//###### user.phtml ######//
<?php if(!empty($this->username)){ echo $this->username,'<br />';} ?>
<p>User Form</p>
<form action="/user/newuser" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="newuser" /><br />
    <input type="submit" value="submit" /><br />
</form>
<p>This page has <?php echo $this->view->count;?> form fields.</p>
//###### end ######//


//###### FormfieldCounter.php ######// <?php
// file: application/action/helpers/FormfieldCounter.php
class Phpa_Controller_Action_Helper_FormfieldCounter
    extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract
{
    public function count($template)
    {
        $dom = new Zend_Dom_Query($template);
        $query = $dom->query('input[type="text"]');
        return count($query);
    }
}
/*// I suspect that this is supposed to be in the controller. We'll see ...
public function newUserAction()
{
    // action body
    $formfieldCounter = $this->_helper->getHelper('FormfieldCounter');
    $count = $formfieldCounter->count(
        $this->view->render('users/new-user.phtml'));
    $this->view->count = $count;
}*/
?> //###### end ######//


//###### USerController.php ######// <?php
class UserController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function init(){
    }
    public function indexAction(){
    }
    private function viewAction($var = null) {// renders via the /views/scripts/user/user.phtml template
        $var = $var? $var: 'user';
        $this->render($var);
    }
    public function __call($method,$args) {
        // $method is the method name (whose name contains 'Action')
        $username=ucwords(substr($method,0, -6));  // so we remove 'Action' from the end
        $this->view->username=$username;
        $this->viewAction();
    }
    /*public function newuserAction() {// renders application/views/scripts/user/user.phtml
        $payload = $this->getRequest()->getPost();
        $this->view->username = $payload['newuser'];
        $this->viewAction();
    }*/
    public function newuserAction(){  // this is a copy/paste from pastebin.com/XeBEaQ0h
        $formfieldCounter = $this->_helper->getHelper('FormfieldCounter');
        $count = $formfieldCounter->count( $this->view->render('users/new-user.phtml'));
        $this->view->count = $count;
    }
    public function newuserdataAction() {// renders application/views/scripts/user/user.phtml
        $payload = $this->getRequest()->getPost();
        $this->view->username = $payload['newuser'];
        $this->viewAction();
    }
}
?> //###### end ######//