Zend Form: How to set the length of a text input or textarea element?

Question

By default Zend Form Text elements don't have a width specified. Textarea elements have a default of rows="24" and cols="80". But when I set a different value...

$body = new Zend_Form_Element_Textarea('body');
$body->setLabel('Body:')
    ->setRequired(true)
    ->setAttrib('COLS', '40')
    ->setAttrib('ROWS', '4');
$this->addElement($body);

...the attributes are only added, not changed:

<textarea name="body" id="body" COLS="40" ROWS="4" rows="24" cols="80">

What is the correct way to specify a width and height of a textarea element, and the column width of a text element?

Solution:

Apparently, you can't specify html attributes in capital letters or else it will add duplicate attributes.

To change the height and width of a text area element:

$textarea = new Zend_Form_Element_Textarea('body');
$textarea
    ->setAttrib('cols', '40')
    ->setAttrib('rows', '4');

To change the width of a text element:

$text = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('subject');
$text->setAttrib('size', '40');

Bunche

Answer 1

It'll work if you take those attribute names and lowercase'em.

Wenda

Returning to this five years later, uppercase now works too. Progress! – Wenda

Answer 2

Try this:

$text = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('subject');

$text ->setAttrib('maxlength','100');

Otology

Answer 3

Using the setAttrib will not affect the stringlength as that attribute is only recognised by text inputs. Try using a validator to control the string length. Note you can also set custom error messages.

$text = new Zend_Form_Element_Textarea( 'body' );
        $text->      ->setLabel('Body:')
                     ->setAttrib('cols', 50)
                     ->setAttrib('rows', 4)
                     ->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(40, 250))
                     ->setRequired( true )
                     ->setErrorMessages(array('Text must be between 40 and 250 characters'));

Taskwork

Answer 4

I'm not an expert, but have you tried using lowercase attribute names? It's pretty tacky but if it works it suggests the language is broken in this respect.

Fabron

Not tacky. It's according to specification. – Knoll

Answer 5

Generally it is good practice to add your form attributes in your fieldset class (or form class depending on how you have set it up).

Here is an example:

class SomeFieldSet extends Fieldset
{
    /**
     * @var \Doctrine\Common\Persistence\ObjectManager
     * @access protected
     */
    protected $objectManager;

    /**
     * @param ObjectManager $objectManager
     * @param SomeEntity $claimPrototype
     * @param null $name
     * @param array $options
     */
    public function __construct(
        ObjectManager $objectManager,
        SomeEntity $somePrototype,
        $name = null,
        $options = array()
    ) {
        parent::__construct($name, $options);

        $this->objectManager = $objectManager;

        $this->setHydrator(new DoctrineObject($objectManager));
        $this->setObject($somePrototype);

    }

    public function init()
    {

        $this->add(
            [
                'name'       => 'description',
                'type'       => 'textarea',
                'options'    => [
                    'label' => 'Some Label',
                    'instructions' => 'Some instruction',
                ],
                'attributes' => [
                    'class' => 'form-control',
                    'placeholder' => 'Some placeholder',
                    'required' => 'required',
                    'rows' => 10
                ],
            ]
        );

}

Leach