Mail not being generated properly - ruby-on-rails

Question

I am trying to generate mails with rails action mailer, but it seems like it is not doing everything completely right:
Here's where I create my mail:
class UserNotifier < ActionMailer::Base
default from: 'mail#mail.com'
def forgot_password(user)
setup_email(user)
#subject += "Password restoration"
#url = url_for :controller => 'user_session', :action => 'reset_password',
:id => user.pw_reset_code, :only_path => true
end
protected
def setup_email(user)
#subject = "[MY APP] "
#sent_on = Time.now
#user = user
#content_type = "text/html"
mail to: user.email
end
end
And here's the html.erb that contains the mail.
<%= #user.name %>,
<br/><br/>
Restore password:
<%= #url %>
However, the subject of the mail is not what I said it should be.
But most importantly, #url is nil in the html.erb, however it is generated correctly in forgot_password, I tested it.
Why is it nil? And what can I do to render the URL?

Answer 1

Mails are sent when you call method deliver on ActionMailer::Base object.
Your method forgot_password does not return this object.
the line mail(to: .....) should be the last one in the forgot_password routine
Run rails console and type this to see what returns
ActionMailer::Base::mail(to: 'example.com', subject: 'hello')
then call #deliver on it.

Answer 2

The line
mail to: user.email
Is actually causing your email to send.
Because you are calling this in setup_email, you are actually sending the email AND THEN trying to change the subject and URL after it is sent.
If you ignore the setup method that you have for a second, this is what your code would look like in the order you currently have it:
#subject = "[MY APP] "
#sent_on = Time.now
#user = user
#content_type = "text/html"
mail to: user.email << MAIL IS SENT HERE
#subject += "Password restoration"
#url = url_for :controller => 'user_session', :action => 'reset_password',
:id => user.pw_reset_code, :only_path => true
Update your code to call the mail command last, for example:
def forgot_password(user)
setup_email(user)
#subject += "Password restoration"
#url = url_for :controller => 'user_session', :action => 'reset_password',
:id => user.pw_reset_code, :only_path => true
mail to: user.email
end
protected
def setup_email(user)
#subject = "[MY APP] "
#sent_on = Time.now
#user = user
#content_type = "text/html"
end