Making use of Forms and Fieldsets

So far all we did was read data from the database. In a real-life-application this won’t get us very far as very often the least we need to do is to support full Create, Read, Update and Delete operations (CRUD). Most often the process of getting data into our database is that a user enters the data into a web <form> and the application then uses the user input and saves it into our backend.

Core components

We want to be able to do exactly this and Zend Framework provides us with all the tools we need to achieve our goal. Before we jump into coding, we need to understand the two core components for this task first. So let’s take a look at what these components are and what they are used for.

Zend\Form\Fieldset

The first component that you have to know about is Zend\Form\Fieldset. A Fieldset is a component that contains a reusable set of elements. You will use the Fieldset to create the frontend-input for your backend-models. It is considered good practice to have one Fieldset for every Model of your application.

The Fieldset-component, however, is no Form, meaning you will not be able to use a Fieldset without attaching it to the Form-component. The advantage here is that you have one set of elements that you can re-use for as many Forms as you like without having to re-declare all the inputs for the Model that’s represented by the Fieldset.

Zend\Form\Form

The main component you’ll need and that most probably you’ve heard about already is Zend\Form\Form. The Form-component is the main container for all elements of your web <form>. You are able to add single elements or a set of elements in the form of a Fieldset, too.

Creating your first Fieldset

Explaining how the Zend\Form component works is best done by giving you real code to work with. So let’s jump right into it and create all the forms we need to finish our Blog module. We start by creating a Fieldset that contains all the input elements that we need to work with our Blog-data.

  • You will need one hidden input for the id property, which is only needed for editting and deleting data.
  • You will need one text input for the text property
  • You will need one text input for the title property

Create the file /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostFieldset.php and add the following code:

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<?php
// Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostFieldset.php
namespace Blog\Form;

use Zend\Form\Fieldset;

class PostFieldset extends Fieldset
{
   public function __construct()
   {
      $this->add(array(
         'type' => 'hidden',
         'name' => 'id'
      ));

      $this->add(array(
         'type' => 'text',
         'name' => 'text',
         'options' => array(
           'label' => 'The Text'
         )
      ));

      $this->add(array(
         'type' => 'text',
         'name' => 'title',
         'options' => array(
            'label' => 'Blog Title'
         )
      ));
   }
}

As you can see this class is pretty handy. All we do is to have our class extend Zend\Form\Fieldset and then we write a __construct() method and add all the elements we need to the fieldset. This Fieldset can now be used by as many forms as we want. So let’s go ahead and create our first Form.

Creating the PostForm

Now that we have our PostFieldset in place, we need to use it inside a Form. We then need to add a Submit-Button to the form so that the user will be able to submit the data and we’re done. So create the PostForm within the same directory under /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostForm and add the PostFieldset to it:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostForm.php
 namespace Blog\Form;

 use Zend\Form\Form;

 class PostForm extends Form
 {
     public function __construct()
     {
         $this->add(array(
             'name' => 'post-fieldset',
             'type' => 'Blog\Form\PostFieldset'
         ));

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'submit',
             'name' => 'submit',
             'attributes' => array(
                 'value' => 'Insert new Post'
             )
         ));
     }
 }

And that’s our form. Nothing special here, we add our PostFieldset to the Form, we add a submit button to the form and nothing more. Let’s now make use of the Form.

Adding a new Post

Now that we have the PostForm written we want to use it. But there are a couple more tasks that you need to do. The tasks that are standing right in front of you are:

  • create a new controller WriteController
  • add PostService as a dependency to the WriteController
  • add PostForm as a dependency to the WriteController
  • create a new route blog/add that routes to the WriteController and its addAction()
  • create a new view that displays the form

Creating the WriteController

As you can see from the task-list we need a new controller and this controller is supposed to have two dependencies. One dependency being the PostService that’s also being used within our ListController and the other dependency being the PostForm which is new. Since the PostForm is a dependency that the ListController doesn’t need to display blog-data, we will create a new controller to keep things properly separated. First, register a controller-factory within the configuration:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/config/module.config.php
 return array(
     'db'              => array( /** DB Config */ ),
     'service_manager' => array( /** ServiceManager Config */),
     'view_manager'    => array( /** ViewManager Config */ ),
     'controllers'     => array(
         'factories' => array(
             'Blog\Controller\List'  => 'Blog\Factory\ListControllerFactory',
             'Blog\Controller\Write' => 'Blog\Factory\WriteControllerFactory'
         )
     ),
     'router'          => array( /** Router Config */ )
 );

Next step would be to write the WriteControllerFactory. Have the factory return the WriteController and add the required dependencies within the constructor.

