Using Zend_Captcha with forms and config

If you've been watching my presentations about Zend_Form on SlideShare, here's a little update after Zend Framework 1.6 release last Tuesday.

You start off with a simple contact form in XML. More information about creating this config can be found on my slides about Zend_Form.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<forms>
<development>
<contact>
    <action>/is/here</action>
    <method>post</method>
    <name>contactForm</name>
    <elements>
        <name>
            <type>text</type>
            <options>
                <label>Name</label>
                <required>true</required>
            </options>
        </name>
        <email>
            <type>text</type>
            <options>
                <label>Email</label>
                <required>true</required>
                <validators>
                    <emailAddress>
                        <validator>EmailAddress</validator>
                    </emailAddress>
                </validators>
            </options>
        </email>
        <message>
            <type>textarea</type>
            <options>
                <label>Message</label>
                <required>true</required>
            </options>
        </message>
        <submit>
            <type>submit</type>
            <options>
                <label>Send</label>
                <class>button</class>
            </options>
        </submit>
    </elements>
</contact>
</development>
</forms>

To enable the Zend_Captcha feature within your form, you just add a captcha configuration right before your submit button.

<captcha>
<type>captcha</type>
<options>
<label>Please verify you're a human</label>
<captcha>
    <captcha>Image</captcha>
    <wordLen>6</wordLen>
    <timeout>300</timeout>
    <font>../app/data/impact.ttf</font>
</captcha>
</options>
</captcha>

The result is then a nice form with a captcha element.

Validation is done through the form validator, so all you need to check is: $form->isValid($_POST);

So, now fight off those unwanted messages in your database or mailbox and use the power of Zend_Form and Zend_Config_Xml for your ease of use and maintainability.