Is there a better way to design zend_forms instead of using decorators?
I am currently using zend_decorators to add styles to my form. I was wondering if there is an alternative way to do this? It's hard to write decorators. I would love the random use of divs and CSS styling:
<input type="submit" class="colorfulButton" >
This is much easier than setting a decorator for a specific control and adding it. As this requires creating a decorator for each style implementation and adding it using a control. See helpers for a trick?
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There are several ways. You can roll your own item view item helpers (which might get pretty awkward soon).
Or ... you can use a viewcript for a form like this (very simple example):
class Your_Form extends Zend_Form
{
public function init()
{
$this->setDecorators( array(
'PrepareElements',
array( 'ViewScript', array( 'viewScript' => 'path/to/viewscript.phtml' ) )
) );
// only use basic decorators for elements
$decorators = array(
'ViewHelper',
'Label',
'Errors'
);
// create some element
$someElement = new Zend_Form_Element_Text( 'someElement' );
// set the basic decorators for this element and set a css class
$someElement->setDecorators( $decorators )
->setAttrib( 'class', 'someCssClass' );
// add (potentially multiple) elements to this from
$this->addElements( array(
$someElement
) );
}
}
See the section on Standard Decorators about PrepareElements for why you need to create a PrepareElements decorator for your form for decoration when using the ViewScript decorator.
Then in viewcript:
<?
// the form is available to the viewscript as $this->element
$form = $this->element;
?>
<!-- put whatever html you like in this script and render the basic element decorators seperately -->
<div>
<? if( $form->someElement->hasErrors() ): ?>
<?= $form->someElement->renderErrors() ?>
<? endif; ?>
<?= $form->someElement->renderLabel(); ?>
<?= $form->someElement->renderViewHelper(); ?>
</div>
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If you just want to set a class attribute on a form element, there is no need to define a decorator: this can be done using some of the standard zend_form element methods.
See the method , in the Metadata and Attributes section of the manual, and an example given there (cited): setAttrib()
// Equivalent to $element->setAttrib('class', 'text'):
$element->class = 'text;
And if you can set a class attribute that way, you can probably set it when building the form elements or in the .ini file that will define those elements - there is an example that shows that a little later on the page, in the Configuration section .
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