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Factory/WriteControllerFactory.php
 namespace Blog\Factory;

 use Blog\Controller\WriteController;
 use Zend\ServiceManager\FactoryInterface;
 use Zend\ServiceManager\ServiceLocatorInterface;

 class WriteControllerFactory implements FactoryInterface
 {
     public function createService(ServiceLocatorInterface $serviceLocator)
     {
         $realServiceLocator = $serviceLocator->getServiceLocator();
         $postService        = $realServiceLocator->get('Blog\Service\PostServiceInterface');
         $postInsertForm     = $realServiceLocator->get('FormElementManager')->get('Blog\Form\PostForm');

         return new WriteController(
             $postService,
             $postInsertForm
         );
     }
 }

In this code-example there are a couple of things to be aware of. First, the WriteController doesn’t exist yet, but we will create this in the next step so we’re just assuming that it will exist later on. Second, we access the FormElementManager to get access to our PostForm. All forms should be accessed through the FormElementManager. Even though we haven’t registered the PostForm in our config files yet the FormElementManager automatically knows about forms that act as invokables. As long as you have no dependencies you don’t need to register them explicitly.

Next up is the creation of our controller. Be sure to type hint the dependencies by their interfaces and to add the addAction()!

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Controller/WriteController.php
 namespace Blog\Controller;

 use Blog\Service\PostServiceInterface;
 use Zend\Form\FormInterface;
 use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;

 class WriteController extends AbstractActionController
 {
     protected $postService;

     protected $postForm;

     public function __construct(
         PostServiceInterface $postService,
         FormInterface $postForm
     ) {
         $this->postService = $postService;
         $this->postForm    = $postForm;
     }

     public function addAction()
     {
     }
 }

Right on to creating the new route:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/config/module.config.php
 return array(
     'db'              => array( /** Db Config */ ),
     'service_manager' => array( /** ServiceManager Config */ ),
     'view_manager'    => array( /** ViewManager Config */ ),
     'controllers'     => array( /** Controller Config */ ),
     'router'          => array(
         'routes' => array(
             'blog' => array(
                 'type' => 'literal',
                 'options' => array(
                     'route'    => '/blog',
                     'defaults' => array(
                         'controller' => 'Blog\Controller\List',
                         'action'     => 'index',
                     )
                 ),
                 'may_terminate' => true,
                 'child_routes'  => array(
                     'detail' => array(
                         'type' => 'segment',
                         'options' => array(
                             'route'    => '/:id',
                             'defaults' => array(
                                 'action' => 'detail'
                             ),
                             'constraints' => array(
                                 'id' => '\d+'
                             )
                         )
                     ),
                     'add' => array(
                         'type' => 'literal',
                         'options' => array(
                             'route'    => '/add',
                             'defaults' => array(
                                 'controller' => 'Blog\Controller\Write',
                                 'action'     => 'add'
                             )
                         )
                     )
                 )
             )
         )
     )
 );

And lastly let’s create a dummy template:

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 <!-- Filename: /module/Blog/view/blog/write/add.phtml -->
 <h1>WriteController::addAction()</h1>

Checking the current status

If you try to access the new route localhost:8080/blog/add you’re supposed to see the following error message:

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 Fatal error: Call to a member function insert() on a non-object in
 {libraryPath}/Zend/Form/Fieldset.php on line {lineNumber}

If this is not the case, be sure to follow the tutorial correctly and carefully check all your files. Assuming you are getting this error, let’s find out what it means and fix it!

The above error message is very common and its solution isn’t that intuitive. It appears that there is an error within the Zend/Form/Fieldset.php but that’s not the case. The error message let’s you know that something didn’t go right while you were creating your form. In fact, while creating both the PostForm as well as the PostFieldset we have forgotten something very, very important.

Note

When overwriting a __construct() method within the Zend\Form-component, be sure to always call parent::__construct()!

Without this, forms and fieldsets will not be able to get initiated correctly. Let’s now fix the problem by calling the parents constructor in both form and fieldset. To have more flexibility we will also include the signature of the __construct() function which accepts a couple of parameters.

