I18n of Zend_Form values and errors

Question

Hello, assume this situation

$form->addElement('select', 'companies', array(
  'disableTranslator' => true,
  'label'             => Zend_Registry::get('Zend_Translate')->_('companies'),
  'filters'           => array('Int'),
  'required'          => true,
  'multiOptions'      => array(1 => 'Company 1', 2 => 'Company 2')
));

if($_POST && $form->isValid($_POST)) {
  $form->save();
}

$form->render();

This select serves to select companies from a given list of options.
The form has a default translator set with 1 translated phrase "my_translated_text" => "here comes the translation".

The options in select box are populated based on data entered by users which means users may add a company with name my_translated_text which in turn should appear as new option in the select box saying "my_translated_text".

If there was no disableTranslator => true option, the my_translated_text company would be translated to here comes the translation and thus appear as translated text -> we need to disable translations.

But if there's disableTranslator => true the error messages (such as "The value is required") are not translated.

Ideally I don't want to translate the values, but want to translate everything else regarding the select box.
How do you deal with such situation? Have you ever had similar problem?

Thank you

Answer 1

I have some trouble understand the question, but if I understand correctly, you do not want the option values translated. There is no way to do this from Zend_Form. Like you said, you can only en/disable the translator for the entire element.

Your best bet would be to create a custom Form Element or Decorator. I am not entirely sure where the translations take place, but I think the options are already translated in Zend_Form_Multi's _translateValue() method. Another class to look at would the View Helper rendering the Select Box.

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On a sidenote: when there is a default translator set, you should not need to do

'label' => Zend_Registry::get('Zend_Translate')->_('companies')

because labels are translated by default. And even if you had to do this, the translator is better retrieved by Zend_Form::getTranslator() instead of via Zend_Registry to avoid coupling.