I've created a single page landing site which contains a simple waitlist form that dumps the info into a google doc (trying to keep it low tech for now, since an app will be built on top of this as well).
I'm trying to send the people who submit their email address for the waiting list a confirmation email. Can I pass the email address to a mailer without creating a model/controller and use of a db?
I've done this before by creating a model/controller (see below code) and use of a db (postgreSQL / Heroku), but it seems messy for such a simple task.
Here's my setup in the past, looking to get rid of the model/controller and pass the email address (w/ .downcase transformation) to the mailer directly.
models/waitlist.rb
class WaitList < ActiveRecord::Base
before_save {self.email = email.downcase}
attr_accessible :email
validates :email, :presence => true, format: { with: /\A([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/i }
end
controllers/waitlist_controller.rb
class WaitlistsController < ApplicationController
def create
@waitlist = Waitlist.new(params[:waitlist])
if @waitlist.save
# Tell the ProspectMailer to send an email to us
WaitlistMailer.waitlist_email(@waitlist).deliver
end
end
private
end
mailer/waitlist.rb
class Waitlist < ActionMailer::Base
default from: "[email protected]"
def waitlist_email(waitlist)
@waitlist = waitlist
mail( :to => @waitlist.email,
:subject => 'Thanks for signing up!' )
end
end
views/waitlist/waitlist_email.html.erb
Email text (possibly HTML) for the body of the email sent via the mailer
Thanks for the help!
Your controller should tell the Mailer to send the email.
In your controller create action, why not just pass the email param to your mailer?
app/controllers/wait_lists_controller.rb
class WaitListsController < ApplicationController
def create
send_wait_list_email(params[:wait_list][:email])
end
private
def send_wait_list_email(email)
WaitListMailer.wait_list_email(email).deliver
end
end
app/mailers/wait_list_mailer.rb
class WaitListMailer < ActionMailer::Base
def wait_list_email(email)
mail(to: email, subject: "Thanks for signing up!")
end
end
app/views/wait_lists/new.html.erb
<%= form_for(:wait_list, url: wait_lists_path) do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :email, placeholder: "Email" %>
<%= f.submit "Join" %>
<% end %>
If you want to do validation on the email, I'd recommend keeping your WaitList model and including ActiveModel::Model — not all models have to inherit from ActiveRecord::Base, only when they need it.
app/models/wait_list.rb
class WaitList
include ActiveModel::Model
attr_reader :email
def initialize(email)
@email = email
post_initialize
end
validates(
:email,
presence: true,
format: { with: /\A([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/i }
)
private
def post_initialize
if email
email.downcase!
end
end
end
app/controllers/wait_lists_controller.rb
class WaitListsController < ApplicationController
def new
@wait_list = WaitList.new
end
def create
@wait_list = WaitList.new(wait_list_params)
if @wait_list.valid?
send_wait_list_email(@wait_list)
# redirect somewhere
else
render :new
end
end
private
def send_wait_list_email(wait_list)
WaitListMailer.wait_list_email(wait_list).deliver
end
def wait_list_params
params.require(:wait_list).permit(:email)
end
end
app/views/wait_lists/new.html.erb
<%= form_for(@wait_list) do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :email, placeholder: "Email" %>
<%= f.submit "Join" %>
<% end %>
Hope that helps.
http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/action_mailer_basics.html#calling-the-mailer