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostForm.php
 namespace Blog\Form;

 use Zend\Form\Form;

 class PostForm extends Form
 {
     public function __construct($name = null, $options = array())
     {
         parent::__construct($name, $options);

         $this->add(array(
             'name' => 'post-fieldset',
             'type' => 'Blog\Form\PostFieldset'
         ));

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'submit',
             'name' => 'submit',
             'attributes' => array(
                 'value' => 'Insert new Post'
             )
         ));
     }
 }

As you can see our PostForm now accepts two parameters to give our form a name and to set a couple of options. Both parameters will be passed along to the parent. If you look closely at how we add the PostFieldset to the form you’ll notice that we assign a name to the fieldset. Those options will be passed from the FormElementManager when the PostFieldset is created. But for this to function we need to do the same step inside our fieldset, too:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostFieldset.php
 namespace Blog\Form;

 use Zend\Form\Fieldset;

 class PostFieldset extends Fieldset
 {
     public function __construct($name = null, $options = array())
     {
         parent::__construct($name, $options);

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'hidden',
             'name' => 'id'
         ));

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'text',
             'name' => 'text',
             'options' => array(
                 'label' => 'The Text'
             )
         ));

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'text',
             'name' => 'title',
             'options' => array(
                 'label' => 'Blog Title'
             )
         ));
     }
 }

Reloading your application now will yield you the desired result.

Displaying the form

Now that we have our PostForm within our WriteController it’s time to pass this form to the view and have it rendered using the provided ViewHelpers from the Zend\Form component. First change your controller so that the form is passed to the view.

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Controller/WriteController.php
 namespace Blog\Controller;

 use Blog\Service\PostServiceInterface;
 use Zend\Form\FormInterface;
 use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
 use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;

 class WriteController extends AbstractActionController
 {
     protected $postService;

     protected $postForm;

     public function __construct(
         PostServiceInterface $postService,
         FormInterface $postForm
     ) {
         $this->postService = $postService;
         $this->postForm    = $postForm;
     }

     public function addAction()
     {
         return new ViewModel(array(
             'form' => $this->postForm
         ));
     }
 }

And then we need to modify our view to have the form rendered.

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 <!-- Filename: /module/Blog/view/blog/write/add.phtml -->
 <h1>WriteController::addAction()</h1>
 <?php
 $form = $this->form;
 $form->setAttribute('action', $this->url());
 $form->prepare();

 echo $this->form()->openTag($form);

 echo $this->formCollection($form);

 echo $this->form()->closeTag();

Firstly, we tell the form that it should send its data to the current URL and then we tell the form to prepare() itself which triggers a couple of internal things.

Note

HTML-Forms can be sent using POST and GET. ZF2s default is POST, therefore you don’t have to be explicit in setting this option. If you want to change it to GET though, all you have to do is set the specific attribute prior to the prepare() call.

$form->setAttribute('method', 'GET');

Next we’re using a couple of ViewHelpers which take care of rendering the form for us. There are many different ways to render a form within Zend Framework but using formCollection() is probably the fastest one.

Refreshing the browser you will now see your form properly displayed. However, if we’re submitting the form all we see is our form being displayed again. And this is due to the simple fact that we didn’t add any logic to the controller yet.

Note

Keep in mind that this tutorial focuses solely on the OOP aspect of things. Rendering the form like this, without any stylesheets added doesn’t really reflect most designers’ idea of a beautiful form. You’ll find out more about the rendering of forms in the chapter of Zend\Form\View\Helper.

Controller Logic for basically all Forms

Writing a Controller that handles a form workflow is pretty simple and it’s basically identical for each and every form you have within your application.

  1. You want to check if the current request is a POST-Request, meaning if the form has been sent
  2. If the form has been sent, you want to:
    • store the POST-Data within the Form
    • check if the form passes validation
  3. If the form passes validation, you want to:
    • pass the form data to your service to have it stored
    • redirect the user to either the detail page of the entered data or to some overview page
  4. In all other cases, you want the form displayed, sometimes alongside given error messages

And all of this is really not that much code. Modify your WriteController to the following code:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Controller/WriteController.php
 namespace Blog\Controller;

 use Blog\Service\PostServiceInterface;
 use Zend\Form\FormInterface;
 use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
 use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;

 class WriteController extends AbstractActionController
 {
     protected $postService;

     protected $postForm;

     public function __construct(
         PostServiceInterface $postService,
         FormInterface $postForm
     ) {
         $this->postService = $postService;
         $this->postForm    = $postForm;
     }

     public function addAction()
     {
         $request = $this->getRequest();

         if ($request->isPost()) {
             $this->postForm->setData($request->getPost());

             if ($this->postForm->isValid()) {
                 try {
                     $this->postService->savePost($this->postForm->getData());

                     return $this->redirect()->toRoute('blog');
                 } catch (\Exception $e) {
                     // Some DB Error happened, log it and let the user know
                 }
             }
         }

         return new ViewModel(array(
             'form' => $this->postForm
         ));
     }
 }

This example code should be pretty straight forward. First we save the current request into a local variable. Then we check if the current request is a POST-Request and if so, we store the requests POST-data into the form. If the form turns out to be valid we try to save the form data through our service and then redirect the user to the route blog. If any error occurred at any point we simply display the form again.

