How to call a controller action from another module?

Question

I want to call a controller action to send email from my custom module page,

EX : my module template is ->refer.phtml I want to call a smtp module email controller. Module path is HTD/SMTPemail/Smtp/test

My TestController.php

class HTD_SMTPemail_Smtp_TestController extends Mage_Adminhtml_Controller_Action
{
}

How to call this controller action to send emails from refer.phtml file?

Both my phtml file and smtp controllers are in two different module.

Answer 1

To answer your question, strictly from the coding point of view, you can do what Magento does:

// @see Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Standard::match
// instantiate controller class
$controllerInstance = Mage::getControllerInstance($controllerClassName, $request, $front->getResponse());

so you could do something like:

// The action is overwritten in the action controller's constructor; to  make sure 
// there are no nasty surprises, we're going to undo this.
$originalAction = Mage::app()->getFrontController()->getAction(); 

// The action controller's constructor expects request and response objects;
$controllerInstance = Mage::getControllerInstance(
  'TD_SMTPemail_Smtp_TestController',
  new Mage_Core_Controller_Request_Http(), // you can replace this with the actual request
  new Mage_Core_Controller_Response_Http()
);

$controllerInstance->testAction();

// and undo
Mage::app()->getFrontController()->setAction($originalAction);

Now, from the logical point of view, adding this kind of logic in the template is highly not recommended. The templates are only for output; they can use some logic, but the logic has to be contained in their block class, so in the template you can only call $this->??? methods; with the exception of some minor helpers maybe, something like currency formatting for instance.

If the controller action that sends the emails is yours, you could refactor it, move the email sending logic to a model, then you can use that model in both situations, the original controller and the current controller. If the controller is not yours, then you migth wanna take a look at what models it uses and re-use those.

Cheers

Answer 2

You can call by using the Controller class name with function name.

For example in your case

TD_SMTPemail_Smtp_TestController::TestAction()

Answer 3

you can call as below in your phtml file form action or anywhere you want,

<?php echo $this->getUrl('frontname/controllername/action') ?>

In your case for example,

 frontname = htd_smtpemail // declared as in config.xml
    controllername = test
    action =  sendemail //sendemailAction in Test Controller

<?php echo $this->getUrl('htd_smtpemail/test/sendemail') ?>

Answer 4

My suggestion is create a custom module extending module you want to use, then create a helper including send email functionality there.

In send emails action is a good practice to create that functionality in helper so you can call this helper action where ever you want.