Zend form for registration with salt - zend-framework

Question

I have a simple registration form and the password hashed using md5 encryption and a salt, I am getting an error saying that the "uni" field can not be null and I am assuming this is due to the fact that I am unsure how to add the $salt into the form(would it not be a hidden element? Like the id field?). I have done the model below:
public function addUser($first_name, $surname, $email, $username, $password, $salt, $age, $gender, $uni) {
$salt=substr(md5(mt_rand()),0,20);
$md5Password=md5($salt.$password);
$data = array(
'first_name' => $first_name,
'surname' => $surname,
'email' => $email,
'username' => $username,
'salt' => $salt,
'password' => $md5Password,
'age' => $age,
'gender' => $gender,
'uni' => $uni,
);
$this->insert($data);
}
and here is the form:
<?php
class Application_Form_Register extends Zend_Form
{
public function init() {
$this->setName('register');
$id = new Zend_Form_Element_Hidden('id');
$id->addFilter('Int');
$first_name = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('first_name');
$first_name->setLabel('Firstname:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$surname = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('surname');
$surname->setLabel('Surname:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$email = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('email');
$email->setLabel('Email:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$username = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('username');
$username->setLabel('Username:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$password = new Zend_Form_Element_Password('password');
$password->setLabel('Password:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$salt = new Zend_Form_Element_Hidden('salt');
$age = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('age');
$age->setLabel('Age:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$gender = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('gender');
$gender->setLabel('Gender:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$uni = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('uni');
$uni->setLabel('University:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
$submit = new Zend_Form_Element_Submit('submit');
$submit->setAttrib('id', 'submitbutton');
$this->addElements(array($id, $first_name, $surname, $email, $username, $password, $salt, $age, $gender, $uni, $submit));
}
}
Thanks
Rik

Answer 1

first 'uni' is a form field.
$uni = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('uni');
$uni->setLabel('University:')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('NotEmpty');
this error occurs when you are passing a 'null' value to the db table column that has been declared 'not null'. To solve this, pass a 'not null' value to your 'addUser()' method, set a default value for 'uni' in your method api or allow the db table 'uni' column to accept 'null' values.
Personally I usually pass an array to these kinds on methods and then pull out the bits I want. Something like:
public function addStation(array $data) {
$data = array(
'station' => $data['station'],
'comment' => $data['comment']
);
$this->insert($data);
}
Again Personally I would not put the salt field in the form at all I would assign the salt in the model. No sense showing the world anything at all about my salt.
good luck.