ZF2 - No element by the name of .. found in Form - php

Question

My zend framework 2 project concerns an online restaurant Menu and I am trying to make a form to add Pizzas to database. But something is wrong with my code. The form won't show up, instead this error shows up:
No element by the name of [pizza_name] found in form
Please help me to find what's wrong with my code.
Here are my files:
addPizzaForm.php:
<?php
namespace Pizza\Form;
use Zend\Form\Form;
use Pizza\Form\AddPizzaForm;
use Pizza\Model\Pizza;
class AddPizzaForm extends Form
{
public function construct() {
parent:: construct('addpizzaform');
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'pizza_name',
'type' => 'text',
'options' => array(label => 'Pizza name')));
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'ingredients',
'type' => 'textarea',
'options' => array(label => 'Ingredients')));
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'small_price',
'type' => 'text',
'options' => array(label => 'Small price')));
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'big_price',
'type' => 'text',
'options' => array(label => 'Big price')));
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'family_price',
'type' => 'text',
'options' => array(label => 'Family price')));
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'party_price',
'type' => 'text',
'options' => array(label => 'Party price')));
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'add_pizza',
'type' => 'submit',
'attributes' => array(
'value' => 'Add New Pizza',
'id' => 'submitbutton')));
}
}
add.phtml view:
<?php
echo $this->headTitle('Add new Pizza');
?>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-8"> <h1> Add new Pizza </h1>
</div>
<?php
$form = $this->form;
$form->setAttribute('action', $this->url('pizza',array('action'=>'add')));
$form->prepare();
echo $this->form()->openTag($form);
echo $this->formRow($form->get('pizza_name')) . "</br>";
echo $this->formRow($form->get('ingredients')) . "</br>";
echo $this->formRow($form->get('small_price')) . "</br>";
echo $this->formRow($form->get('big_price')) . "</br>";
echo $this->formRow($form->get('family_price')) . "</br>";
echo $this->formRow($form->get('party_price')) . "</br>";
echo $this->formRow($form->get('add_pizza')) . "</br>";
echo $this->form()->closeTag();
?>
PizzaController.php:
<?php
namespace Pizza\Controller;
use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
use Pizza\Form\AddPizzaForm;
use Pizza\Model\Pizza;
class PizzaController extends AbstractActionController {
protected $pizzaTable;
public function addAction()
{
$add_form = new AddPizzaForm();
$request = $this->getRequest();
if($request->isPost())
{
$pizza = new Pizza();
$add_form->setInputFilter($pizza->getInputFilter());
$add_form->setData($request->getPost());
if($form->isValid())
{
$pizza->exchangeArray($form->getData());
$this->getPizzaTable()->save($pizza);
}
return $this->redirect()->toRoute('pizza');
}
return array('form' => $add_form);
}
public function getPizzaTable()
{
if( !$this->pizzaTable)
{
$sm = $this->getServiceLocator();
$this->pizzaTable = $sm->get('Pizza\Model\PizzaTable');
}
return $this->pizzaTable;
}
}

Answer 1

Welcome to stackoverflow!
You're getting that strange errors because there are FOUR important details that needs attention.
A - Your construct() method in AddPizzaForm has wrong name and signature. You have to rename construct to __construct change contents something like below:
class AddPizzaForm extends Form
{
public function __construct($name = null, $options = array() )
{
$formName = is_null($name) ? 'addpizza-form' : $name;
parent::__construct($formName, $options);
}
}
B - Create an init() method in your form and add your form elements inside that. This detail is clearly stated in official documentation:
If you are creating your form class by extending Zend\Form\Form, you
must not add the custom element in the __construct but rather in the init() method.
So, in your case:
class AddPizzaForm extends Form
{
// constructor etc..
public function init()
{
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'pizza_name',
'type' => 'text',
'options' => array(label => 'Pizza name')
)
);
// ... add other for elements ...
}
}
C. Finally, in your controller, you're trying to instantiate your form manually:
$add_form = new AddPizzaForm();
This is also bad practice. You need to get your AddPizzaForm instance from ServiceManager. This detail also stated in documentation:
You must not directly instantiate your form class, but rather get an
instance of it through the Zend\Form\FormElementManager.
To do that, introduce your AddPizzaForm in module.config.php like below:
'form_elements' => array(
'invokables' => array(
'add-pizza-form' => 'Pizza\Form\AddPizzaForm',
)
)
And grab it in your controller like this:
$add_form = $this->getServiceLocator()->get('FormElementManager')->get('add-pizza-form');
D - The last thing is; please read most of the documentation first before making some experiments. Reading documentation is most important step to getting better in any language or framework.
Hope it helps. Happy coding!