We have a store for different countries that should use very similar mail templates. The logo - and of course - the texts have to be changed.
Is there a way around copying all templates and assigning them in the backend for each mail type that is sent?
I've done something like this a long long time ago (in a galaxy far far away).
The main idea is to replace the content of the e-mails with layout handles.
Magento already supports this. For example in the new order template there is this:
{{layout handle="sales_email_order_items" order=$order}}
This piece of code looks for the layout handle sales_email_order_items and renders it in the e-mail as any frontend block(s). In the template used for rendering this block you have access to the translate function ($this->__()) so, for adding a new language you just have to translate the texts in that language.
You can even do something better. Usually all email templates have the same header and footer, so basically an e-mail template could look like this:
{{layout handle="custom_email_header"}}
{{layout handle="custom_email_content"}}<!-- this should be different for every e-mail -->
{{layout handle="custom_email_footer"}}
Here is an example. I chose the new account template because it's easier.
When I did this I've overwritten the Mage_Core_Model_Email_Template::loadDefault method to load the e-mail templates from a custom folder independent from the language so I won't have to add all the e-mails in my database (for portability) but it works if you add the e-mails in the DB.
So my new account template would look like this:
{{layout handle="custom_email_header" logo_url=$logo_url logo_alt=$logo_alt}}
{{layout handle="custom_email_account_new" customer=$customer store=$store}}
{{layout handle="cusom_email_footer" store=$store}}
The variable $customer=$customer (like others) is needed to pass the customer data that is passed to the e-mail, to my custom layout handle.
In a layout file (create a new module for this) I had these handles:
<custom_email_header>
<block type="core/template" template="custom/email/header.phtml" />
</custom_email_header>
<custom_email_footer>
<block type="core/template" template="custom/email/footer.phtml" />
</custom_email_footer>
<custom_email_account_new>
<block type="core/template" template="custom/email/account/new.phtml" />
</custom_email_account_new>
The file custom/email/header.phtml contains the header of the e-mail (copied and adapted from the default e-mail template):
<body style="background:#F6F6F6; font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; margin:0; padding:0;">
<div style="background:#F6F6F6; font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; margin:0; padding:0;">
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" height="100%" width="100%">
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" style="padding:20px 0 20px 0">
<!-- [ header starts here] -->
<table bgcolor="FFFFFF" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" border="0" width="650" style="border:1px solid #E0E0E0;">
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<a href="<?php echo $this->getUrl('')?>"><img src="<?php echo $this->getLogoUrl())?>" alt="<?php echo $this->getLogoAlt()?>" style="margin-bottom:10px;" border="0"/></a></td>
</tr>
The custom/email/footer.phtml contains the footer of the template:
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#EAEAEA" align="center" style="background:#EAEAEA; text-align:center;"><center><p style="font-size:12px; margin:0;"><?php echo $this->__('Thank you again,');?> <strong><?php echo $this->getStore()->getFrontendName();?></strong></p></center></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
custom/email/account/new.phtml looks like this:
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<h1 style="font-size:22px; font-weight:normal; line-height:22px; margin:0 0 11px 0;""><?php echo $this->__('Dear %s', $customer->getName())?>,</h1>
<p style="font-size:12px; line-height:16px; margin:0 0 16px 0;"><?php echo $this->__('Welcome to %s', $this->getStore()->getFrontendName())?>. <?php echo $this->__('To log in when visiting our site just click <a href="%s" style="color:#1E7EC8;">Login</a> or <a href="%s" style="color:#1E7EC8;">My Account</a> at the top of every page, and then enter your e-mail address and password.', $this->getUrl('customer/account'), $this->getUrl('customer/account'))?></p>
<p style="border:1px solid #E0E0E0; font-size:12px; line-height:16px; margin:0; padding:13px 18px; background:#f9f9f9;">
<?php echo $this->__('Use the following values when prompted to log in:')?><br/>
<strong><?php echo $this->__('E-mail');?></strong>: <?php echo $customer->getEmail()?><br/>
<strong><?php echo $this->__('Password');?></strong>: <?php echo $customer->getPassword()?><p>
<p style="font-size:12px; line-height:16px; margin:0 0 8px 0;"><?php echo $this->__('When you log in to your account, you will be able to do the following:');?></p>
<!-- Content removed here because I'm to lazy to add a translation function around every text --->
<p style="font-size:12px; line-height:16px; margin:0;"><?php echo $this->__('If you have any questions about your account or any other matter, please feel free to contact us at <a href="mailto:%s" style="color:#1E7EC8;">%s</a> or by phone at %s.', Mage::getStoreConfig('trans_email/ident_support/email', $this->getStore()->getId()), Mage::getStoreConfig('trans_email/ident_support/email', $this->getStore()->getId()),
Mage::getStoreConfig('general/store_information/phone', $this->getStore()->getId()))?></p>
</td>
</tr>
It's not necessarily a pretty solution, but it worked for me on a website with 6 languages, and when the customer requested changes on the e-mail templates (and he did...a lot of them) They were done in a few minutes.
The code above is written from memory, so it might have some errors, but you get the idea.
You can create a new layout directive for example {{t text="Foobar"}} to translate texts.
All this can be managed from the Admin Panel :)
To apply the changes:
2.1. For custom header and footer go to: System -> Configuration -> Design -> Transactional Emails Change the store view to the one you want to apply the changes on. From here you can change the logo, header and footer.
2.2 For content go to System -> Configuration -> Based on the template either
Here is an article that covers the first part: http://www.templatemonster.com/help/magento-how-to-edit-store-emails.html
