Question

I’m quite busy with working with the Zend_Form object.

I’m building a form which will be used to create new invoices.

As you can see in the above image it’s a form with several different input fields on different places on the page and in the HTML code.

Normally you would use decorators to do this but I don’t think this is a preferrable situation.

The button which inserts new HTML creates new input fields with the same names but with [NUMBER] at the end(creates arrays).

I think it’s the best to just add the fields manually in the view script(Pseudo code: echo Zend_Form_Text_Element->toHtml();..

Can anyone give me advice how to get this to work properly?

Answer 1

You should use the view script decorator. Here is a good link.

Scroll down to the part where it says: Example: Full Customization Using the ViewScript Decorator

Here is a sample form built using the view script:

<h4>Please register with us!</h4>
<form action="<?= $this->escape($this->form->getAction() ?>"
      method="<?= $this->escape($this->form->getMethod() ?>">

<fieldset>
    <legend>Demographics</legend>
    <p>
        Please provide us the following information so we can know more about
        you.
    </p>

    <?= $this->form->age ?>
    <?= $this->form->nationality ?>
    <?= $this->form->income ?>
</fieldset>

<fieldset>
    <legend>User Information</legend>
    <p>
        Now please tell us who you are and how to contact you.
    </p>

    <?= $this->form->firstname ?>
    <?= $this->form->lastname ?>
    <?= $this->form->email ?>
    <?= $this->form->address1 ?>
    <?= $this->form->address2 ?>
    <?= $this->form->city ?>
    <?= $this->form->state ?>
    <?= $this->form->postal ?>
    <?= $this->form->phone ?>
</fieldset>

<?= $this->form->submit ?>
</form>

This way u can have full control over the html of the form and u won’t need to suffer from the decorators hell 😀