Web Frameworks - Workbook - Week 05

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Create a Form

For our guestbook to be useful, we need a form for submitting new entries.

Step 1 - create the form class

Our first order of business is to create the actual form class. First, create the directory application/forms/. This directory will contain form classes for the application. Next, we'll create a form class in application/forms/Guestbook.php:

<?php
// application/forms/Guestbook.php

class Default_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'),
            'validators' => array(
                'EmailAddress',
            )
        ));

        // Add the comment element
        $this->addElement('textarea', 'comment', array(
            'label'      => 'Please Comment:',
            'required'   => true,
            'validators' => array(
                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'    => array(
                '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.

Step 2 - Create new action and view

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.sh create action sign guestbook

This will create a signAction() method in our controller, as well as the appropriate view script.

Step 3 - Edit our new action

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:

<?php
// application/controllers/GuestbookController.php

class GuestbookController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    // snipping indexAction()...

    public function signAction()
    {
        $request = $this->getRequest();
        $form    = new Default_Form_Guestbook();

        if ($this->getRequest()->isPost()) {
            if ($form->isValid($request->getPost())) {
                $model = new Default_Model_Guestbook($form->getValues());
                $model->save();
                return $this->_helper->redirector('index');
            }
        }
        
        $this->view->form = $form;
    }
}

Step 4 - Edit our new view

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());
echo $this->form;

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 this series of posts on decorators.

Checkpoint

Browse to your project: http://mi-linux.wlv.ac.uk/~0123456/quickstart/public/guestbook

Click on the "Sign Our Guestbook", fill the form, and press the "Sign Guestbook" button... all done!