surname', array(
'required' => true,
'isArray' => true,
'filters' => array( /* ... */ ),
'validators' => array( /* ... */ ),
));
After rendering it I have following HTML markup (simplified):
<div id="people">
<div class="person">
<input type="text" name="name[]" />
<input type="text" name="surname[]" />
</div>
</div>
Now I want to have the ability to add as many people as I want. I create a "+" button that in Javascript appends next div.person to the container. Before I submit the form, I have for example 5 names and 5 surnames, posted to the server as arrays. Everything is fine unless somebody puts the value in the field that does not validate. Then the whole form validation fails and when I want to display the form again (with errors) I see the PHP Warning:
htmlspecialchars() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given
Which is more or less described in ticket: http://framework.zend.com/issues/browse/ZF-8112
However, I came up with a not-very-elegant solution. What I wanted to achieve:
have all fields and values rendered again in the view
have error messages only next to the fields that contained bad values
Here is my solution (view script):
<div id="people">
<?php
$names = $form->name->getValue(); // will have an array here if the form were submitted
$surnames= $form->surname->getValue();
// only if the form were submitted we need to validate fields' values
// and display errors next to them; otherwise when user enter the page
// and render the form for the first time - he would see Required validator
// errors
$needsValidation = is_array($names) || is_array($surnames);
// print empty fields when the form is displayed the first time
if(!is_array($names))$names= array('');
if(!is_array($surnames))$surnames= array('');
// display all fields!
foreach($names as $index => $name):
$surname = $surnames[$index];
// validate value if needed
if($needsValidation){
$form->name->isValid($name);
$form->surname->isValid($surname);
}
?>
<div class="person">
<?=$form->name->setValue($name); // display field with error if did not pass the validation ?>
<?=$form->surname->setValue($surname);?>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</div>
The code work, but I want to know if there is an appropriate, more comfortable way to do this? I often hit this problem when there is a need for a more dynamic - multivalue forms and have not find better solution for a long time.
