CakePHP 2.1 Contact Form in Element Won't Send - email

Question

I have two contact forms in my CakePHP application -- one with its own Controller, Model, and View, and another one in an element that can be accessed as a "quick" contact form from the footer of every page on the site.
The code for both forms is the same. The element is intended to access the Controller and Model that the other form uses. However, the element is not submitting the data or sending the email, while the regular page works just fine.
Here is the MVC Code for the regular form that IS working:
<!-- Model: Model/Contact.php -->
<?php
class Contact extends AppModel {
var $name = 'Contacts';
public $useTable = false; // Not using the database, of course.
var $validate = array(
'name' => array(
'rule' => '/.+/',
'allowEmpty' => false,
'required' => true,
),
'email' => array(
'allowEmpty' => false,
'required' => true,
)
);
function schema() {
return array (
'name' => array('type' => 'string', 'length' => 60, 'class' => 'contact input'),
'email' => array('type' => 'string', 'length' => 60, 'class' => 'contact input'),
'message' => array('type' => 'text', 'length' => 2000, 'class' => 'contact input'),
);
}
}
?>
<!-- Controller: Controller/ContactsController.php -->
class ContactsController extends AppController
{
var $name = 'Contacts';
/* var $uses = 'Contact'; */
var $helpers = array('Html', 'Form', 'Js');
var $components = array('Email', 'Session');
public function index() {
if(isset($this->data['Contact'])) {
$userEmail = $this->data['Contact']['email'];
$userMessage = $this->data['Contact']['message'];
$email = new CakeEmail();
$email->from(array($userEmail));
$email->to('email#example.com');
$email->subject('Website Contact Form Submission');
$email->send($userMessage);
if ($email->send($userMessage)) {
$this->Session->setFlash('Thank you for contacting us');
}
else {
$this->Session->setFlash('Mail Not Sent');
}
}
}
public function contact() {
if(isset($this->data['Contact'])) {
$userEmail = $this->data['Contact']['email'];
$userMessage = $this->data['Contact']['message'];
$email = new CakeEmail();
$email->from(array($userEmail));
$email->to('email#example.com');
$email->subject('Website Contact Form Submission');
$email->send($userMessage);
if ($email->send($userMessage)) {
$this->Session->setFlash('Thank you for contacting us');
// $this->redirect(array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'index'));
}
else {
$this->Session->setFlash('Mail Not Sent');
}
}
}
}
?>
<!-- View: Views/Contacts/index.ctp -->
<?
$main = 'contact';
$title = 'quick contact';
?>
<div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #ccc;">
<h1 style="position:relative; float:left;"><?php echo $main; ?></h1>
<h2 style="position:relative;float:left;margin-top:15px; color: #869c38"> • <?php echo $title;?></h2>
<br><br>
</div>
<div class="clear"><br></div>
<div id="interior-page">
<?php
echo $this->Form->create('Contact');
echo $this->Form->input('name', array('default' => 'name (required)', 'onfocus' => 'clearDefault(this)'));
echo $this->Form->input('email', array('default' => 'email (required)', 'onfocus' => 'clearDefault(this)'));
echo $this->Form->input('message', array('default' => 'message', 'onfocus' => 'clearDefault(this)'));
echo $this->Form->submit();
echo $this->Form->end();
?>
</div>
And here is the view for the quick contact form that is NOT working, located in an element displayed in the footer of the default layout:
<?php
echo $this->Form->create('Contact');
echo $this->Form->input('name', array('default' => 'name (required)', 'onfocus' => 'clearDefault(this)'));
echo $this->Form->input('email', array('default' => 'email (required)', 'onfocus' => 'clearDefault(this)'));
echo $this->Form->input('message', array('default' => 'message', 'onfocus' => 'clearDefault(this)'));
echo $this->Form->submit();
echo $this->Form->end();
?>
I tried different ways of changing the form action, but I couldn't figure that out.

Answer 1

Usually, cake "automagically" creates the action of the form based on where you call it from E.g. if called from the view Views/Contacts/index.ctp, it will set the action to /contacts/index. In case of an element, Cake can't really guess what you're trying to do, so you need to set the action manually:
$this->Form->create('Contact', array('action' => 'index'));
Or set the full URL alternatively:
$this->Form->create('Contact', array('url' => '/contacts/index'));

Answer 2

Make sure you're including the Contact model for use on every page you need to create that form. In your case, since it's in your layout, that likely means you should put it in your AppController, so every page has access to it.
You also need to specify where the form should submit to:
echo $this->Form->create('Contact', array(
'url' => array('controller'=>'contacts', 'action'=>'contact')
)
);
Off-note - You can combine the last 2 lines:
echo $this->Form->end('Submit');
This creates the submit button with text "Submit" and also closes the form.

Answer 3

Thanks for this! It helped me a lot.
Just a quick thing, you're sending the email twice.
Once here:
$email->send($userMessage);
And again here:
if ($email->send($userMessage))
The first instance ($email->send($userMessage)) isn't necessary.
Cheers