# Best practice question: ActiveMailer

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practice-question-activemailer/109427>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 14, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practice-question-activemailer/109427 "2007-07-14T19:34:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![schof](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@schof](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/schof)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practice-question-activemailer/109427/1 "2007-07-14T19:34:18Z")

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I’m new to Rails but not MVC programming (very familiar with Struts  
for instance.) I’m currently modifying an existing Rails app but I  
have some questions about the design decisions that were made in their  
code.

The app I’m looking at has an ActiveMailer class but its stored in the  
model subdirectory. Does this sound right to people? IMO  
ActiveMailer resembles a controller more then it does a model. In  
fact, since its deciding which view to render based on the action, its  
pretty much exactly like a classic controller.

Apparently Rails when use use the generate script in rails it puts it  
in the model directory? Can someone explain the reasoning behind  
this? IMO its not a very intuitive choice.