When disabling an element or option in a Zend_Form we use the function setAttrib() or, if multiple options, setAttribs(). These examples are made in Zend Framework 1.10

Disable a form element in the controller

$form = new Application_Form_MyForm();
$form->getElement('elementName')->setAttrib('disable', 'disable');

This will disable the whole ‘elementName’ element.

Disable option in a radio or select element
In declaration of element:

class Application_Form_MyForm extends Zend_Form {
...
        $typeOfLap = new Zend_Form_Element_Radio('elementName');
        $typeOfLap->setRequired(true)
                ->addMultiOptions(array(
                    'A' => 'Option A',
                    'B' => 'Option B'));
...
}

In controller

$form = new Application_Form_MyForm();
$form->getElement('elementName')->setAttrib('disable', array('A'));

This will disable option ‘Option A’. If you want to also disable ‘Option B’ you can add it to the disable array: array(‘A’, ‘B’). It works the same way with select elements

Setting a default value (‘CHECKED’) in Zend_Form_Element_Radio is done with the function setValue(). This is an example of how to to this in Zend Framework 1.10

...
$typeOfLap = new Zend_Form_Element_Radio('typeoflap');
$typeOfLap->setRequired(true)
          ->addFilter('StripTags')
          ->addFilter('StringTrim')
          ->setDecorators(array('ViewHelper'))
          ->addMultiOptions(array(
               'Practice' => 'Practice',
               'Qualifying' => 'Qualifying'))
          ->setValue('Practice');
...

As most things in Zend this is also very simple.

Quite often you would want to customize the error message from a validator. One good example is the Zend_Validate_Identical which standard message is something like ‘The two given tokens do not match’. That does not make much sense for the user trying to create an account on a site.

First we need to know what the message variables are called i the validator class. The easiest way to find this is simply to open the class file in Zend Framework for that validator. Validator classes can be found in Zend/Validate/ folder. We look inside the Zend/Validate/Identical.php;

...
class Zend_Validate_Identical extends Zend_Validate_Abstract
{
    /**
     * Error codes
     * @const string
     */
    const NOT_SAME      = 'notSame';
    const MISSING_TOKEN = 'missingToken';

    /**
     * Error messages
     * @var array
     */
    protected $_messageTemplates = array(
        self::NOT_SAME      => 'The two given tokens do not match',
        self::MISSING_TOKEN => 'No token was provided to match against',
    );
...

Here we can see the variables are called: NOT_SAME and MISSING_TOKEN. We will use this knowledge to set our own messages. In our Zend_Form (eg. application/forms/CreateAccount.php)

...
$password = new Zend_Form_Element_Password('password');
$password ->setLabel('Password:')
->setDecorators($this->elementDecorators)
->setDescription('3 to 30 characters in length')
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(3, 30));

$confirm = new Zend_Form_Element_Password('confirm');
$confirm->setLabel('Confirm password:')
->setDecorators($this->elementDecorators)
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->setAttrib('size', '20')
->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(3, 30))
->addValidator('Identical', false, array('token' => 'password',
   'messages' => array(Zend_Validate_Identical::NOT_SAME => 'Passwords does not match', Zend_Validate_Identical::MISSING_TOKEN => 'No password was provided')));
...

The argument ‘messages’ in the Validator settings opens up the possibility to set your own messages like above.