Zend Form does not validate input.

Answer 1

In the working code you use $this to refer to your form in init in the second version you use $this->studentForm.

So I would be curious to know why the codes differ there and what object is that second init from. The code you posted is different there.

Something tells me in your second controller you should be using

$addform->studentForm->stuff

Since its not an instance of Zend_Form but an object containing a studentForm Zend_Form.