Question

I have a fairly simple Rails application that allows users to manage their clients and create a case for each client. When a case is created the details are sent to two email addresses (different content in each email) and using a gem, sends the information to FreeagentCentral.

I have implemented delayed_job which is working well for the Freeagent API call, but I think there is probably a better, lower overhead, method of sending the emails. It seems to take quite a while.

I currently have the following code in my Rails 2.3 application.

kases_controller.rb

# POST /kases
# POST /kases.xml
  def create
    @company = Company.find(params[:kase][:company_id])
    @kase = @company.kases.new(params[:kase])

    if @kase.save
        UserMailer.deliver_makeakase("[e-mail]", "Highrise", @kase) if params[:sendtohighrise]
        UserMailer.deliver_makeakaseteam("[e-mail]", "Highrise", @kase) if params[:notify_team_of_creation]
        @kase.delay.create_freeagent_project(current_user) if params[:send_to_freeagent]

        redirect_to(@kase)

        #flash[:notice] = 'Case was successfully created.'
        flash[:notice] = fading_flash_message("Case was successfully created.", 5)
      else
        render :new
      end        
  end

user_mailer.rb

def makeakase(email, name, kase, bccemails = [])
      recipients email
      from "[e-mail]"
      subject "FW: Case creation from Survey Manager"
      bcc bccemails
      sent_on Time.now
      body :name => name, :kase => kase
  end

  def makeakaseteam(email, name, kase = [])
      recipients email
      from "[e-mail]"
      subject "A new case has been created."
      sent_on Time.now
      body :name => name, :kase => kase
      content_type "text/html"
  end

I am looking for any advice on slimming down the number of emails sent, or a way of adding the emails to the delayed jobs.

I use PostmarkApp for sending the emails, which is another gem. Details of which can be found here: postmark-gem

Answer 1

Not sure if this is what you want, but i would make a method that would do the sending of the emails and the creation of the freeagent, and then let it be handled by delayed_job.

Something like

class Kase

  def send_emails(current_user, send_to_highrise, notify_team, send_to_freeagent)
    UserMailer.deliver_makeakase("[e-mail]", "Highrise", self) if send_to_highrise
    UserMailer.deliver_makeakaseteam("[e-mail]", "Highrise", self) if notify_team
    self.create_freeagent_project(current_user) if send_to_freeagent
  end
end

and in your controller you would then write

if @kase.save
  @kase.delay.send_emails(current_user, params[:sendtohighrise], 
                         params[:notify_team_of_creation], params[:send_to_freeagent])
  redirect_to @kase
  flash[:notice] = fading_flash_message("Case was successfully created.", 5)
else
  ...

or just handing down the params is maybe simpler/cleaner.