Basic Rails Contact Form and Mailer

_form.html.erb

<%= form_for(@contact) do |f| %>
  <% if @contact.errors.any? %>
    <div id="error_explanation">
      <h3><%= pluralize(@contact.errors.count, "error") %> prohibited this contact from being saved:</h2>

      <ul>
      <% @contact.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
        <li><%= msg %></li>
      <% end %>
      </ul>
    </div>
  <% end %>

  <div class="field">
    <%= f.label :name %><br />
    <%= f.text_field :name %>
  </div>
  <div class="field">
    <%= f.label :email %><br />
    <%= f.text_field :email %>
  </div>
  <div class="field">
    <%= f.label :message %><br />
    <%= f.text_area :message %>
  </div>
  <div class="actions">
    <%= f.submit "Send"%>
  </div>
<% end %>

contact.rb

class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base

  validates :email, 
    :presence => :true,
    :format => { 
      :with => /\A[\w+\-.]+@[a-z\d\-.]+\.[a-z]+\z/i,
      :message => "must be a valid email address"
    }
  validates :message, :presence => :true

end

contacts_controller.rb

class ContactsController < ApplicationController
  
  def new
    @contact = Contact.new
  end

  def create
    @contact = Contact.new(params[:contact])
    
    if @contact.save
      ContactsMailer.general_message(@contact).deliver
      render :thanks
    else
      render :new
    end
  end
  
  def thanks
  end
    
end

contacts_mailer.rb

# This file lives in the app/mailers directory
# See http://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_mailer_basics.html for details

class ContactsMailer < ActionMailer::Base
  default from: "admin@example.com"
  
  def general_message(contact)
    @contact = contact
    mail( :to => "admin@example.com", :subject => "You Have a Message From Your Website")
  end
end

new.html.erb

<h2>Send Us A Message</h1>

<%= render 'form' %>

Check your development.log, that should give you some insight into what's happening.

It did! Still kinda buggering around with my response block though... I'm gonna need respond_to do |format|, right?

Yeah, you need the format block with a "format.js" line, and a view file called "create.js.erb" or whatever your controller action and template language is. Otherwise theres no js to handle the remote request.

I think I finally understood what to do. My file (create.js.erb) looks kind of like this:

<% if @message.errors.any? -%>
console.log('errors')
<% else -%>
console.log('good to go')
<% end -%>

Seem reasonable to you?

Far as I know, that should work. Think of .js view files the same way you would as a script tag with the src attribute set to a javascript file. The only difference is that that code would only work against the like-named html.erb file. Basically, you have the right idea. Let me know if that works or not.

Yes, I see what you mean. It did work!