This plugin provides a MailerComponent extending the core EmailComponent. MailerComponent can then be extended to define custom mailers in which methods sets up their own emails. This avoids bloating up controllers with a bunch of emails methods in AppController and allows you to easily send emails in awesomely sexy one-liners : $this->UserMailer->sendSignup($user).
It also replaces the debug mode by writing to the tmp/logs/error.log file. Easy debugging with tail -f or Console rocks.
Note : it requires PHP 5 because of __call. Components extend Object directly, so I couldnʼt use the overload features provided by Overloadable.
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Clone from github : in your plugin directory type
git clone git://github.com/msadouni/cakephp-mailer-plugin.git mailer -
Add as a git submodule : in your app directory type
git submodule add git://github.com/msadouni/cakephp-mailer-plugin.git plugins/mailer -
Download an archive from github and extract it in
/plugins/mailer
Create a custom mailer in you controllers/components folder :
// controllers/components/user_mailer.php
<?php
App::import('Plugin', 'Mailer.Mailer');
class UserMailerComponent extends MailerComponent {
/**
* Defines the params for a signup email
*/
function signup($user) {
if (empty($user['User']['email'])) {
return false;
}
$this->from = 'do-not-reply@example.com';
$this->to = $user['User']['email'];
$this->subject = "Welcome !";
$this->Controller->set('user', $user);
}
/**
* Defines common params for UserMailer emails
*/
function _prepare() {
parent::_prepare();
$this->sendAs = 'text';
}
}
?>
Use the mailer in the controller :
// controllers/users_controller.php
<?php
class UsersController extends AppController {
var $components = array('UserMailer');
function signup() {
$user = $this->User->signup($this->data);
if (!empty($user)) {
$this->UserMailer->sendSignup($user);
}
}
}
?>
The mailer automagically searches for a views/elements/email/<format>/<mailer_name>/<method_name>.ctp template. For this example it would use views/elements/email/text/user_mailer/signup.ctp.
The magic sendSomeMethod first calls prepare, either the basic one in MailerComponent or your overriden version in CustomMailerComponent. It then calls someMethod in the mailer wich sets up the email, and finally calls send.
While automagic stuff is fun, we sometimes need to override it. No problem. A MailerComponent method can call _setTemplate('another_folder/another_template') :
// controllers/components/user_mailer.php
function signup($user) {
if (empty($user['User']['email'])) {
return false;
}
$this->_setTemplate('cookie_mailer/destroy_account'); // Yeah it's silly but we can do it
$this->from = 'do-not-reply@example.com';
$this->to = $user['User']['email'];
$this->subject = "Welcome !";
$this->Controller->set('user', $user);
}
If for some reason you want to use the automatic template manually, you can to :
// controllers/components/user_mailer.php
function signup($user) {
if (empty($user['User']['email'])) {
return false;
}
$this->_setTemplate(); // Useless because send() does it for us, but we can do it here too
$this->from = 'do-not-reply@example.com';
$this->to = $user['User']['email'];
$this->subject = "Welcome !";
$this->Controller->set('user', $user);
}
Feel free to fork it and send patches if you find the plugin useful !