Re: Zend_Filter: Simple use cases?

I think dealing with parameters that are arrays may need to be 
capability of the individual filters. They could all be array capable 
(or selectable via a constructor param) or there could be a second set 
for arrays. I know this has been discussed.
Alternatively we could implement an array iterator and then you could do 
something like this:
$filter->addFilter('ages', new Zend_Filter_Iterator($intFilter));

That would assume that $request->ages is an array and it would run the 
Int filter on the entire array.
Regarding:
>    $filter->addFilter('*', $intFilter);

It would probably be better to add a method like this, that would run on 
all values:
$filter->addGlobalFilter($intFilter);



Bryce Lohr wrote:
> I've really liked this idea, ever since I saw it in the original 
> Zend_FilterChain proposal. Unfortunately for me, my forms heavily make 
> use of nested arrays in the POST data. This was brought up in the 
> comments on that proposal, but I don't know if any solution was ever 
> suggested. It's a really elegant concept; if the nested array thing were 
> sorted out, I'd start using it immediately.
> Thinking about it, I suppose I could just do this (reusing your example):
>
>    // Assume 'id', 'name', etc are under $_POST['level1']
>    $filter = new Zend_Filter_Container();
>    $intFilter = new Zend_Filter_Int();
>    $filter->addFilter('id', $intFilter);
>    $filter->addFilter('name', new Zend_Filter_Alpha());
>    $filter->addFilter('email', new Zend_Filter_Email());
>    $filter->addFilter('age', $intFilter);
>    $filter->run($this->_request->level1);
>
>    $id = $this->_request->level1->id;
>
> The first argument to addFilter() above seems to be the field name to 
> apply the filter to. I assume you could specify the same field name 
> repeatedly to add more filters to the same field. What if I had a whole 
> array of check boxes that I wanted to run the same filter or validator 
> over? It would be really useful if I had way of specifying some kind of 
> wildcard or pattern to match against. That way I could hit the entire 
> checkbox array with something like:
>    $filter->addFilter('*', $intFilter);
>    $filter->run($this->_request->checkboxes);
>
> Actually, I imagine implementing this would open up a whole can of 
> worms. But it would be really handy...
> Regards,
> Bryce Lohr
>
> Christopher Thompson wrote:
> > This is one of the not-so-good things about the new Filter and 
> > Validate classes -- they work on values not a container (e.g. request) 
> > so you need one chain per value. And as you note since there are 
> > usually only one or two filters/rules for each parameter it is more 
> > trouble than it is worth.
> > I should also note that you don't need the filter chain at all in your 
> > example, you can just do:
> >   $intFilter new Zend_Filter_Int();
> >   $id = $intFilter ->filter($this->_request->getParam('id'));
> >
> > (which can be shortened further fluently) But you are still in the 
> > procedural style of Filter_Input so what's the point...
> > Since the thing is mainly used for the request it should work 
> > something like this:
> >   $filter = new Zend_Filter_Container();
> >   $intFilter = new Zend_Filter_Int();
> >   $filter->addFilter('id', $intFilter);
> >   $filter->addFilter('name', new Zend_Filter_Alpha());
> >   $filter->addFilter('email', new Zend_Filter_Email());
> >   $filter->addFilter('age', $intFilter);
> >   $filter->run($this->_request);
> >
> >   $id = $this->_request->id;
> >
> > This style is much more Form Controller friendly as well.