How addValidator works with Zend Form? - validation

Question

I supposed the $form->addVlidator functions works as some front-end form checking thing, however when I add it, even the input is invalid, it seems the form is still being submited.
Or I was wrong, it's more a controller-side checking, which means the form will submit the data whatever then the server sides returns the error message?
My code works like this.
Form class:
<?php
class Application_Form_Test extends Zend_Form
{
public function init()
{
$this->setName('stdForm');
//$this->setMethod('post');
//$this->addDecorator('HtmlTag', array('tag' => 'div', 'class' => 'my-lovely-form'));
$this->setAttrib('enctype', 'multipart/form-data');
$this->setAction('somewhere')
->setMethod('post');
$username = $this->createElement('text', 'name', array('label' => 'Username:'));
$username->addValidator('alnum')
->addValidator('regex', false, array('/^[a-z]+/'))
->addValidator('stringLength', false, array(9, 20, 'messages'=>'Cannot be more than 9 chars'))
->setRequired(true)
->addFilter('StringToLower');
$email = $this->createElement('text', 'email', array('label' => 'E-mail'));
$email->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(8))
->setRequired(true);
$password = $this->createElement('password', 'pass1', array('label' => 'Password'));
$password->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(6))
->setRequired(true);
$password2 = $this->createElement('password', 'pass2', array('label' => 'Repeat password'));
$password2->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(6))
->setRequired(true);
$message = $this->createElement('textarea', 'message', array('label' => 'Message'));
$message->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(6))
->setRequired(true)
->setAttrib('COLS', '40')
->setAttrib('ROWS', '4');
$captcha = new Zend_Form_Element_Captcha('foo', array(
'label' => "human?",
'captcha' => 'Figlet',
'captchaOptions' => array(
'captcha' => 'Figlet',
'wordLen' => 6,
'timeout' => 300,
),
));
// Add elements to form:
$this->addElement($username)
->addElement($email)
->addElement($password)
->addElement($password2)
->addElement($message)
->addElement($captcha)
// use addElement() as a factory to create 'Login' button:
->addElement('submit', 'send', array('label' => 'Form sender'));
}
}
Controller code:
public function aboutAction()
{
$this ->_helper->layout->disableLayout();
$form = new Application_Form_Test();
$this->view->testForm = $form;
}
View file:
<?php echo $this->testForm;?>

Answer 1

The second: "the form will submit the data whatever then the server sides returns the error message". In order to do this you must call $form->isValid($this->_request->getPost()) in your action.
If it is not valid then you need to send data back to the user:
$form->populate($this->_request->getPost());
$this->view->form = $form;
For client side validation you can use http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation