# Observers question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/observers-question/130520>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 28, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/observers-question/130520 "2008-02-28T23:30:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jeffct](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/5f8ce5/32.png) [@jeffct](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffct)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/observers-question/130520/1 "2008-02-28T23:30:12Z")

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Is it possible for observes to run more under the context of the  
application itself, rather than just like a model?

I’ve found them very limited for doing things like sending email when  
the state of a model changes. Since the observer works in the same  
context as a model - it isn’t aware of things like what account is  
currently being used, configuration variables that are pulled from the  
db, etc.

Mostly what I want to do is be able to send emails when something  
changes in the model. Unfortunately right now I just have to put the  
code to send the email in the controller… it’s not very dry (several  
different controllers can change the state of this model) and it of  
course doesn’t work at all if I change something from the console.