unable to render Zend_Form - zend-framework

Question

i'm trying to render a login form using Zend_Form, i want it to be rendered calling www.site.com/login or www.site.com/account/login, but once i've done all the steps below and i try to call /login or /account/login from my browser i'm getting a HTTP 500 (Internal Server Error).. even if the rest of the site works perfectly. Please help me figure out where i'm wrong..
(note that I'm using Zend Framework 1.11)
(1) Create the model through ZF
zf create model FormLogin
(2) Edit the new created model in application/models/FormLogin.php
class Application_Model_FormLogin extends Zend_Form
{
public function __construct($options = null)
{
parent::__construct($options);
$this->setName('login');
$this->setMethod('post'); // GET O POST
$this->setAction('/account/login'); // form action=[..]
$email = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('email');
$email->setAttrib('size', 35);
$pswd = new Zend_Form_Element_Password('pswd');
$pswd->setAttrib('size', 35);
$submit = new Zend_Form_Element_Submit('submit'); // submit button
$this->setDecorators( array( array('ViewScript', array('viewScript' => '_form_login.phtml'))));
$this->addElements(array($email, $pswd, $submit));
}
}
(3) Add loginAction to the Account controller
class AccountController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
public function init()
{
/* Initialize action controller here */
}
public function indexAction()
{
}
public function loginAction()
{
$form = new Application_Model_FormLogin();
$this->view->form = $form;
}
}
(4) Create the View at application/views/scripts/account/login.phtml
<?php echo $this->form; ?>
(5) Create the page application/views/scripts/_form_login.phtml called by setDecorators() at the point (2)
<form id="login" action="<?php echo $this->element->getAction(); ?>"
method="<?php echo $this->element->getMethod(); ?>">
<p>
E-mail Address<br />
<?php echo $this->element->email; ?>
</p>
<p>
Password<br />
<?php echo $this->element->pswd; ?>
</p>
<p>
<?php echo $this->element->submit; ?>
</p>
</form>
(6) And this is my Bootstrap.php
class Bootstrap extends Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap
{
public function _initRoutes()
{
$frontController = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance();
$router = $frontController->getRouter();
$route = new Zend_Controller_Router_Route_Static (
'login',
array('controller' => 'Account', 'action' => 'login')
);
$router->addRoute('login', $route);
$route = new Zend_Controller_Router_Route (
'games/asin/:asin/',
array('controller' => 'Games',
'action' => 'view',
'asin' => 'B000TG530M' // default value
)
);
$router->addRoute('game-asin-view', $route);
}
}

Answer 1

Change your class definition for Application_Model_FormLogin to the following:
<?php
class Application_Model_FormLogin extends Zend_Form
{
public function init()
{
$this->setName('login');
$this->setMethod('post'); // GET O POST
$this->setAction('/account/login'); // form action=[..]
$email = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('email');
$email->setAttrib('size', 35);
$pswd = new Zend_Form_Element_Password('pswd');
$pswd->setAttrib('size', 35);
$submit = new Zend_Form_Element_Submit('submit'); // submit button
$this->setDecorators( array( array('ViewScript', array('viewScript' => '_form_login.phtml'))));
$this->addElements(array($email, $pswd, $submit));
}
}
You should set your form up using the init() method rather than using __construct()
When you call parent::__construct($options); in the constructor for your Zend_Form, that ends up calling the form's init() method and then nothing after that is executed so your form initialization and element creation was never being called.
The 500 internal server was because you were calling parent::__construct() and your form had no init() method.

Answer 2

drew010 has a good point about setting up your form in init() rather then__construct().
I just spent hours fighting with the viewScript method and this is how I got it to work (so far).
$this->view->form = $form assigns to the view
then in your view you need to render the partial with something like <?php echo $this->render('_form_login.phtml')
if you use this method then you access your elements using <?php echo $this->form->email; ?>
Using this method I did not use the $this->setDecorators( array( array('ViewScript', array('viewScript' => '_form_login.phtml')))); line of code.
The proper way to do this uses the viewScript decorator, however I have not been able to make it work yet. I did find that using this decorator I had to access the elements using $this->element->elementname, but I could not find anyway to access the method or action. getMethod() and getAction() both returned errors.
[EDIT]
ok i got it to work:
Make your form as normal using init()
$form->setDecorators(array(
array('ViewScript', array('viewScript' => '_yourScript.phtml'))
)); I like to add this in the controller.
in your viewScript access the form object using $this->element instead of $this->form
assign your form to the view normally $this->view->form = $form
render the form normally <?php echo $this->form ?>
this is the example I got to work...finally
<form action="<?php echo $this->element->getAction() ?>"
method="<?php echo $this->element->getMethod() ?>">
<table>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $this->element->weekend->renderLabel() ?></td>
<td><?php echo $this->element->weekend->renderViewHelper() ?></td>
<td><?php echo $this->element->bidlocation->renderLabel() ?></td>
<td><?php echo $this->element->bidlocation->renderViewHelper() ?></td>
<td><?php echo $this->element->shift->renderLabel() ?></td>
<td><?php echo $this->element->shift->renderViewHelper() ?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="6"><?php echo $this->element->submit ?></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
I think my hoof-in-mouth is cured for the moment.