Submitting the form right now will return into the following error

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 Fatal error: Call to undefined method Blog\Service\PostService::savePost() in
 /module/Blog/src/Blog/Controller/WriteController.php on line 33

Let’s fix this by extending our PostService. Be sure to also change the signature of the PostServiceInterface!

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Service/PostServiceInterface.php
 namespace Blog\Service;

 use Blog\Model\PostInterface;

 interface PostServiceInterface
 {
     /**
      * Should return a set of all blog posts that we can iterate over. Single entries of the array are supposed to be
      * implementing \Blog\Model\PostInterface
      *
      * @return array|PostInterface[]
      */
     public function findAllPosts();

     /**
      * Should return a single blog post
      *
      * @param  int $id Identifier of the Post that should be returned
      * @return PostInterface
      */
     public function findPost($id);

     /**
      * Should save a given implementation of the PostInterface and return it. If it is an existing Post the Post
      * should be updated, if it's a new Post it should be created.
      *
      * @param  PostInterface $blog
      * @return PostInterface
      */
     public function savePost(PostInterface $blog);
 }

As you can see the savePost() function has been added and needs to be implemented within the PostService now.

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Service/PostService.php
 namespace Blog\Service;

 use Blog\Mapper\PostMapperInterface;


 class PostService implements PostServiceInterface
 {
     /**
      * @var \Blog\Mapper\PostMapperInterface
      */
     protected $postMapper;

     /**
      * @param PostMapperInterface $postMapper
      */
     public function __construct(PostMapperInterface $postMapper)
     {
         $this->postMapper = $postMapper;
     }

     /**
      * {@inheritDoc}
      */
     public function findAllPosts()
     {
         return $this->postMapper->findAll();
     }

     /**
      * {@inheritDoc}
      */
     public function findPost($id)
     {
         return $this->postMapper->find($id);
     }

     /**
      * {@inheritDoc}
      */
     public function savePost(PostInterface $post)
     {
         return $this->postMapper->save($post);
     }
 }

And now that we’re making an assumption against our postMapper we need to extend the PostMapperInterface and its implementation, too. Start by extending the interface:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Mapper/PostMapperInterface.php
 namespace Blog\Mapper;

 use Blog\Model\PostInterface;

 interface PostMapperInterface
 {
     /**
      * @param int|string $id
      * @return PostInterface
      * @throws \InvalidArgumentException
      */
     public function find($id);

     /**
      * @return array|PostInterface[]
      */
     public function findAll();

     /**
      * @param PostInterface $postObject
      *
      * @param PostInterface $postObject
      * @return PostInterface
      * @throws \Exception
      */
     public function save(PostInterface $postObject);
 }

And now the implementation of the save function.

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<?php
// Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Mapper/ZendDbSqlMapper.php
namespace Blog\Mapper;

use Blog\Model\PostInterface;
use Zend\Db\Adapter\AdapterInterface;
use Zend\Db\Adapter\Driver\ResultInterface;
use Zend\Db\ResultSet\HydratingResultSet;
use Zend\Db\Sql\Insert;
use Zend\Db\Sql\Sql;
use Zend\Db\Sql\Update;
use Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator\HydratorInterface;

class ZendDbSqlMapper implements PostMapperInterface
{
   /**
    * @var \Zend\Db\Adapter\AdapterInterface
    */
   protected $dbAdapter;

   /**
    * @var \Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator\HydratorInterface
    */
   protected $hydrator;

   /**
    * @var \Blog\Model\PostInterface
    */
   protected $postPrototype;

   /**
    * @param AdapterInterface  $dbAdapter
    * @param HydratorInterface $hydrator
    * @param PostInterface    $postPrototype
    */
   public function __construct(
      AdapterInterface $dbAdapter,
      HydratorInterface $hydrator,
      PostInterface $postPrototype
   ) {
      $this->dbAdapter      = $dbAdapter;
      $this->hydrator       = $hydrator;
      $this->postPrototype  = $postPrototype;
   }

