Zend Framework multiplay forms - forms

I want get the follow thing working.
I've a page with a couple of text articles, each article has his own 'id' in the database. Below every article I want to make it possible to discuss about it. So I setup a discuss form witch I print with my article trough a 'foreach'.
In the form I added a Zend_Form_Element_Hidden. In the view I want to set the value of the hidden field with 'article_id', this likes me the best way to put it in the database?
In the foreach I try the follow thing but when I do this, the form is gone and I only get the element where I add the value.
My code in the view:
foreach ($this->paginator as $article):
echo $this->form->getElement('article')->setValue($article['id']);
endforeach;
I hope some one can make this a bit more clear for me :)
With kind regards,
Nicky

I am guessing you want to print the form inside the loop but only the element is being printed.
If that is your problem, the reason is because setValue() returns the element and not the form.
// Your Code
// This will only print the element and not the entire form
echo $this->form->getElement('article')->setValue($article['id']);
You will have to change your code to:
// Set the element value first
$this->form->getElement('article')->setValue($article['id']);
// Then render the form
echo $this->form;

Related

cakephp element not displaying

I have a number of form inputs inside an element as they are repeated in other forms, however it does not output the content of the element when i include it in a view. I can place "Die();" within the element and it will show everything up until that point including the inputs within the element. When checking the source code (without the "Die();") it seems to have disregarded everything within the element including formatting such as DIV's.
The only thing i can think is that cakephp does not like you setting a form in a view then including inputs to the form using elements, does any one know if this is the case, or know the actual reason why this is happening?
The answer is i'm an idiot and forgot to echo the element.... yeah.

Zend Form changing element type in controller

I have my Zend_Form, and sometimes, one of the fields should be hidden, and not seen by the user. Is there a way when I call the form in my controller, I could change one of the fields to be hidden?
Thanks
Kousha
You can remove the element using:
$form->removeElement('my-element-name');
in the controller.
You could also create two forms, one overriding the other, in which the child calls $this->remove('my-element-name').
Or, you could make the form constructor accept a boolean $flag that determines whether to add the field to the form.
So, as you can see, lots of different ways to structure it.
To change that field to one of type "hidden" (i.e. <input type="hidden">) is a different thing, but I'm not sure that's what you mean/need/want.
The best solution I have for this is to add a specific class to the element when it needs to be hidden. It may not be the perfect solution, but let me explain.
First, its very difficult to switch from one element type to another in Zend Form. Your elements are actually classes. So the text is Zend_Form_Element_Text - so its not just as easy as changing the 'type' attribute.
If the element must remain on the form (so, not removing it like the answer above suggests), your only other option would be hiding it with CSS.
Try the following code when it needs to be hidden:
$element = $form->getElement('MyElement');
$newClass = trim($element->getAttrib('class') . ' hidden');
$element->setAttrib('class', $newClass);
Then, of course, create CSS for the .hidden class.
Hope this helps!

Cakephp Controller isn´t processing form data

Hi I´m new with cakephp (v.1.3). I´m trying to do something simple.
I have two tables: fichas[id,... etc] and labos[id,laboratorio,ficha_id] so "labos" belongs to "fichas". (labos.laboratorio is ENUM field).
I would like to view a "ficha" given labos.id and labos.laboratorio so I´ve included the following code in "home.ctp"
<h3>Mostrar Ficha</h3>
<?php echo $this->Form->create('ficha',array('action'=>'localiza'));?>
<?php echo $this->Form->radio('laboratorio',array('A','B','C'),array('A','B','C')); ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->input('id',array('label'=>'Numero','type'=>'text')); ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->end("Mostrar");?>
Then in "fichas_controller.php" added the following:
function localiza(){
$laboratorio=$this->data['Ficha']['laboratorio'];
$id=$this->data['Ficha']['id'];
if(!$id){
$this->Session->setFlash('Por favor introduzca un valor valido');
$this->redirect(array('action'=>'index'));
}
$this->set('fichas',$this->Ficha->findID($id,$laboratorio));
}
Finally in the model "ficha.php" the following:
function findID($id=null,$laboratorio=null){
return $this->find('all',array('conditions'=>array('Labo.laboratorio'=>$laboratorio,'Labo.id'=>$id)));
}
Obviously the file views/fichas/localiza.ctp exists
The thing is when I press the submit button in the form it just reloads the home.ctp page. Looks like the controller´s code is not being executed because i´ve tried to force the error message that should load the index action changing the if condition to true but the same result. I´ve changed the name of the function in the model expecting an error to ocurr but I get the same result.
I have another two forms in the home.ctp page but calling another actions and models.
One of them its almost identical and it works fine.
I can´t figure out the error.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Marcelo.
The array key $this->data['Ficha'] likely doesn't exist. You've created the lowercase "ficha" form, this name should be capitalized, otherwise the data is available in $this->data['ficha']. So the form creation call would look like this:
<?php echo $this->Form->create('Ficha',array('action'=>'localiza'));?>
You can debug in two ways on Cake
Configure::write('debug', 2);
debug($this->data);
OR
The other PHP ways
print_r($this->data);
This way, you will know if you are passing the data->params properly.
Why is your model has first charcter in lower-case? It should be
Fichas
Labos
Then you can issue a direct find on the controller, if you only want.
$d = $this->Fichas->find('all', array();
You might have added the home.ctp file into another controller. Try adding the controller in the following line:
<?php echo $this->Form->create('ficha',array('controller' => 'fichas', 'action'=>'localiza'));?>
Hope it helps.

