Zend Forms - populate() and setDefaults()

Question

Let's say I have a form that collects a first name and a last name:

$first_name = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('first_name');
$first_name->setLabel("First Name")
    ->setRequired(true);

$last_name = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('last_name');
$last_name->setLabel("Last Name")
    ->setRequired(true);

$form = new Zend_Form();
$form->addElement($first_name)
    ->addElement($last_name)

If I want to use the "populate($data)" or the "setDefaults($data)" method on the form, how does the array need to be organized? What kind of an array do these functions expect? I haven't been able to find this information in the docs.

Also, I know that I can set the value when creating the element itself, but this is not what I need.

Answer 1

The form->populate() method takes an array where the keys are the names of the form fields.

The Zend_Db_Table_Row object implements a toArray() method which can be used here (as do many other objects). So you can do stuff like:

$form = new MyForm;

$table = new MyTable;
$rowset = $table->find($id);
$row = $rowset->current();

$form->populate($row->toArray());

Answer 2

Array keys are the field names, array values are the field values.

$data = array( 'first_name' => 'Mickey', 'last_name' => 'Mouse' );

Answer 3

FYI - in Zend_Form, $form->populate($data) just makes a call to $form->setDefaults($data).