While working on a big project today, I had to use this default Email component. I was disappointed when I had to create two views for every singly mail... This is really bugging.. Plus, It is not fast as it can be.
At the same time, I've always loved the magic Model functions: findAllby
Today, I realized how productive it would make us if there's some similar magic functions for email as well. Say to send a user approval letter, you just have to write following in your controllers:
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$this->Email->send_UserApproval($email, $verification_code); // to send user approval mail
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$this->Email->send_UserWelcome($email); //welcome mail
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$this->Email->send_AdminPaymentNotification($from); // payment notification to admin
This does not only increases the speed of writing code, but also makes code look beautiful.
While I was thinking about the idea, I dugg into model class of CakePHP to find how its done, I found the source of magic:
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function __call($method, $params, &$return) {
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$db =& ConnectionManager::getDataSource($this->useDbConfig);
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$return = $db->query($method, $params, $this);
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$this->__resetAssociations();
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}
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return true;
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}
This is the function which creates all Model:findAllby functions. So I decided to write my own component which will definately save time in many of the projects.
One good way of developing this would be creating a language/email file like emails.php with something like this:
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'user'=>array(
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'Approval'=>'Hi user, You are about to get approved.',
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'Welcome'=>'Welcome user, you can now play with our system.'
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),
This file will be read by Email::__call() and our magic functions will be created on the run.
What do you think of this method ? Is it better than current Email component ? I'll blog again as soon as my email component is ready..