Simple Form

Simple Form is a ready to go contact form. Just the following lines are needed to have a contact form (including the e-mail):

  class ContactForm < SimpleForm
    subject "My Contact Form"
    recipients "your.email@your.domain.com"
    sender{|c| %{"#{c.name}" <#{c.email}>} }

    attribute :name,      :validate => true
    attribute :email,     :validate => /[^@]+@[^\.]+\.[\w\.\-]+/
    attribute :file,      :attachment => true

    attribute :message
    attribute :nickname,  :captcha  => true
  end

Then you start a script/console and type:

  c = ContactForm.new(:name => 'José', :email => 'jose@email.com', :message => 'Cool!')
  c.deliver

Check your inbox and the e-mail will be there, with the sent fields (assuming that you configured your smtp properly).

SimpleForm also support attachments, I18n, error messages like in ActiveRecord (so it works with custom FormBuilders) and can also send the user request information in the contact mail.

It’s tested and compatible with Rails 2.2.x and Rails 2.3.x.

Installation

Install Simple Form is very easy. It is stored in Gemcutter, so just run the following:

   gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org
   sudo gem install simple_form

If you want it as plugin, just do:

   script/plugin install git://github.com/josevalim/simple_form.git

Request

SimpleForm makes easy to append user information to the contact mail. You just have to do:

  class ContactForm < SimpleForm
    append :remote_ip, :user_agent, :session
    # ...
  end

And in your controller:

  @contact_form = ContactForm.new(params[:contact_form], request)

And the remote ip, user agent and session will be sent in the e-mail in a request information session. You can give to append any method that the request object responds to.

API Overview

attributes(*attributes)

Declare your form attributes. All attributes declared here will be appended to the e-mail, except the ones :captcha is true.

Options:

• :validate - When true, validates the attributes can’t be blank. When a regexp is given, check if the attribute matches is not blank and then if it matches the regexp.

  Whenever :validate is a symbol, the method given as symbol will be called. You can then add validations as you do in ActiveRecord (errors.add).

• :attachment - When given, expects a file to be sent and attaches it to the e-mail. Don’t forget to set your form to multitype.
• :captcha - When true, validates the attributes must be blank. This is a simple way to avoid spam and the input should be hidden with CSS.

Examples:

   class ContactForm < SimpleForm
     attributes :name,  :validate => true
     attributes :email, :validate => /[^@]+@[^\.]+\.[\w\.\-]+/
     attributes :message
     attributes :screenshot, :attachment => true, :validate => :screenshot_required?
     attributes :nickname, :captcha => true

     def screenshot_required?
       # ...
     end
   end

   c = ContactForm.new(:nickname => 'not_blank', :email => 'your@email.com', :name => 'José')
   c.valid?  #=> true
   c.spam?   #=> true  (raises an error in development, to remember you to hide it)
   c.deliver #=> false (just delivers if is not a spam and is valid)

   c = ContactForm.new(:email => 'invalid')
   c.valid?               #=> false
   c.errors.inspect       #=> { :name => :blank, :email => :invalid }
   c.errors.full_messages #=> [ "Name can't be blank", "Email is invalid" ]

   c = ContactForm.new(:name => 'José', :email => 'your@email.com')
   # save is an alias to deliver to allow it to work with InheritedResources
   c.save #=> true

subject(string_or_symbol_or_block)

Declares the subject of the contact email. It can be a string or a proc or a symbol.

When a symbol is given, it will call a method on the form object with the same name as the symbol. As a proc, it receives a simple form instance. It defaults to the class human name.

   subject "My Contact Form"
   subject { |c| "Contacted by #{c.name}" }

sender(string_or_symbol_or_block)

Declares contact email sender. It can be a string or a proc or a symbol.

When a symbol is given, it will call a method on the form object with the same name as the symbol. As a proc, it receives a simple form instance. By default is:

   sender{ |c| c.email }

This requires that your SimpleForm object have an email attribute.

recipients(string_or_array_or_symbol_or_block)

Who will receive the e-mail. Can be a string or array or a symbol or a proc.

When a symbol is given, it will call a method on the form object with the same name as the symbol. As a proc, it receives a simple form instance.

Both the proc and the symbol must return a string or an array. By default is nil.

template(string_or_symbol_or_proc)

Allow you to set the template that is going to rendered. This allows you to have several simple_form instances, using different templates.

headers(hash)

Additional headers to your e-mail.

I18n

All models, attributes and messages in SimpleForm can be used with localized. Below is an I18n example file:

  simple_form:
    models:
      contact_form: "Your site contact form"
    attributes:
      email: "E-mail"
      telephone: "Telephone number"
      message: "Sent message"
    messages:
      blank: "can not be blank"
      invalid: "is not valid"
      telephone: "must have eight digits"
    request:
      title: "Technical information about the user"
      remote_ip: "IP Address"
      user_agent: "Browser"

Contributors

• José Valim - github.com/josevalim
• Carlos Antonio - github.com/carlosantoniodasilva
• Andrew Timberlake - github.com/andrewtimberlake

Bugs and Feedback

If you discover any bugs, please send an e-mail to contact@plataformatec.com.be If you just want to give some positive feedback or drop a line, that’s fine too!

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