Question

I’ve used validator errors customization example from this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4881030/822947, but I need to override some of translated errors with addValidator() or setMessage()/setMessages(). Examples below doesn’t work (seems, built in translator has priority?)… How can I do it?

$field->addValidator ('Alpha', false, array ('messages' => array (Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA => 'My msg')));

$Alpha = new Zend_Validate_Alpha ();
$Alpha->setDisableTranslator (true);
$Alpha->setMessage ('My msg', Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA);

$Alpha->setMessages (array (Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA  => 'My msg'));
$field->addValidator ($Alpha);

UPDATE
The problem not in the way I add validator and set messages to it.

My goal is to localize all error messages. But for some form fields I need to add more specific messages.

For example, in my lang/translate.php I have common
Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA => 'Value contains non alphabetic characters',

but for name field I need more specific
Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA => 'Field can contain only alphabetic characters and spaces',

The problem is specific message ignored when I enable built in translator. So for example code

$form = new Zend_Form ();

$validator = new Zend_Validate_Alpha ();
$validator->setMessages (array (
    Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA => 'xxx %value% x'
));

$form->addElement ('text', 'digit', array (
    'validators' => array (
        $validator
    )
));

$name = new Zend_Form_Element_Text ('name');
$name->addValidator ('Alpha', true, array (
    'allowWhiteSpace' => true,
    'messages' => array
    (
        Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA => 'my more specific localized msg',
    )
));

$form->addElement ($name);

$form->isValid (array (
    'digit' => '___',
    'name' => '___',
));

Zend_Debug::dump ($form->getMessages ());

when translator disabled, I have

array(2) {
  'digit' =>
  array(1) {
    'notAlpha' =>
    string(9) "xxx ___ x"
  }
  'name' =>
  array(1) {
    'notAlpha' =>
    string(30) "my more specific localized msg"
  }
}

when translator enabled, I have messages from lang/translate.php

array(2) {
  'digit' =>
  array(1) {
    'notAlpha' =>
    string(104) "common localized msg"
  }
  'name' =>
  array(1) {
    'notAlpha' =>
    string(104) "common localized msg"
  }
}

Answer 1

The problem is that Alpha validator does not support options array in parameters to constructor. You have to set them separatelly.

    $form = new Zend_Form ();

    $validator = new Zend_Validate_Alpha ();

    /* Custom error message */
    $validator->setMessages (array (
        Zend_Validate_Alpha::NOT_ALPHA => 'xxx %value% x'
    ));

    $form->addElement ('text', 'digit', array (
        'validators' => array (
            $validator
        )
    ));


    $form->isValid (array (
        'digit' => '___'
    ));

    Zend_Debug::dump ($form->getMessages ());

Update

The problem is with your translator then.

I have my translator configured like this:

resources.translate.adapter = Array
resources.translate.data = APPLICATION_PATH "/test-translate"

file en.php:

return array (
                "notAlpha" => 'my Translated alpha'
);

and it works.