Form Row Helper use cases

Row helper use cases

The form row helper is a utility helper that allow to reduce the boilerplate code of a view file by automatically generating a label (if specified), a form element and errors that may arise during validation.

Simple example

Let's add an element :

$this->add(array(
    'type' => 'Zend\Form\Element\Color',
    'name' => 'one_color'
));

In the view, just write :

<?php echo $this->formRow($form->get('one_color')); ?>

It will produces the following markup :

<input type="color" name="one_color">

You can add a label attribute in the form :

$this->add(array(
    'type' => 'Zend\Form\Element\Color',
    'name' => 'one_color',
    'attributes' => array(
        'label' => 'This is a color'
    )
));

The following markup is generated :

<label>This is a color<input type="color" name="one_color"></label>

If you want the label to be prepended instead of being appended (which is the default), just give 'append' to the helper :

<?php echo $this->formRow($form->get('one_color'), 'append'); ?>

When used with multi checkboxes or radio, the row helper will wrap the options inside a fieldset tag, the label attribute being used as the legend.


Adding attribute to a label

For styling purposes, you may need to add specific attributes to the label created by the helper. To achieve this, just set a value to the rowLabelAttributes key :

$this->add(array(
            'type' => 'Zend\Form\Element\Color',
            'name' => 'one_color',
            'attributes' => array(
                'label' => 'This is a color',
                'rowLabelAttributes' => array(
                    'class' => 'blue',
                    'data-key1' => 'value1'
                )
            )
        ));

This will generate the following markup :

<label class="blue" data-key1="value1">This is a color<input type="color" name="one_color"></label>