   /**
    * @param int|string $id
    *
    * @return PostInterface
    * @throws \InvalidArgumentException
    */
   public function find($id)
   {
      $sql    = new Sql($this->dbAdapter);
      $select = $sql->select('posts');
      $select->where(array('id = ?' => $id));

      $stmt   = $sql->prepareStatementForSqlObject($select);
      $result = $stmt->execute();

      if ($result instanceof ResultInterface && $result->isQueryResult() && $result->getAffectedRows()) {
         return $this->hydrator->hydrate($result->current(), $this->postPrototype);
      }

      throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Blog with given ID:{$id} not found.");
   }

   /**
    * @return array|PostInterface[]
    */
   public function findAll()
   {
      $sql    = new Sql($this->dbAdapter);
      $select = $sql->select('posts');

      $stmt   = $sql->prepareStatementForSqlObject($select);
      $result = $stmt->execute();

      if ($result instanceof ResultInterface && $result->isQueryResult()) {
         $resultSet = new HydratingResultSet($this->hydrator, $this->postPrototype);

         return $resultSet->initialize($result);
      }

      return array();
   }

   /**
    * @param PostInterface $postObject
    *
    * @return PostInterface
    * @throws \Exception
    */
   public function save(PostInterface $postObject)
   {
      $postData = $this->hydrator->extract($postObject);
      unset($postData['id']); // Neither Insert nor Update needs the ID in the array

      if ($postObject->getId()) {
         // ID present, it's an Update
         $action = new Update('posts');
         $action->set($postData);
         $action->where(array('id = ?' => $postObject->getId()));
      } else {
         // ID NOT present, it's an Insert
         $action = new Insert('posts');
         $action->values($postData);
      }

      $sql    = new Sql($this->dbAdapter);
      $stmt   = $sql->prepareStatementForSqlObject($action);
      $result = $stmt->execute();

      if ($result instanceof ResultInterface) {
         if ($newId = $result->getGeneratedValue()) {
            // When a value has been generated, set it on the object
            $postObject->setId($newId);
         }

         return $postObject;
      }

      throw new \Exception("Database error");
   }
}

The save() function handles two cases. The insert and update routine. Firstly we extract the Post-Object since we need array data to work with Insert and Update. Then we remove the id from the array since this field is not wanted. When we do an update of a row, we don’t update the id property itself and therefore it isn’t needed. On the insert routine we don’t need an id either so we can simply strip it away.

After the id field has been removed we check what action is supposed to be called. If the Post-Object has an id set we create a new Update-Object and if not we create a new Insert-Object. We set the data for both actions accordingly and after that the data is passed over to the Sql-Object for the actual query into the database.

At last we check if we receive a valid result and if there has been an id generated. If it’s the case we call the setId()-function of our blog and return the object in the end.

Let’s submit our form again and see what we get.

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 Catchable fatal error: Argument 1 passed to Blog\Service\PostService::savePost()
 must implement interface Blog\Model\PostInterface, array given,
 called in /module/Blog/src/Blog/Controller/InsertController.php on line 33
 and defined in /module/Blog/src/Blog/Service/PostService.php on line 49

Forms, per default, give you data in an array format. But our PostService expects the format to be an implementation of the PostInterface. This means we need to find a way to have this array data become object data. If you recall the previous chapter, this is done through the use of hydrators.

Note

On the Update-Query you’ll notice that we have assigned a condition to only update the row matching a given id

$action->where(array('id = ?' => $postObject->getId()));

You’ll see here that the condition is: id equals ?. With the question-mark being the id of the post-object. In the same way you could assign a condition to update (or select) rows with all entries higher than a given id:

$action->where(array('id > ?' => $postObject->getId()));

This works for all conditions. =, >, <, >= and <=

Zend\Form and Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator working together

Before we go ahead and put the hydrator into the form, let’s first do a data-dump of the data coming from the form. That way we can easily notice all changes that the hydrator does. Modify your WriteController to the following:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Controller/WriteController.php
 namespace Blog\Controller;

 use Blog\Service\PostServiceInterface;
 use Zend\Form\FormInterface;
 use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
 use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;

 class WriteController extends AbstractActionController
 {
     protected $postService;

     protected $postForm;

     public function __construct(
         PostServiceInterface $postService,
         FormInterface $postForm
     ) {
         $this->postService = $postService;
         $this->postForm    = $postForm;
     }

     public function addAction()
     {
         $request = $this->getRequest();

         if ($request->isPost()) {
             $this->postForm->setData($request->getPost());

             if ($this->postForm->isValid()) {
                 try {
                     \Zend\Debug\Debug::dump($this->postForm->getData());die();
                     $this->postService->savePost($this->postForm->getData());

                     return $this->redirect()->toRoute('blog');
                 } catch (\Exception $e) {
                     // Some DB Error happened, log it and let the user know
                 }
             }
         }

         return new ViewModel(array(
             'form' => $this->postForm
         ));
     }
 }

