Email Form Generator

by Brian Hogan
http://www.napcs.com

DESCRIPTION:

This generator creates a working contact form with validations and delivery, and provides a method for working with configuration from YML files as well as a mechanism for working with models that don’t require a database but still need validations and callbacks.

Usage:

ruby script/generate email_form contact
or
ruby script/generate email_form Contact first_name:string last_name:string email:string message:string

The command generates the following output:

Your form is ready for use in your application.
Before you start the server, fill in the right details into config/email.yml.
      exists  app/models/
      exists  app/controllers/
      exists  app/helpers/
      create  app/views/contact_forms
      create  app/views/contact_form_mailer
      exists  app/views/layouts/
      exists  test/functional/
      exists  test/unit/
      create  app/views/contact_forms/success.html.erb
      create  app/views/contact_forms/new.html.erb
      create  app/views/contact_form_mailer/form.html.erb
      create  app/controllers/contact_forms_controller.rb
      create  config/email.yml
      create  config/initializers/email_config.rb
      create  app/models/contact_form.rb
      create  app/models/contact_form_mailer.rb
      create  app/models/tableless.rb
      create  test/functional/contact_forms_controller_test.rb
      create  test/unit/contact_form_mailer_test.rb

Notice that it generates a model called ContactForm with a RESTful resource ContactForms, mapped to a singular resource route (map.resource :contact_form)

Also generates a configuration file and an initializer to make configuring email for various environments a snap and a tableless model is included so you can use validations and form helpers just like you do with regular models.

RSpec support

If you prefer to have specs instead of tests, use the –spec flag.

ruby script/generate email_form Contact first_name:string last_name:string email:string message:string --spec

Configuration

When the generator runs, it creates a configuration file called email.yml. You need to modify this file so that it reflects your settings for your email server.

development:
  web_host: http://localhost:3000
  email:
    delivery_method: smtp
    server: smtp.yourdomain.com
    port: 25
    domain: yourdomain.com
    authentication: none
    username:
    password: 
    site_admin_email: [email protected]
production:
  web_host: http://localhost:3000
  email:
    delivery_method: sendmail
    site_admin_email: [email protected]
test:
  web_host: http://localhost:3000
  email:
    delivery_method: test
    site_admin_email: [email protected]

This file is read by config/initializers/email_config.rb, where it configures ActionMailer’s settings. It should work fine out of the box for most environments.

Tableless Model

The Tableless model inherits from ActiveRecord::Base and then removes the database functionality from the model.

Examples of use:

class Foo < Tableless
  column :bar, :string
  validates_presence_of :bar
end
@foo = Foo.new
@foo.save  #=> false
@foo.bar = "hello"
@foo.save #=> true

This concept was inspired by Rick Olson

REQUIREMENTS:

The Mocha gem is required because I use it for testing. Change the tests if you want to use something else.
If you’re using RSpec and you want to use the tests generated, you need to enable Mocha’s mocking, or change the mock lines to use RSpec’s mocking instead.
Rails 2.x with ActiveRecord

INSTALL:

Mac and Linux: sudo gem install email_form_generator
Windows: gem install email_form_generator

LICENSE:

(The MIT License)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ‘Software’), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.