Contact form/no db table?

Rails
1

Apologies because I know this has come up before but I am simply having
no luck search archives or Google other than this wiki article:
Peak Obsession.

What I want to do is have a contact form in my app. It doesn’t need a db
table, just the fields, but I do want to use ActionMailer to send the
messages. I generated the mailer and thought a simple model class,
controller and form would do the trick. Controller and form were (if I
did this right) okay but not getting anywhere with the model. Controller
has new and send_message actions, new shows the form and send_message,
which is the form’s action, calls the generated mailer.

Could some kind soul help with the model? The fields are :name, :email,
:subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date (the last two are set by
:initialize in the model).

If I get this done I’ll update that wiki article with the lesson
learned.

Thanks,
Bill

2

Hi Bill,

Is it possible just to make your model so that it does not inherit from
ActiveRecord? It would only be a volotile object, but from what your
suggesting in your email, I think this is what your after.

eg
class Contact

I hope this is what your looking for

3

Yes, that’s exactly what I have in mind. Probably I’m too new but how to
write the model class is confusing me, if someone could get me started
that would be a big help.

Bill

4

Hey Bill,

When you generate your model, simply remove the “< ActiveRecord::Base”
within the class definition,

Inside /app/models/my_new_model.rb could contain…

class MyNewModel
def method
# put your logic inside here
end
End

You will not get all the nice features of ActiveRecord, such as find,
before_filter, etc. But from what it sounds like you are after, you
don’t
really need most of them anyways.

Your controller will function just as it would normally, so create
inside
/app/controllers/my_new_model.rb the following:

class MyNewModelController < ApplicationController
def index
end
end

And put your view inside the views/my_action_model/index.rhtml which can
contain any X/HTML you want

Warmest regards,
Nathan.

5

Nathan,

Thanks! That’s more or less what I did but I’m not sure what to put in
the model methods so the fields are proper instance variables. I’m a
noob and AWD doesn’t seem to cover this.

Bill

6

Bill,

I believe that the instance variables are set as you use them.
Alternativley
you could use the *attr_accessible *macro…

attr_accessible :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date

This will create the required get and set methods so that you can access
the
variables as per a normal AR model. You can over write these methods if
you
want (say for the ipaddress) or you could just instantiate a model like
an
AR

@my_model = Contact.new(params[:contact])

I’m not sure if this works tho…

7

Bill-

You could use a Struct to make your non AR model act like an Active

Record. Here is a little irb session that will make this hopefully
more clear:

MyModel = Struct.new(:name,
?> :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date)
=> MyModel
@a = MyModel.new(‘Jimmy’, ‘[email protected]’, ‘Foo B.’, ‘Hello
World!’, ‘120.0.0.1’, ‘11/14/2005’)
=> #<struct MyModel name=“Jimmy”, email=“[email protected]”, subject=“Foo
Bar”, message=“Hello World!”, ipaddress=“120.0.0.1”,
c_date=“11/14/2005”>
@a.name
=> “Jimmy”
@a.message
=> “Hello World!”

So define your model like this:

my_model.rb

MyModel = Struct.new
(:name, :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date)

and now you can use it almost just like an Active Record in your
controller:

def create_mailer
@content = MyModel.new(params[:name], params[:email], params
[:subject], params[:message], params[:ipaddress], params[:c_date])
Mailer.deliver_notification(@content)
end

Or whatever you want to use your new struct model for. Let me know if
this works for you. I think I understand what you are trying to do
and this is the way that I have been doing email only forms that
don’t need to have an AR model backing them.

Cheers-

-Ezra

On Nov 13, 2005, at 3:28 PM, Bill Lazar wrote:

what your suggesting in your email, I think this is what your after.
What I want to do is have a contact form in my app. It doesn’t
Could some kind soul help with the model? The fields are :name,
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

-Ezra Z.
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
[email protected]
509-577-7732

8

Thanks for the suggestion but this didn’t do the trick.

Bill

9

Thanks for the help. I tried this suggestion but get an error still:

wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)

on this line:

@contact = Contact.new(@params[:contact])

Same error (except 6 for 1) if I use:

@contact = Contact.new(params[:name], params[:email], params[:subject],
params[:message], params[:ipaddress], params[:c_date] )

Bill

10

You could try it like this:

def send_message
@contact = Contact.new
@contact.name = params[:name]
@contact.email = params[:email]
and so on…
end

See if that works for you. Or if you still have problems then fire

up script/console and play with your Contact model to get a feel for
how it works. I’m sure their is just something simple missing that is
giving you those errors.

Cheers-
-Ezra

On Nov 13, 2005, at 6:23 PM, Bill Lazar wrote:

@contact = Contact.new(params[:name], params[:email], params

?> :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date)
So define your model like this:
Or whatever you want to use your new struct model for. Let me know

Bill

I hope this is what your looking for
a db table, just the fields, but I do want to use
generated mailer.
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
[email protected]
509-577-7732

Rails mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

-Ezra Z.
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
[email protected]
509-577-7732

11

Thanks for the continuing help! I tried a bunch of variations, including
using the console, but all result in the same error: undefined method
`name=’ for #Contact:0x38440d8. I know you said to only have the
Struct.new line in the model class file but I wonder–is the controller
is finding the model?

model is app/models/contact.rb
controller is app/controllers/contact_controller.rb

Bill

12

Oh, also make sure that the only line in your contact.rb model file
is this:

Content = Struct.new
(:name, :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date

-Ezra

On Nov 13, 2005, at 6:23 PM, Bill Lazar wrote:

@contact = Contact.new(params[:name], params[:email], params

?> :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date)
So define your model like this:
Or whatever you want to use your new struct model for. Let me know

Bill

I hope this is what your looking for
a db table, just the fields, but I do want to use
generated mailer.
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
[email protected]
509-577-7732

Rails mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

-Ezra Z.
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
[email protected]
509-577-7732

13

OK Bill-

Lets turn this around then. If you just need this per request and

don’t need to save anything then how about this:

in your controller:

def whatever
Contact = Struct.new
(:name, :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date)
@contact = Contact.new(params[:name], params[:email], etc… )
do whatever with @contact
end

Does that work? Without any model at all?

Cheers
-Ezra

On Nov 13, 2005, at 7:04 PM, Bill Lazar wrote:

feel for how it works. I’m sure their is just something simple

@contact = Contact.new(@params[:contact])

Bill-
ipaddress=“120.0.0.1”, c_date=“11/14/2005”>
def create_mailer
On Nov 13, 2005, at 3:28 PM, Bill Lazar wrote:

Is it possible just to make your model so that it does not
having no luck search archives or Google other than this wiki
and form
set by :initialize in the model).
509-577-7732

Rails mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

-Ezra Z.
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
[email protected]
509-577-7732

14

Ezra,

Phew! Thanks so much. I finally got this up. The answer turned out to be
using the correct keyword in the model class:

attr_accessor :name, :email, :subject, :message, :ipaddress, :c_date

I was hoping to use the model so I could include in the
ActiveRecord::Validations for later.

Bill