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

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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'));

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

Try this:

$text = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('subject');

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

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
                ],
            ]
        );

}