Applying decorators to all elements of form at once

“Read new version of this article here”, http://zendgeek.blogspot.com/2009/07/applying-zendform-decorators-to-all.html.

After writing two posts on how to setDecorators to different form elements I think it is now time to provide a simple way to set decorators to all form elements at once.
Take a look at the following code.

class SimpleForm extends Zend_Form
{
public function __construct($options = null)
{

parent::__construct($options);
$countryList=array(
‘United States’,
‘United Kindom’,
‘Pakistan’
);

$firstName = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘firstName’);
$firstName ->addValidator(‘alnum’)

->addValidator(‘regex’, false, array(‘/^[a-z]+/’))
->addValidator(’stringLength’, false, array(6, 20))
->setRequired(true)
-> setLabel(‘First Name:’)
->addFilter(‘StringToLower’);

$lastName = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘lastName’);
$lastName ->addValidator(‘StringLength’, false, array(6))

->setRequired(true)
-> setLabel(‘Last Name:’);

$address1 = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘address1′);
$address1->setLabel(‘Address1:’)

->addValidator(‘StringLength’, false,array(3,50))
->setValue(”)
->setRequired(true);

$address2 = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘address2′);
$address2->setLabel(‘Address2:’)

->addValidator(‘StringLength’, false,array(3,50))
->setValue(”)
->setRequired(false);

$postalCode = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘postalCode’);
$postalCode->setLabel(‘Postalcode:’)

->addValidator(‘StringLength’, false,array(3,15))
->setValue(”)
->setRequired(false);

$city = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘city’);
$city->setLabel(‘City:’)

->setValue(”)
->setRequired(false)
->setAttrib(‘tabindex’,'6′);

$state = $this->createElement(‘text’, ’state’);
$state->setLabel(‘State:’)

->setAttrib(‘maxlength’, 2)
->setValue(”)
->setRequired(false)
->setAttrib(‘tabindex’,'7′);

$country = $this->createElement(’select’, ‘country’);
$country->setLabel(‘Country:’)

->setAttrib(‘class’,’select’)
->addMultiOptions($countryList)
->setRequired(false);

$phone = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘phone’);
$phone->setLabel(‘Phone:’)

->setAttrib(‘maxlength’, ‘25′)
->setValue(”)
->setRequired(true);

$emailAddress = $this->createElement(‘text’, ‘emailAddress’);
$emailAddress->setLabel(‘Email:’)

->addValidator(‘StringLength’, false,array(5,50))
->addValidator(‘EmailAddress’)
->setValue(”)
->setRequired(true);

$this->addElements( array (

$firstName,
$lastName,
$address1,
$address2,
$postalCode,
$city,
$state,
$country,
$phone

));
$this->setElementDecorators(array(

‘viewHelper’,
‘Errors’,
array(array(‘data’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’td’)),
array(‘Label’,array(‘tag’=>’td’)),
array(array(‘row’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’tr’))

));
$this->setDecorators(array(

‘FormElements’,
array(array(‘data’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’table’)),
‘Form’

));
}
}
?>

If you have read my previous post on decorators, you will easily understand the code. However those how are new to my blog and decorators may need some explanation.
As usual we are extending our form from Zend_Form, define our constructor, call parent constructor and then define our elements.
The most important line are after we add elements to our form. The code

$this->setElementDecorators(array(

‘viewHelper’,
‘Errors’,
array(array(‘data’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’td’)),
array(‘Label’,array(‘tag’=>’td’)),
array(array(‘row’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’tr’))

));

simply set decorators to all the elements to the form elements. Here we are define that close label in “td”, form elements in “td” and put both these in “tr”.
If you want to set decorators to only few elements then

$this->setElementDecorators(array(

‘viewHelper’,
‘Errors’,
array(array(‘data’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’td’)),
array(‘Label’,array(‘tag’=>’td’)),
array(array(‘row’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’tr’))

),array(‘firstname’,'lastname’));

This code will set decorators to only fistname and lastname element of the form. Rest of the form elements will be render in the default decorators.
At the end we define

$this->setDecorators(array(

‘FormElements’,
array(array(‘data’=>’HtmlTag’),array(‘tag’=>’table’)),
‘Form’

));

This define the form level decorators. We are putting “table” tag after “form” tag. So all the row will be wrapped in table.

the above code will creat the following form.

Zend Form decorators applied