How do I use the email component?

Hello,

I am new to CakePHP and trying desperately to learn!

My most recent struggle is with the Email Component.

I have a contract. When I create the contract, I add a user. When I
save the new contract...for the first time, I want to send an email to
the user in that contract that allows them to click on a link back to
the contract, and then accept or reject the contract.

How do I send this email?

The more details I can get, answer-wise, the better. Everything I have
read out there is surprisingly confusing. Do I need to configure smtp
settings? How do I grab the user in the contract after it has been
saved and pass it and the link to the contract on to the email? How do
I know if the email has been sent, without going and checking my email
every single time?

Here is the code I have in my contracts_controller.php for the email
sending function: (A Contract belongsTo a User, and a User hasMany
Contracts.)

function _sendContractEmail($id) {
$this->Email->smtpOptions = array(
'port'=>'465',
'timeout'=>'30',
'host'=>'ssl://smtp.gmail.com',
'username'=>'username',
'password'=>'password'
);
$this->Email->delivery = 'smtp';
$User = $this->Contract->User->read(null,$id);
$this->Email->to = 'jeremiah@jeremiahotis.com';
$this->Email->subject = '';
$this->Email->replyTo = 'no-reply@goodvaluation.com';
$this->Email->from = 'Jeremiah Oits
<jeremiah@jeremiaotis.com>';
$this->Email->template = 'simple_message';
$this->Email->sendAs = 'html';
$this->set('User', $User);
$this->Email->_debug = true;
$this->Email->send('Test Email');
$this->redirect(array('controller'=>'contracts',
'action'=>'index'));
}

Here is the code I have in my contracts_controller.php add() function:

function add() {
if (!empty($this->data)) {
$this->Contract->create();
if ($this->Contract->save($this->data)) {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The Contract has been
saved', true));
$this->_sendContractEmail($this->Contract->User->id);
} else {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The Contract could not be
saved. Please, try again.', true));
}

And, this is at the top of my contracts_controller.php file after the
$name and $helpers:

var $components = array('Email');

I guess I should point out that I was having trouble with the
template, so to test it, I included the body of the email directly in
the send(), and I specified the to email address rather than using a
variable. Still...nothing! No error, no email.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I really have no idea what I am
doing wrong!

Thanks,

Jeremiah

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