March 17, 2006
Using Zend Framework, Smarty, and QuickForm to Quickly Deploy PHP Applications
I began work this week on my first project utilizing the Zend Framework. The Zend Framework, although still alpha, provides some time-saving features for PHP web application developers. The largest time-saving feature for me so far has been the Zend Controller component, which is the building block for the MVC pattern. Basically, it allows you to create controllers and handlers to process requests. For example, /admin/index gets mapped to the 'index' action of the 'admin' controller. Inside the code, all you have to do is create classes to represent each controller and functions in those classes to process the handlers. Each handler function simply outputs the desired data to the browser. Easy as pie.
When working with the Zend Framework, I was reluctant to give up two tools that have served me well: Smarty, a PHP template engine, and PEAR's HTML QuickForm, a class that handles form generation and validation. Using Zend Framework's easily extensible design patterns, I settled on a design pattern that allows me to easily integrate all three of these components.
First, I created a Smarty template for displaying QuickForm-generated forms:
<table border="0">
<form{$form.attributes}>{$form.hidden}
{foreach item=sec key=i from=$form.sections}
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="padding-bottom: 20px">
<b>{$sec.header}</b>
</td>
</tr>
{foreach item=element from=$sec.elements}
{if $element.type eq "submit" or $element.type eq "reset"}
{if not $form.frozen}
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left">{$element.html}</td>
</tr>
{/if}
{else}
<tr>
<td align="right" valign="top">
{if $element.required && $element.label}<font color="red">*</font>{/if}<b>{if $element.label}{$element.label}:{/if}</b></td>
<td>
{if $element.error}<font color="red">{$element.error}</font><br />{/if}
{if $element.type eq "group"}
{foreach key=gkey item=gitem from=$element.elements}
{$gitem.label}
{$gitem.html}{if $gitem.required}<font color="red">*</font>{/if}
{if $element.separator}{cycle values=$element.separator}{/if}
{/foreach}
{else}
{$element.html}
{/if}
<div style="font-size: 80%;">{$element.label_note}</div>
</td>
</tr>
{/if}
{/foreach}
{/foreach}
{if $form.requirednote and not $form.frozen}
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td valign="top">{$form.requirednote}</td>
</tr>
{/if}
</form>
</table>
I saved this file as genericForm.tpl.
Next, I extended the Zend Framework View class to integrate with Smarty:
<?phpZend::loadClass('Zend_View_Abstract');
require_once 'Smarty/Smarty.class.php';
class My_View extends Zend_View_Abstract
{
private $_smarty;
public function __construct($config = array()) {
parent::__construct($config);
$this->_smarty = new Smarty();
$root = Zend::registry('config')->get('root', 'project');
$this->_smarty->template_dir = $root.'application/views/';
$this->_smarty->compile_dir = $root.'tmp/templates_c/';
$this->_smarty->config_dir = $root.'tmp/configs/';
$this->_smarty->cache_dir = $root.'tmp/cache/';
}
public function render($name) {
$file = $name.'.tpl';
$this->assign('basehref', Zend::registry('config')->get('htmlroot', 'project'));
return $this->_smarty->display($file);
}
public function assign($spec) {
$args = func_get_args();
call_user_func(array('parent', 'assign'), $args);
if (is_string($spec)) {
$arg = func_get_arg(1);
$this->_smarty->assign($spec, $arg);
} elseif (is_array($spec)) {
foreach ($spec as $k=>$v) {
$this->_smarty->assign($k, $v);
}
}
else {
throw new Zend_View_Exception('assign() expects a string or array');
}
}
public function renderForm(HTML_Quickform &$f) {
$renderer = new HTML_QuickForm_Renderer_Array(true, true);
$f->accept($renderer);
$this->assign('form', $renderer->toArray());
$this->render('genericForm');
}
}?>
Finally, I build my controllers. Here is an example:
<?phprequire_once 'Zend/Controller/Action.php';
class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action {
public function indexAction() {
$form = new HTML_QuickForm('My_Form', 'post', 'index');
$form->addElement('header', 'header', 'My Form Test');
$form->addElement('text', 'name', 'Your Name', array('size'=>30, 'maxlength'=>255));
$form->addRule('name', 'Your name is required');
$buttons[] = &HTML_QuickForm::createElement('submit', 'submit', 'Submit');
$buttons[] = &HTML_QuickForm::createElement('reset', 'clear', 'Reset');
$form->addGroup($buttons, null, null, ' ');
$view = Zend::registry('view');
$view->renderForm($form);
}public function noRouteAction() {
echo 'No route to action';
}
}?>
All that is left is verifying the form. To do this, after the $form object is completely built, call $form->validate(). If the return is true, you can do what you want with the form variables. I recommend using the $this->_forward call within the controller and dedicate another handler to processing the form submission. If the form does not validate, just call $view->renderForm($form) again.
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