QuickForm Controller, Defaults, and Dynamic Form Elements

Hi there, I've recently gotten into the wonderful world of quickform controller, and have run into an issue with my perhaps unconventional use of the package. I'm trying to build out a form builder wizard that includes client side dynamically created form elements on the quickform pages. IE: Instead of doing a page reload, the user just clicks an "add" button and then s/he has a new field where they can define a new form element with no page reload. I then am trying to auto detect server side what the new form elements are, and then adding the corresponding quickform elements. _Trying_ is the keyword here :) Overall, my approach has worked a-okay, however I am having issues rebuilding the form pages from scratch using the controller setDefaults(). The below controller page example show how I have gone about connecting client side genereted form elements, with server side quickform elements. I am using a combination of looking at the _POST data, or the result of $this->controller->exportValues(). I have found that if I call $this->controller->exportValues() when new client side form elements are added, it does not pick up their values. I assume because the elements don't exist at the quickform level at the time of a new POST, $this->controller->exportValues() just doesn't see them (makes sence). So, I look at the raw _POST data when a new post has been made to the page, and $this->controller->exportValues() when the page is simply just being loaded: class PageFirst extends HTML_QuickForm_Page { function buildForm() {

       $this->_formBuilt = true;

       $set_group = false;

       if ($_POST[$this->getButtonName('next')]) {
           $values = $_POST;
       } else {
           $values = $this->controller->exportValues();
       }

       // Add client side dynamically created form elements
       if (!empty($values)) {
           while (list($key,) = each($values)) {
               if (strpos($key, 'field_') !== false) {
                   list(, $field_count) = explode('_', $key, 2);
                   if (is_numeric($field_count)) {
                       $this->_addFieldGroup($field_count);
                       $set_group = true;
                   }
               }
           }
       }

       // otherwise, just add one field group
       if (!$set_group) {
           $this->_addFieldGroup();
       }

       $this->addElement('button', 'add', 'Add', array('onclick' =>

'add_field()'));

       $this->addElement('submit', $this->getButtonName('cancel'), 'Cancel');

       $this->addElement('submit', $this->getButtonName('next'), 'Next >>');

       $this->setDefaultAction('next');

} function _addFieldGroup($ID = 1) {

       $element = array();
       $element['name'] =& $this->createElement('text', 'name', null,

array('size' => 30));

       $element['type'] =& $this->createElement('select',

'element_type', null, $GLOBALS['_types']);

       $element['required'] =& $this->createElement('checkbox',

'required', 'Required');

       $this->addGroup($element, 'field_' . $ID);

} } This approach has worked well for me, and has allowed me to do some other cool stuff. For example, on the next page, I then go ahead server side to build out a custom form based on the dynamically generated client side data from the previous page. The point where I have gotten into a bind is when the user comes back and wants to go through the wizard again to edit previously created content. My approach here has totally backfired. I do something like this: $wizard =& new HTML_QuickForm_Controller('Wizard', true); $wizard->addPage(new PageFirst('PageFirst')); $wizard->addPage(new PageSecond('PageSecond')); .... $defaults = ...; $wizard->setDefaults($defaults); $wizard->run(); My hope here is when I call $this->controller->exportValues() I'll get a result set inclusive of the default data, and then I can go on my merry way and build out the dynamic form. So much for that theory.... Any ideas on how I can accomplish this? Thanks, Michael