With this set up go ahead and submit the form once again. You should now see a data dump like the following:

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 array(2) {
   ["submit"] => string(16) "Insert new Post"
   ["post-fieldset"] => array(3) {
     ["id"] => string(0) ""
     ["text"] => string(3) "foo"
     ["title"] => string(3) "bar"
   }
 }

Now telling your fieldset to hydrate its data into an Post-object is very simple. All you need to do is to assign the hydrator and the object prototype like this:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostFieldset.php
 namespace Blog\Form;

 use Blog\Model\Post;
 use Zend\Form\Fieldset;
 use Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator\ClassMethods;

 class PostFieldset extends Fieldset
 {
     public function __construct($name = null, $options = array())
     {
         parent::__construct($name, $options);

         $this->setHydrator(new ClassMethods(false));
         $this->setObject(new Post());

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'hidden',
             'name' => 'id'
         ));

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'text',
             'name' => 'text',
             'options' => array(
                 'label' => 'The Text'
             )
         ));

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'text',
             'name' => 'title',
             'options' => array(
                 'label' => 'Blog Title'
             )
         ));
     }
 }

As you can see we’re doing two things. We tell the fieldset to be using the ClassMethods hydrator and then we tell the fieldset that the default object to be returned is our Blog-Model. However, when you’re re-submitting the form now you’ll notice that nothing has changed. We’re still only getting array data returned and no object.

This is due to the fact that the form itself doesn’t know that it has to return an object. When the form doesn’t know that it’s supposed to return an object it uses the ArraySeriazable hydrator recursively. To change this, all we need to do is to make our PostFieldset a so-called base_fieldset.

A base_fieldset basically tells the form “this form is all about me, don’t worry about other data, just worry about me”. And when the form knows that this fieldset is the real deal, then the form will use the hydrator presented by the fieldset and return the object that we desire. Modify your PostForm and assign the PostFieldset as base_fieldset:

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Form/PostForm.php
 namespace Blog\Form;

 use Zend\Form\Form;

 class PostForm extends Form
 {
     public function __construct($name = null, $options = array())
     {
         parent::__construct($name, $options);

         $this->add(array(
             'name' => 'post-fieldset',
             'type' => 'Blog\Form\PostFieldset',
             'options' => array(
                 'use_as_base_fieldset' => true
             )
         ));

         $this->add(array(
             'type' => 'submit',
             'name' => 'submit',
             'attributes' => array(
                 'value' => 'Insert new Post'
             )
         ));
     }
 }

Now submit your form again. You should see the following output:

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 object(Blog\Model\Post)#294 (3) {
   ["id":protected] => string(0) ""
   ["title":protected] => string(3) "foo"
   ["text":protected] => string(3) "bar"
 }

You can now revert back your WriteController to its previous form to have the form-data passed through the PostService.

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 <?php
 // Filename: /module/Blog/src/Blog/Controller/WriteController.php
 namespace Blog\Controller;

 use Blog\Service\PostServiceInterface;
 use Zend\Form\FormInterface;
 use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
 use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;

 class WriteController extends AbstractActionController
 {
     protected $postService;

     protected $postForm;

     public function __construct(
         PostServiceInterface $postService,
         FormInterface $postForm
     ) {
         $this->postService = $postService;
         $this->postForm    = $postForm;
     }

     public function addAction()
     {
         $request = $this->getRequest();

         if ($request->isPost()) {
             $this->postForm->setData($request->getPost());

             if ($this->postForm->isValid()) {
                 try {
                     $this->postService->savePost($this->postForm->getData());

                     return $this->redirect()->toRoute('blog');
                 } catch (\Exception $e) {
                     // Some DB Error happened, log it and let the user know
                 }
             }
         }

         return new ViewModel(array(
             'form' => $this->postForm
         ));
     }
 }

If you send the form now you’ll now be able to add as many new blogs as you want. Great!

Conclusion

In this chapter you’ve learned a great deal about the Zend\Form component. You’ve learned that Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator takes a big part within the Zend\Form component and by making use of both components you’ve been able to create an insert form for the blog module.

In the next chapter we will finalize the CRUD functionality by creating the update and delete routines for the blog module.