Is there a plugin or gem that can help me do "invite a friend" capability in rails?

Question

I want to add the ability for users to invite a friend.

The email should be generated so that, if someone clicks on the link and register, that person is automatically a friend.

Not sure what the options are, but wanted some ideas and strategies as an alternative to building it from scratch.

Which authentication gem are you using? Some of them have built-in functionality or plugins for handling invitations. — vonconrad, Jan 07 '11 at 01:48
oh which ones? I am using or thinking of use devise, but typically use authlogic — Satchel, Jan 11 '11 at 01:28

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 19 '11 at 07:43

I'm not aware of any gems that handle the entire process (user >> email >> signup). If you're just looking to create the relationship when a user comes from a specific link, create a special invitation route (the separate controller isn't necessary but just to make it clear):

# routes.rb
match '/invite/:friend_id' => 'public#invite', :as => :invite

# PublicController
def invite
  session[:referring_friend] = params[:friend_id]
  redirect_to root_path
end

# UsersController
def create
  @user = User.new(params[:user])
  if @user.save
    @user.create_friendship(session[:referring_friend]) if session[:referring_friend]
    ...
  else
    ...
  end
end

If you want to track conversion metrics, I'd recommend creating a link model and using that to track clicks and signups:

class Link < ActiveRecord::Base

  belongs_to :user
  attr_accessible :user, :user_id, :clicks, :conversions

  def click!
    self.class.increment_count(:clicks, self.id)
  end

  def convert!
    self.class.increment_count(:conversions, self.id)
  end

end

# routes.rb
match '/invite/:link_id' => 'links#hit', :as => :invite

# LinksController
def hit
  link = Link.find(params[:link_id])
  link.click!
  session[:referring_link_id] = link.id
  redirect_to root_path # or whatever path (maybe provided by link...)
end

# UsersController
def create
  @user = User.new(params[:user])
  if @user.save
    if session[:referring_link_id]
      link = Link.find(session[:referring_link_id])
      link.convert!
      @user.create_friendship(link.user_id)
    end
    ...
  else
    ...
  end
end

Which method you choose depends on what you'll want to track down the road.

thanks --- I was hoping for an email which did the email and signup part at least...where would I put the emailer in this? — Satchel, Mar 23 '11 at 14:10
You'd use an after_create callback in user.rb for the user welcome email. If you want to have an email sent when a friendship is created, you'd just add an after_create callback on your friendship model. If you're not building out a friendship model, but rather just keeping a reference to the referrer, you'd just send the email in the create_friendship() method. — mnelson, Mar 23 '11 at 14:29
I haven't personally used it but it looks like it would work fine for setting up the routes, sending the emails, and creating the reference to the inviter / invitee. — mnelson, Mar 24 '11 at 18:12
I believe it would. It probably adds a invited_by_id to the devise model or something. My method allows for tracking conversion and tying into the "share process" (via links). — mnelson, Mar 26 '11 at 04:31

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 19 '11 at 07:50

1

I don't know gem for rails. But there's an extension for Spree, rails based e-commerce project. Check it out & probably you can refer how it's implemented.

https://github.com/spree/spree_email_to_friend

answered Mar 19 '11 at 07:50

hnprashanth

791
7
23

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 18 '11 at 13:19

0

I don't know about some gem to support this, but solution should be rather trivial. I guess you need Friendship model, you can place some status in it like 'waiting_for_approvment' and send in mail link with that Friendship model id. When user accepts either way you just change status to 'approved' or even 'rejected' if you want to track that too.

answered Mar 18 '11 at 13:19

BurmajaM

724
5
10

It then would need to make them friends, generate a link unique to that friendship model.....it seems like an acts_as_inviteable type solution is what I need... – Satchel Mar 18 '11 at 16:12

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 23 '11 at 12:50

Start by defining the relationship:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
 has_and_belongs_to_many :friends, :class_name => "User", :join_table => "friends_users"
end

So really, User relates to itself with a different name. Then you can use something along the lines of:

@current_user.friends << @selected_user

in your controller.

Is there a plugin or gem that can help me do "invite a friend" capability in rails?

4 Answers4