Zend creating forms based on requests within one controller/action

I don't really know how to word the title well, but here's my issue. I decided instead of having 25 controllers to handle pages, I have one PageController with a viewAction that takes in a :page parameter - for example, http://localhost/website/page/about-us would direct to PageController::viewAction() with a parameter of page = about-us. All of the pages are stored in a templates folder, so the viewrenderer is set to render application\templates\default\about-us.phtml.
I did this so I can consolidate and it seemed like a better approach. My question is the following: lets say when the page request is contact-us, I would need a Zend_Form to be used within the contact page. So, I would need a way within PageController::viewAction() to recognize that the page needs to have a form built, build the form, and also upon submission the need to process it (maybe this should be handled in an abstract process method - not sure).
I have no idea how to implement this. I thought maybe I can store a column with the name of a form and a connecting page identifier. Even better, create a one-to-many page to forms, and then in the submission loop through the forms and check if submitted and if so then process it (maybe there is a isSubmitted() method within zend_form. I really don't know how to handle this, and am looking for any help i can get.
Thanks!
Here is something that came to mind that may work or help point you in a direction that works for you.
This may only work well assuming you were to have no more than one form per page, if you need more than one form on a page, you would have to do something beyond this automatic form handling.
Create a standard location for forms that are attached to pages (e.g. application/forms/page). This is where the automatic forms associated with pages will be kept.
In your viewAction, you could take advantage of the autoloader to see if a form for that page exists. For example:
$page = $this->getParam('page');
$page = ucfirst(preg_replace('/-(\w)/ie', "strtoupper('$1')", $page)); // contact-us -> ContactUs
$class = 'Application_Form_Page_' . $page;
// class_exists will invoke the autoloader to map a class to a file
if (class_exists($class)) {
// a form is defined for this page
$form = new $class();
// check if form was posted
if ($this->getRequest()->isPost()) {
if ($form->isValid($this->getRequest()->getPost()) {
// form is valid - determine how to process it
}
}
// assign the form to the view
$this->view->pageForm = $form;
}
All this really leaves out is the action you take to process a specific form. Since the contact form will likely generate an email, and another form may insert data into a database, you will need some sort of callback system or perhaps another class that can be mapped automatically which contains the form processor code.
Anyway something along those lines is what came to mind first, I hope that helps give you some more ideas.

I'm not specifying the form action but it (automatically) gives different values in some cases

I'm creating my form using the Form helper, so the action of the form is specified automatically....
this form is used for editing a post..
so, the URL has the structure: mywebsite.com/posts/edit/id
and the form's action should be automatically generated as posts/edit/id
but the problem is, in some cases, I open the HTML code and I find that the form's action is only posts/edit without the id which causes the update to fail...
I spent a lot of time to figure out what situation brings this wrong action:
i'm generating fields dynamically (using javascript & ajax) depending on the post's category..
when the value of one of the dynamically generated fields is invalid, the generated action becomes posts/edit !!
I really need help, cuz I don't know why this is happening !!!
and I don't wanna waste more time digging into the core of cakephp...
so, if any of cakephp experts has an idea about this, plz help me !!
thank you in advance !
Use the url parameter, which allows you to explicitly define a url for the form:
echo $form->create('Post', array('url' => $html->url(array('action'=>'edit', $id))));
It sounds like $id probably isn't getting set, because it should be getting passed along if it is. You need to make sure it's set to edit the record in question. Make sure your javascript is including the hidden field with the record's id in it.
Normally done like this, with the form helper: echo $this->Form->input('id');
Also, if one of the fields is invalid, the form shouldn't actually be submitting properly, if you are using cake's validation, so this is to be expected.