Zend controller/view newbie puzzle: $_GET & $_POST empty - on receipt from HTML form within view - zend-framework

Question

Zend newbie here ... And just to make it better, my mission is to build on top of someone else's pre-existing Zend site.
(BTW: zf show version --> Zend Framework Version: 1.11.1 -- I seem to have Zend_Form).
Here's the curious bit. All the forms are built in HTML within views. They seem to work, although I can't figure out how -- especially given what I am seeing.
I followed the convention and created a view for a test form and wrote the form:
<form action="<?php echo $this->url(array('controller'=>'ControllerName','action'=>'submit'));?>" method="post" style="margin-left:20px">
<p class="bold setmgr">Your email here:</p>
<div class="field">
<input class="text" type="text name="custEmail"/>
</div>
<div class="field">
<input class="button" value="Submit and be free!" type="submit"/>
</div>
</form>
The submitAction member in the controller is firing correctly. No problem.
But ALL the places I could look for the POST data appear to be empty!
echo "obj custEmail = [" . $this->_request->getPost('custEmail') . "]\n";
echo "GET custEmail = [" . $_GET['custEmail'] . "]\n";
echo "POST custEmail = [" . $_POST['custEmail'] . "]\n";
if ($this->_request->isPost()) {
$data = $this->_request->getPost();
Zend_Debug::dump($data);
}
They all produce nothing.
I'd be much obliged for a solution or even a clue about what is going wrong.
Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

Your form is not in the correct format.As it's PHP you can use form like this or you can even generate a ZEND_FORM(which is profound way to do it).It's always a good practise to work around with ZEND_FORM.If you still want to use this and the go by your way,here is th snippet I modified for you.
I am modifying the Code for you.Your View should have this form in it;
<form action="" method="post" style="margin-left:20px">
<p class="bold setmgr">Your email here:</p>
<div class="field">
<input class="text" type="text" name="custEmail"/>
</div>
<div class="field">
<input class="button" value="Submit and be free!" type="submit" name="submit"/>
</div>
</form>
<?php
echo $this->custEmail;
?>
Now write the following one on your ACTIOn,i.e. submitAction;
public function submitAction()
{
if ($this->getRequest()->isPost())
{
$custEmail = $this->getRequest()->getPost('custEmail');
echo $custEmail;
$this->view->custEmail = $custEmail;
}
}
Now check if it works for you or not.

Answer 2

Create a form using Zend_Form. When ZF already has a way to create forms, you should use that. Your method is like a hack and is not a recommended way to do things.
Check here on how to create a Zend_Form
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.form.html