Feedback Plugin for Rails

Feedback is a Ruby on Rails plugin that adds an ajax-based overlay feedback form triggered by a side-screen tab or a link. The result of the feedback form is sent through a ActionMailer.

The plugin was inspired from the "feedback" widget of GetSatisfaction.com and UserVoice.com.

The plugin uses a generator to generate boiler-plate Javascript, CSS, HTML, and ruby code into your application. It sets up a ready to use feedback form (with minimal styling) that you can further customize.

Features

• Helper to display a sticky "feedback" tab.
• Display feedback form as an overlay with Ajax.
• Sends feedback result by email through an ActionMailer.
• Uses a generator such that you can customize the code and style to fit your app.
• Generates unit and functional tests.
• Works with Prototype and JQuery, choose through a generators flag.
• Currently supports IE6, IE7, IE8, FF2, FF3, Chrome2 and SafariX

Motivation

Collecting feedback from users is really important. Third-party services such as GetSatisfaction.com and UserVoice.com are awesome tools to manage your feedback. However, we found out that in many instances such as for small sites or back-ends, we wanted a similar feedback form integration/experience but simpler, local, and customized.

Install and Getting Started

for Rails 2.x

Install the plugin:

ruby script/plugin install git://github.com/jsboulanger/feedback.git

Run the generator:

ruby script/generate feedback_form

By default it will generate the Prototype code, you can use jQuery if you prefer:

ruby script/generate feedback_form --jquery

Include the feedback.css and the jquery.feedback.js/prototype.feedback.js files into your header. There is a helper to do that:

<%= feedback_includes %>

for Rails 3.x

Install the generator:

git clone git://github.com/dohkoos/feedback.git
cp feedback/lib/generators/feedback_form [YOUR_PROJECT_NAME]/lib/generators

Run the generator:

rails generate feedback_form

By default it will generate the jQuery code, you can use Prototype if you prefer:

rails generate feedback_form --skip-jquery

To add a sticky 'feedback' tab to your site, in the header place:

<%= feedback_tab(:position => 'top') %>

Configure the action mailer in app/models/feedback_mailer.rb

def feedback(feedback)
  @recipients = 'you@yoursite.com'
  @from = 'system@yoursite.com'
  @subject = "[Feedback for YourSite.com] #{feedback.subject}"
  ...

How-to's

How to customize the position of the feedback tab?

The feedback_tab helper takes the option "position" which has four different values (top|bottom|left|right) that corresponds to class in the feedback.css file. You can fine tune the position by changing the left/right, top/bottom attributes of those css classes.

How to trigger the feedback form from a custom link?

The feedback_link(text, options={}) helper allows you the create a link that will trigger the feedback form.

<%= feedback_link "Leave us feedback!" %>

Your layout header must also have the includes:

<%= feedback_includes %>

How to customize the email message?

Edit the /app/views/feedback_mailer/feedback.html.erb generated file in your app

How to store the feedback results in the database?

Feedback generates a model that is not an active record model. In order to store the feedbacks in your database, make it an active record model:

class Feedback < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :comment, :email, :subject, :page

  validates :subject, :presence => true
  validates :comment, :presence => true
end

You must also write a migration to create your table:

class CreateFeedbacks < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :feedbacks do |t|
      t.string :subject
      t.string :email
      t.text   :comment
      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :feedbacks
  end
end

Limitations (TODOs)

• No unit tests for Javascript
• Feedback PNG with transparency supported by IE6
• Graceful fallback if Javascript is not enabled/supported
• More customization options through helpers: (overlay style, tab color, etc...)

Acknowledgements

Thanks to GetSatisfaction.com for the idea of the "feedback" tab.

Part of this plugin was inspired from other software. Thanks to their respective authors.

• Facebox: http://famspam.com/facebox
• restful_authentication: http://github.com/technoweenie/restful-authentication/tree/master

Copyright (c) 2009 Jean-Sebastien Boulanger jsboulanger@gmail.com, released under the MIT license

http://jsboulanger.com