setting submit name outside the form

I have a zend_form for updating and inserting data. I want it to have diffrent sumbit labels but it doesn't seem to work. My form:

class Staff_Form extends Zend_Form
{
    public function init()
    {
        $this->setAction('')
                ->setMethod('post');

        开发者_JS百科$firstname = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('firstname');
        $firstname->setLabel('firstname')->setRequired(true);

        $submit = new Zend_Form_Element_Submit('submit');
        $submit->setName('insert');

        $this->addElements(array(
            $firstname,
            $submit
        ));
    }
}

Now I would expect this to work:

//in controller
$form = new My_Form();
$form->getElement('submit')->setName('update');

But it gives a fatal error: Fatal error: Call to a member function setName() on a non-object in..... So I tried:

$first = $form->getElement('firstname');
var_dump($first);
echo 'html break';
$submit = $form->getElement('submit');
var_dump($submit);
die();

It appears $submit is NULL

What Am I doing wrong?

Should really be an typing error somewhere in your code, i just tested the following which works:

class Application_Form_Test extends Zend_Form
{
  public function init()
  {
    $sub = new Zend_Form_Element_Submit('submit');
    $sub->setLabel('Submit Me');

    $this->addElement($sub);
  }
}

//controller - It works
$form = new Application_Form_Test();
$sub = $form->getElement('submit');
$sub->setName('wahahahar');

You could pass in the submit value when instatiating the form.

// form
class App_Form_Something extends Zend_From {
  protected $submitName

public function init() {
  $this->addElement('submit',$this->submitName, array(
    'label' => $this->submitName
  ));

public function setSubmitName($submitName) {
  $this->submitName = $submitName;
}
}

Then in your controller

$form = new App_Form_Something(array('submitName' => 'Update or something'));

I use this techique quite often to pass in Id's of certain database objects so they can be auto populated etc.

Good luck