Create A Form
For our guestbook to be useful, we need a form for submitting new entries.
Our first order of business is to create the actual form class. To create the empty form
class, execute:
This will create the directory application/forms/ with the classfile
Guestbook.php. Open that file and update it so it reads as follows:
setMethod('post');
// Add an email element
$this->addElement('text', 'email', array(
'label' => 'Your email address:',
'required' => true,
'filters' => array('StringTrim'),
'validators' => array(
'EmailAddress',
)
));
// Add the comment element
$this->addElement('textarea', 'comment', array(
'label' => 'Please Comment:',
'required' => true,
'validators' => array(
array('validator' => 'StringLength', 'options' => array(0, 20))
)
));
// Add a captcha
$this->addElement('captcha', 'captcha', array(
'label' => 'Please enter the 5 letters displayed below:',
'required' => true,
'captcha' => array(
'captcha' => 'Figlet',
'wordLen' => 5,
'timeout' => 300
)
));
// Add the submit button
$this->addElement('submit', 'submit', array(
'ignore' => true,
'label' => 'Sign Guestbook',
));
// And finally add some CSRF protection
$this->addElement('hash', 'csrf', array(
'ignore' => true,
));
}
}
]]>
The above form defines five elements: an email address field, a comment field, a
CAPTCHA for preventing spam submissions, a submit button, and a
CSRF protection token.
Next, we will add a signAction() to our
GuestbookController which will process the form upon submission. To
create the action and related view script, execute the following:
As you can see from the output, this will create a signAction()
method in our controller, as well as the appropriate view script.
Let's add some logic into our guestbook controller's sign action. We need to first check if
we're getting a POST or a GET request; in the latter
case, we'll simply display the form. However, if we get a POST request,
we'll want to validate the posted data against our form, and, if valid, create a new entry
and save it. The logic might look like this:
getRequest();
$form = new Application_Form_Guestbook();
if ($this->getRequest()->isPost()) {
if ($form->isValid($request->getPost())) {
$comment = new Application_Model_Guestbook($form->getValues());
$mapper = new Application_Model_GuestbookMapper();
$mapper->save($comment);
return $this->_helper->redirector('index');
}
}
$this->view->form = $form;
}
}
]]>
Of course, we also need to edit the view script; edit
application/views/scripts/guestbook/sign.phtml to read:
Please use the form below to sign our guestbook!
form->setAction($this->url());
echo $this->form;
]]>Better Looking Forms
No one will be waxing poetic about the beauty of this form anytime soon. No matter -
form appearance is fully customizable! See the decorators section in the reference guide
for details.
Additionally, you may be interested in our tutorial on form decorators.
Checkpoint
Now browse to "http://localhost/guestbook/sign". You should see the following in your
browser: