Extending PloneFormMailer to capture form data in Plone before emailing it

Note: I've only tested this with the 0.3 version of PloneFormMailer, it probably works with other versions, please post a comment to let me know if it worked for you with a different version and if there were any variations to the implementation.

This is a quick example of how to intercept the data from a formmailer and provide a primitive "database-type-storage" mechanism for that data. Plone Form Mailer is lovely for quickly creating a form, but, out of the box, it does not store that information anywhere, this is how I worked around that.

Assumptions

To follow along with the example it is assumed that the following are already in place:

1. There is a folder called 'registration' which contains an instance of PloneFormMailer called 'course0205'. The heirarchy would look something like this {siteroot}/registration/course0205
2. The data to be captured will be:
   
   • Email Address (email)
   • Fullname (fullname)
   • Phone Number (phone)
     
   • Address (address)
   If this is not the case customize your form to reflect the structure above.
   
3. A folder for capturing results already exists called 'course0205formresults'. If this is not the case, create the folder now in the location: '{siteroot}/registration/results/course0205formresults'. (You probably want to make this folder private, to keep it from the nosey site visitors).
   

Create a custom controller script

We'll start by creating a custom controller script  ( I call mine 'course0205storeandmail' ) to replace  PloneFormMailer's default script.

• Create a custom version of PloneFormMailer's 'formmailer_send' script called course0205storeandmail, Note: this ensures that all the proper settings are maintained ( Click here to get the zexp of the script)
  •  Navigate to '{siteroot}/portal_skins/PloneFormMailer/formmailer_send/manage'
    
  • and 'customize' to the destination 'custom'.
  •  Then rename the newly customized controller script to course0205storeandmail.
  • Under the 'Proxy' tab, set the proxy role to Manager.
    
  • Edit the script so that it looks something like the one below:
    

## Controller Python Script "course0205storeandmail"
##bind container=container
##bind context=context
##bind namespace=
##bind script=script
##bind state=state
##bind subpath=traverse_subpath
##parameters=
##title=

#some useful utilities
from Products.CMFCore.utils import getToolByName
urltool = getToolByName(context, "portal_url")
catalogtool = getToolByName(context, "portal_catalog")
portal = urltool.getPortalObject()

request=context.REQUEST

#define a uniquely named storage folder
#there can only be one item in the portal with this name
storagefolder = course0205formresults

#generate a unique document name
document_name=str(context.ZopeTime().strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%s')) 

#create a document description
fullname,email=request['field_fullname'],request['field_email']
description="""%s,%s""" % (fullname,email)

#create document body text
for key in ("field_email",
             "field_fullname",
             "field_phone",
              "field_address"):

    value = request[key]
    print "%s: %s" % (key[6:],value)


#create and store the data in a document
myformstorage=getattr(context, storagefolder, None) 
doc = myformstorage.invokeFactory("Document", document_name)
document = getattr(myformstorage, document_name)
document.setTitle(document_name)
document.setDescription(description)
document.edit(text_format="plain",
              text=printed)

#send of the form as usual
context.send_form()
return state #this is critical!!! redirection and send response will not work
             # without this

Set PloneFormMailer to use your custom controller script

You will need to tell your PloneFormMailer to use your new controller script.

• Go to '{siteroot}/registration/course0205' and 'edit' the formmailer
  
• Under the 'Controller' section set an alternate controller python script (cpy) as 'string:course0205storeandmail'