Actionmailer woes

rubyonrails-talk
1

hi Guys

I have now spent hours on this and turn to you in desperation.

I am using Actionmailer to fetch emails, but I need to pass a userid to the receive method, so that the receive method knows what user to pass the email to. I tried: (ATTEMPT 1) class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base   def receive(email,userid)     ...   end

I then invoke the receipt of email with

task = PokeMailer.receive(m.pop,userid)

But I get the error 'wrong number of arguments (2 for 1)'

So I though - ok - the actionmailer receive method must be expecting one argument. Lets create another method to accept the userid and call the receive method with only the raw email. So I wrote as second PokeMailer method: (ATTEMPT 2) class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base   def getemail(email,userid)     @userid=userid     PokeMailer.receive(email)   end   def receive(email)     ..   end   .. end

and call it with

task = PokeMailer.getemail(m.pop,userid)

Now I get the error 'undefined method `getemail' for PokeMailer:Class'

(kindof figured this out - changed def getemail to def self.getemail

My third attempt was to try and instantiate an instance of PokeMailer with a initialize method: (ATTEMPT 3) class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base   def intitalize (userid)     @userid = userid     super #not sure if this is needed?   end   def receive(email)     ...   end   ... end

and then call this with something like:

pm = PokeMailer.new(userid) task = pm.receive(m.pop)

This fails because it seems that pm == nil - it doesn't event get created?!!!

I am at whits' end. Please save me!

Thanks for anything - even sympathy would help :wink:

Pieter Hugo

2

hi Guys

I have now spent hours on this and turn to you in desperation.

I am using Actionmailer to fetch emails, but I need to pass a userid to the receive method, so that the receive method knows what user to pass the email to. I tried: (ATTEMPT 1) class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base def receive(email,userid)

If you are trying to define a class method (rather than an instance method) you need def self.receive(..) I think this may be the root of all the problems below also.

Colin

3

Hi Colin

Thanks for the feedback. I kinda grokked that eventually. But I can't just turn my receive method into a class level method - because then the raw email string never gets turned into a tmail object. I any case the original code - which works, but doesnt pass my userid, is

class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base   def receive(email)     ...   end

I then invoke the receipt of email with

task = PokeMailer.receive(m.pop)

Question - is this now a class method or an instance method? It gets called on the PokeMailer class, and responds, but its not defined with def self.receive.

I suspect my ruby skills are woefully inadequate.... :frowning:

Any other suggestions?

Pieter

4

Hi Colin

Thanks for the feedback. I kinda grokked that eventually. But I can't just turn my receive method into a class level method - because then the raw email string never gets turned into a tmail object. I any case the original code - which works, but doesnt pass my userid, is

class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base def receive(email)

That is an instance method. To call it you would need a PokeMailer object and then call it via my_poke_mailer.receive(..)

... end

I then invoke the receipt of email with

task = PokeMailer.receive(m.pop)

You are asking here for a class method, so it will look for something defined as def self.receive() Since you have not overridden that then presumably it will call an existing method (I don't know PokeMailer so I can't comment on the details). It will not call your method. Take your method out and see if it still finds a method.

Question - is this now a class method or an instance method? It gets called on the PokeMailer class, and responds, but its not defined with def self.receive.

not sure what you are asking here. If you want to find out which method it is calling have a look at the Rails Guide on debugging, it will show you how to use ruby-debug to break into your code, you can then step into the function and see where it goes.

I suspect my ruby skills are woefully inadequate.... :frowning:

So are mine, just possibly slightly less so. The problem is that the problem one is tackling often seems to require just a little more knowledge than one's current state. :slight_smile:

Colin

5

Hi Colin

Thanks for bearing with me. Your thinking is spot on in agreement with how I understand ruby. And yet

class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base def receive(email) ... end

I then invoke the receipt of email with

task = PokeMailer.receive(m.pop)

works 100%

I tried creating an instance of PokeMailer (see first post)

pm = PokeMailer.new(userid)

But it just returns nil, and pm.receive says nil doesn't have a receive method.

I think its something to do with Actionmailer - but it definitely doesnt behave like a normal class.

:frowning:

6

Hi Colin

Thanks for bearing with me. Your thinking is spot on in agreement with how I understand ruby. And yet

class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base def receive(email) ... end

I then invoke the receipt of email with

task = PokeMailer.receive(m.pop)

works 100%

What happens if you comment out your receive method and then run the code?

Colin

7

Hi Colin

Thanks for bearing with me. Your thinking is spot on in agreement with how I understand ruby. And yet

class PokeMailer < ActionMailer::Base def receive(email) ... end

I then invoke the receipt of email with

task = PokeMailer.receive(m.pop)

works 100%

I tried creating an instance of PokeMailer (see first post)

pm = PokeMailer.new(userid)

But it just returns nil, and pm.receive says nil doesn't have a receive method.

I think its something to do with Actionmailer - but it definitely doesnt behave like a normal class.

There's a method_missing handler which handles calls to class methods that aren't there by creating new instances and dispatching the method to the newly created instance

Fred

8

Thanks for all the help guys. I got a solution in the end. I created a class level variable called @@userid which I then set in my getemail(email,userid) method before calling receive(email). Nasty, and not what I'd have expected, but it works.

Regards

Pieter