Installing MailForm on OpenBSD

MailForm is a Ruby gem that makes it easy to create, process, and send email forms in Ruby applications. In this tutorial, we'll go through the steps to install MailForm on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

Before installing MailForm, you need to make sure that you have Ruby installed on your OpenBSD system. You can install Ruby by running the following command in your terminal:

pkg_add ruby

Installing MailForm

1. Open a terminal window and navigate to your application directory.

2. Add MailForm to your application's Gemfile by running the following command:

   echo "gem 'mail_form'" >> Gemfile
   

3. Install MailForm by running the following command:

   bundle install
   

   This will install MailForm and any other gems listed in your Gemfile.

4. Once MailForm is installed, you can start using it in your application. Here's an example of how to create a basic email form:

   # app/models/contact_form.rb
   
   class ContactForm < MailForm::Base
     attribute :name,      :validate => true
     attribute :email,     :validate => /\A([\w\.%\+\-]+)@([\w\-]+\.)+([\w]{2,})\z/i
     attribute :message,   :validate => true
     attribute :nickname,  :captcha  => true
   
     def headers
       {
         :subject => "My Contact Form",
         :to => "your_email@example.com",
         :from => %("#{name}" <#{email}>)
       }
     end
   end
   

   In this example, we've created a ContactForm class that inherits from MailForm::Base. We've defined four attributes: name, email, message, and nickname. We've also defined validation rules for the name, email, and message attributes, and added a CAPTCHA field to prevent spam.

   The headers method defines the email headers that will be sent when the form is submitted. You'll need to replace "your_email@example.com" with your own email address.

5. In your controller, create a new instance of your ContactForm class and call the deliver method to send the email:

   # app/controllers/contacts_controller.rb
   
   class ContactsController < ApplicationController
     def new
       @contact_form = ContactForm.new
     end
   
     def create
       @contact_form = ContactForm.new(params[:contact_form])
       if @contact_form.valid?
         @contact_form.deliver
         redirect_to root_path, notice: "Thanks for your message!"
       else
         render :new
       end
     end
   end
   

   In this example, we've created a ContactsController with new and create actions. In the new action, we create a new instance of ContactForm. In the create action, we create another instance of ContactForm with the params submitted from the form. We then check if the form is valid, and if so, call deliver to send the email. If the form is not valid, we render the "new" template to show the user the errors.

And that's it! You've now installed MailForm and created a basic email form in your OpenBSD application.

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