This gem was built on top of ActiveModel to showcase how you can pull in validations, naming and i18n from Rails to your models without the need to implement it all by yourself.
In other words, this README refers to the MailForm gem to be used in Rails 3. For instructions on how to use MailForm in Rails 2.x, please check the v1.0 branch:
http://github.com/plataformatec/mail_form/tree/v1.0
MailForm allows you to send an e-mail straight from a form. For instance, if you want to make a contact form just the following lines are needed (including the e-mail):
class ContactForm < MailForm::Base attribute :name, :validate => true attribute :email, :validate => /[^@]+@[^\.]+\.[\w\.\-]+/ attribute :file, :attachment => true attribute :message attribute :nickname, :captcha => true # Declare the e-mail headers. It accepts anything the mail method # in ActionMailer accepts. def headers { :subject => "My Contact Form", :to => "[email protected]", :from => %("#{name}" <#{email}>) } end end
Then you start a script/console and type:
c = ContactForm.new(:name => 'José', :email => '[email protected]', :message => 'Cool!') c.deliver
Check your inbox and the e-mail will be there, with the sent fields (assuming that you configured your mailer delivery method properly).
When you inherit from MailForm::Base, it pulls down a set of stuff from ActiveModel, as ActiveModel::Validation, ActiveModel::Translation and ActiveModel::Naming.
This bring I18n, error messages, validations and attributes handling like in ActiveRecord to MailForm, so MailForm can be used in your controllers and form builders without extra tweaks. This also means that instead of the following:
attribute :email, :validate => /[^@]+@[^\.]+\.[\w\.\-]+/
You could actually do this:
attribute :email validates_format_of :email, :with => /[^@]+@[^\.]+\.[\w\.\-]+/
Choose the one which pleases you the most. For more information on the API, please continue reading below.
MailForm plays nice with ORMs as well. You just need to include MailForm::Delivery in your model and declare which attributes should be sent:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base include MailForm::Delivery append :remote_ip, :user_agent, :session attributes :name, :email, :created_at def headers { :to => "[email protected]", :subject => "User created an account" } end end
The delivery will be triggered in an after_create hook.
Install MailForm is very easy. It is stored in Gemcutter, so just run the following:
sudo gem install mail_form
If you want it as plugin, just do:
script/plugin install git://github.com/plataformatec/mail_form.git
Declare your form attributes. All attributes declared here will be appended to the e-mail, except the ones :captcha is true.
Options:
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:validate - A hook to validates_*_of. When true is given, validates the presence of the attribute. When a regexp, validates format. When array, validates the inclusion of the attribute in the array.
Whenever :validate is given, the presence is automatically checked. Give :allow_blank => true to override.
Finally, when :validate is a symbol, the method given as symbol will be called. Then you can add validations as you do in ActiveRecord (errors.add).
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:attachment - When given, expects a file to be sent and attaches it to the e-mail. Don’t forget to set your form to multitype.
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:captcha - When true, validates the attributes must be blank. This is a simple way to avoid spam and the input should be hidden with CSS.
Examples:
class ContactForm < MailForm::Base attributes :name, :validate => true attributes :email, :validate => /[^@]+@[^\.]+\.[\w\.\-]+/ attributes :type, :validate => ["General", "Interface bug"] attributes :message attributes :screenshot, :attachment => true, :validate => :interface_bug? attributes :nickname, :captcha => true def interface_bug? if type == 'Interface bug' && screenshot.nil? self.errors.add(:screenshot, "can't be blank on interface bugs") end end end c = ContactForm.new(:nickname => 'not_blank', :email => '[email protected]', :name => 'José') c.valid? #=> true c.spam? #=> true (raises an error in development, to remember you to hide it) c.deliver #=> false (just delivers if is not a spam and is valid, raises an error in development) c = ContactForm.new(:email => 'invalid') c.valid? #=> false c.errors.inspect #=> { :name => :blank, :email => :invalid } c.errors.full_messages #=> [ "Name can't be blank", "Email is invalid" ] c = ContactForm.new(:name => 'José', :email => '[email protected]') c.deliver
MailForm also makes easy to append request information from client to the sent mail. You just have to do:
class ContactForm < MailForm::Base append :remote_ip, :user_agent, :session # ... end
And in your controller:
@contact_form = ContactForm.new(params[:contact_form]) @contact_form.request = request
The remote ip, user agent and session will be sent in the e-mail in a request information session. You can give to append any method that the request object responds to.
I18n in MailForm works like in ActiveRecord, so all models, attributes and messages can be used with localized. Below is an I18n file example file:
mail_form:
models:
contact_form: "Your site contact form"
attributes:
contact_form:
email: "E-mail"
telephone: "Telephone number"
message: "Sent message"
request:
title: "Technical information about the user"
remote_ip: "IP Address"
user_agent: "Browser"
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José Valim - github.com/josevalim
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Carlos Antonio - github.com/carlosantoniodasilva
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Andrew Timberlake - github.com/andrewtimberlake
If you discover any bug, please use github issues tracker.
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