Details
Improvement
Resolved
Minor
Description
Currently the documented best practice for creating a Zend_Form 'model' (i.e. adding fields/validators/etc. from within the user-defined class) is to override the '__construct' method.
The documentation fails to add the critical line 'parent::__construct($options)' - a sticking point that saw about an hours' worth of trying to debug the problem (that was my own fault, though 
Instead of requiring '__construct' would it be possible to add an 'init()' method? The benefits are:-
- Doesn't require overriding constructor (unnecessary in a lot of instances)
- Becomes a recommended but not required coding practice within the framework - as per Zend_Db, Zend_Controller, etc...
Suggested patch:
Index: library/Zend/Form.php
===================================================================
--- library/Zend/Form.php (revision 8819)
+++ library/Zend/Form.php (working copy)
@@ -207,9 +207,22 @@
}
$this->loadDefaultDecorators();
+
+ $this->init();
}
/**
+ * Initialize object
+ *
+ * Called from {@link __construct()} as final step of object instantiation.
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+ public function init()
+ {
+ }
+
+ /**
* Set form state from options array
*
* @param array $options
Scheduling for 1.5.1.
One note: I think that init() should be called not as the last item in __construct(), but the last item before the call to loadDefaultDecorators(). This would allow you to prevent the default decorators from loading if you were to create them in your init() method.