Feedback is a Ruby on Rails plugin that adds an ajax-based overlay feedback form triggered by a side-screen tab or a link. The result of the feedback form is sent through a ActionMailer.

The plugin was inspired from the "feedback" widget of GetSatisfaction.com and UserVoice.com.

The plugin uses a generator to generate boiler-plate Javascript, CSS, HTML, and ruby code into your application. It sets up a ready to use feedback form (with minimal styling) that you can further customize.

• Helper to display a sticky "feedback" tab.
• Display feedback form as an overlay with Ajax.
• Sends feedback result by email through an ActionMailer.
• Uses a generator such that you can customize the code and style to fit your app.
• Generates unit and functional tests.
• Works with Prototype and JQuery, choose through a generators flag.
• Currently supports IE6, IE7, IE8, FF2, FF3, Chrome2 and SafariX

Collecting feedback from users is really important. Third-party services such as GetSatisfaction.com and UserVoice.com are awesome tools to manage your feedback. However, we found out that in many instances such as for small sites or back-ends, we wanted a similar feedback form integration/experience but simpler, local, and customized.

Support for Rails 2.3.x can be found by installing Feedback 1.0.x from the v1.0 branch.
Support for Rails 3.0.x can be found by installing Feedback 2.0.x from the v2.0 branch.
Support for Rails 3.1.x and newer can be found in the master branch.

Install the plugin:

rails plugin install git://github.com/dmfrancisco/feedback.git

Run the generator (by default it will generate the Prototype code):

rails generate feedback_form

You can use jQuery if you prefer:

rails generate feedback_form --jquery

Make sure you have the following line in the header of your layout:

<%= javascript_include_tag "application" %>

Require the feedback.css and the jquery.feedback.js files in your application.css and application.js files. The default "= require_tree ." statement is enough. As an alternative, you can include those files into your header using an old helper from the Rails 2.3 version, like this:

<%= feedback_includes %>

To add a sticky 'feedback' tab to your site, in the header place:

<%= feedback_tab(:position => 'top') %>

Configure the action mailer in app/models/feedback_mailer.rb

class FeedbackMailer < ActionMailer::Base
  default from: "from@example.com"

  def feedback(feedback)
    recipients  = 'webmaster@yoursite.com'
    subject     = "[Feedback for YourSite] #{feedback.subject}"

    @feedback = feedback
    mail(:to => recipients, :subject => subject)
  end
end

The feedback_tab helper takes the option "position" which has four different values (top|bottom|left|right) that corresponds to class in the feedback.css file. You can fine tune the position by changing the left/right, top/bottom attributes of those css classes.

The feedback_link(text, options={}) helper allows you the create a link that will trigger the feedback form.

<%= feedback_link "Leave us feedback!" %>

Your layout header must also have the includes:

<%= feedback_includes %>

Edit the /app/views/feedback_mailer/feedback.html.erb generated file in your app

Feedback generates a model that is not an active record model. In order to store the feedbacks in your database, make it an active record model:

class Feedback < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_presence_of :comment
end

You must also write a migration to create your table:

class CreateFeedbacks < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :feedbacks do |t|
      t.string :subject
      t.string :email
      t.text   :comment
      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :feedbacks
  end
end

• No unit tests for Javascript
• Feedback PNG with transparency supported by IE6
• Graceful fallback if Javascript is not enabled/supported
• More customization options through helpers: (overlay style, tab color, etc...)

Thanks to GetSatisfaction.com for the idea of the "feedback" tab.

Part of this plugin was inspired from other software. Thanks to their respective authors.

• Facebox: http://famspam.com/facebox
• restful_authentication: http://github.com/technoweenie/restful-authentication/tree/master

This project was created by Jean-Sebastien Boulanger.
Changes for the Rails 3.0 compatible version were made by Alkesh Vaghmaria.
Final adjustments for the Rails 3.1 compatible version and the demo were made by David Francisco.

Copyright (c) 2009 Jean-Sebastien Boulanger jsboulanger@gmail.com, released under the MIT license

http://jsboulanger.com