Zend Framework / Form Element is rendering as a text box rather than a dropdown box

Question

I have the following in a config.ini file: (Zend_Form_Element)

site_status.name = "site_status"
site_status.type = "select"
site_status.label = "Status"
site_status.options.multiOptions.active.key = "Active"
site_status.options.multiOptions.active.value = "Active"
site_status.options.multiOptions.active.key = "Inactive"
site_status.options.multiOptions.active.value = "Inactive"

As you can see this is supposed to be a dropdown (select) box, however it is being rendered as a standard text box. What am I doing wrong?

--> Edit

Rather than tying the elements to a form, I am trying to tie them to a database: In my code it would look something like this:

[{tablename}] // the table name would represent a section in the ini
{column}.name = "{column_name/form_field_id}";
{column}.type = "{form_element_type}"
{column}.label = "{form_element_label}"
...

From there I would pull in the database table(s) that the form would represent data for (one or more tables as necessary). As far as the reasoning for this approach is that (down the road), I want to define (either by ini or some other storage method), a configuration file that would be a list of fields/elements that belong to a specific form (that a non-programmer type could easily edit), that the 'generic' form class would read, pull in the element info, and create the form on the fly.

I do realize however this poses another problem which I haven't yet figured out, and that is how to use table lookups for select elements (without coding the database retrieval of the lookup into the form, so that a non-user could easily just define it without any programming, purely configuration, but that is a whole other topic not part of my question here. (and I think I have viable ideas/solutions to that part of the problem anyhow) -- extra config entries and a generic routine pretty much.

I hope that clarifies my thought process and reason why I am doing it the way I am in the example above.

Answer 1

I have not yet played with using a Zend_Config to construct an instance of Zend_Form.

But a look at the code suggests that Zend_Form::addElement() doesn't directly take a Zend_Config instance as a param. Rather, it looks like you need pass your Zend_Config instance to the form constructor. It also seems that the config format needs to be a little deeper in order to map config keys to setXXX() calls.

In path/to/config/myForm.ini:

[myForm]

myForm.elements.site_status.name = "site_status"
myForm.elements.site_status.type = "select"
myForm.elements.site_status.label = "Status"
myForm.elements.site_status.options.multiOptions.active.key = "Active"
myForm.elements.site_status.options.multiOptions.active.value = "Active"
myForm.elements.site_status.options.multiOptions.inactive.key = "Inactive"
myForm.elements.site_status.options.multiOptions.inactive.value = "Inactive"

Then instantiating:

$formConfig = new Zend_Config_Ini('path/to/config/myForm.ini', 'myForm');
$form = new Zend_Form($formConfig);

Not tested, but looking at this example:

Using Zend_Form with Zend_Config - Andrew Vayanis

it feels like it should go something like the above.

Update

In view of the comments/feedback from @Aaron, two more approaches.

1. We could extend Zend_Form, implementing a method called something like addElementByConfig in which we would pass the shallow Zend_Config instance that describes the element itself. In fact, we could even just override addElement(), taking a recursive approach: if the first param is an instance of Zend_Config, then call addElement() using the component data.

2. If the atomicity and re-usability are the primary benefits we seek in using Zend_Config to describe an element, then perhaps we just make a custom element extending Zend_Form_Element. Then we could use these elements in any forms we wish.