I have three models, Calls, Emails, and Letters and those are basically templates of what gets sent to individuals, modeled as Contacts.

When a Call is made, a row in model in ContactCalls gets created. If an Email is sent, an entry in ContactEmails is made.

Each has its own controller: contact_calls_controller.rb and contact_emails_controller.rb. I would like to create a single table inheritance called ContactEvents which has types Calls, Emails, and Letters. But I'm not clear how I pass the type information or how to consolidate the controllers.

Here's the two controllers I have, as you can see, there's alot of duplication, but some differences that needs to be preserved. In the case of letter and postcards (another Model), it's even more so.

class ContactEmailsController < ApplicationController
def new

    @contact_email = ContactEmail.new
    @contact_email.contact_id = params[:contact]
    @contact_email.email_id = params[:email]

    @contact = Contact.find(params[:contact])
    @company = Company.find(@contact.company_id)

    contacts = @company.contacts.collect(&:full_name)

    contacts.each do |contact|
       @colleagues = contacts.reject{ |c| [email protected]_name }
    end

    @email = Email.find(@contact_email.email_id)

    @contact_email.subject = @email.subject

    @contact_email.body = @email.message
    @email.message.gsub!("{FirstName}", @contact.first_name)
    @email.message.gsub!("{Company}", @contact.company_name) 
    @email.message.gsub!("{Colleagues}", @colleagues.to_sentence)
    @email.message.gsub!("{NextWeek}", (Date.today + 7.days).strftime("%A, %B %d"))

    @contact_email.status = "sent"

  end

  def create
    @contact_email = ContactEmail.new(params[:contact_email])

    @contact = Contact.find_by_id(@contact_email.contact_id)
    @email = Email.find_by_id(@contact_email.email_id)

    if @contact_email.save
      flash[:notice] = "Successfully created contact email."
      # send email using class in outbound_mailer.rb
      OutboundMailer.deliver_campaign_email(@contact,@contact_email)

      redirect_to todo_url
    else
      render :action => 'new'
    end
  end

AND:

class ContactCallsController < ApplicationController

  def new

@contact_call = ContactCall.new
@contact_call.contact_id = params[:contact]
@contact_call.call_id = params[:call]
@contact_call.status = params[:status]

@contact = Contact.find(params[:contact])
@company = Company.find(@contact.company_id)

@contact = Contact.find(@contact_call.contact_id)
@call = Call.find(@contact_call.call_id)

@contact_call.title = @call.title

contacts = @company.contacts.collect(&:full_name)
contacts.each do |contact|
   @colleagues = contacts.reject{ |c| [email protected]_name }
end

@contact_call.script = @call.script
@call.script.gsub!("{FirstName}", @contact.first_name)
@call.script.gsub!("{Company}", @contact.company_name ) 
@call.script.gsub!("{Colleagues}", @colleagues.to_sentence)   

end

  def create

@contact_call = ContactCall.new(params[:contact_call])

if @contact_call.save
  flash[:notice] = "Successfully created contact call."
  redirect_to contact_path(@contact_call.contact_id)
else
  render :action => 'new'
end

end