# Relationship problems **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 28, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795 "2010-06-28T11:22:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neilbain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795/1 "2010-06-28T11:22:03Z")
I am trying to send an email using ActionMailer. I am having problems identifying the recipient in email.controller. I want it to be the owner of the current story. It won’t accept @story.user because I don’t know how to make a relationship between the story model and the email model. Trouble is user\_mailer won’t accept belongs\_to. Can anybody help? ---
**Author:** ![neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neilbain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795/2 "2010-06-28T11:28:06Z")
On 28 June 2010 10:22, Neil B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am trying to send an email using ActionMailer. I am having problems > identifying the recipient in email.controller. I want it to be the owner > of the current story. > It won’t accept @story.user because I don’t know how to make a > relationship between the story model and the email model. Trouble is > user\_mailer won’t accept belongs\_to. Can anybody help? :recipient =\> @story.user.email\_address ---
**Author:** ![neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neilbain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795/3 "2010-06-28T12:37:20Z")
Michael P. wrote: > :recipient =\> @story.user.email\_address That gives undefined method `user’ for nil:NilClass ---
**Author:** ![neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neilbain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795/4 "2010-06-28T14:58:57Z")
On 28 June 2010 11:37, Neil B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Michael P. wrote: > > > :recipient =\> @story.user.email\_address > > That gives undefined method `user’ for nil:NilClass Well then the “It won’t accept @story.user because I don’t know how to make a relationship between the story model and the email model” would’ve returned that error too! If you have a Story object somewhere, and the story instance has a user, and that user has an email address, you can pass it into your ActionMailer method as a parameter (or, as it looks like you’re doing, a hash value). You can then set that passed-in email address as the “recipients” for the email. ---
**Author:** ![neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neilbain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795/5 "2010-06-28T18:35:06Z")
On 28 June 2010 15:18, Neil B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Problem is that it won’t recognise the Story object. What Story object? In your controller code you don’t have one. You use a story key in the params hash, but you haven’t populated anything from the database. Is the email address in the params hash too?! Only you know where your data is. > Doesn’t it need to be related? > To what? And what for? > You’re interesting in an email address of a person assigned to a > story. The UserMailer couldn’t care less about the relationships - it > just wants an email address. If you know the story’s ID, load it > (story = Story.find(story\_id\_from\_params\_or\_somewhere\_else)); then you > can call story.user.email\_address\_field\_name ---
**Author:** ![neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neilbain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795/6 "2010-06-28T19:23:11Z")
Michael P. wrote: > On 28 June 2010 15:18, Neil B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Problem is that it won’t recognise the Story object. > > What Story object? In your controller code you don’t have one. You use > a story key in the params hash, but you haven’t populated anything > from the database. Is the email address in the params hash too?! > Only you know where your data is. > > > Doesn’t it need to be related? > > To what? And what for? > > You’re interesting in an email address of a person assigned to a > > story. The UserMailer couldn’t care less about the relationships - it > > just wants an email address. If you know the story’s ID, load it > > (story = Story.find(story\_id\_from\_params\_or\_somewhere\_else)); then you > > can call story.user.email\_address\_field\_name How do I tell it to find the current page? ---
**Author:** ![neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@neilbain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/neilbain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/relationship-problems/190795/7 "2010-06-28T16:18:44Z")
Michael P. wrote: > On 28 June 2010 11:37, Neil B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Michael P. wrote: > > > > > :recipient =\> @story.user.email\_address > > > > That gives undefined method `user’ for nil:NilClass > If you have a Story object somewhere, and the story instance has a > user, and that user has an email address, you can pass it into your > ActionMailer method as a parameter (or, as it looks like you’re doing, > a hash value). You can then set that passed-in email address as the > “recipients” for the email. How would I send it as a parameter then if it won’t accept my hash?. Problem is that it won’t recognise the Story object. Doesn’t it need to be related?