Custom Module Observer not sending mail

Question

My Custom Observer is not sending the email.

public function sendAdminMail(Varien_Event_Observer $observer)
{
    $customer = $observer->getEvent()->getCustomer();

    $customerName = $customer->getFirstname() . ' ' . $customer->getLastname();

    $emailTemplate = Mage::getModel('core/email_template');
    $template = "customer_registration_email_template";
    $sender = array('name' => 'Customer Registration',
                    'email' => '[email protected]');
    $recipientEmail = Mage::getStoreConfig('contacts/email/recipient_email');
    $recipientName = "Sales";
    $variables = array('customer'=>$customerName);

    $emailTemplate->sendTransactional(
        $template,
        $sender,
        $recipientEmail,
        $recipientName,
        $variables
    );
}

Here is my config.xml (global node)

<template>
        <email>
            <customer_registration_email_template translate="label" module="adminnotification">
                <label>Customer Registration Admin Notification</label>
                <file>schott/customer_registration.html</file>
                <type>html</type>
            </customer_registration_email_template>
        </email>
    </template>

To be complete, here is the system.xml too

<config>
<label>Customer Registration Admin Notification</label>
<frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_email_template</source_model>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
</config>

An email should be sent to the admin when a new customer registers.

What am I doing wrong here? The template is showing in the list of Transactional mails in the backend and it sends when I use it testwise for new orders for example.

Strange is also, that the content of the template does not load in the backend (transactional mails) when I add a new template and want to load its default content (it just loads and stays blank).

Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

      public function sendAdminMail(Varien_Event_Observer $observer)
      {
      $customer = $observer->getEvent()->getCustomer();

      $customerName = $customer->getFirstname() . ' ' . $customer->getLastname();

      $emailTemplate = Mage::getModel('core/email_template')->loadDefault('customer_registration_email_template');
      $senderName = 'Customer Registration';
      $senderEmail = '[email protected]';
      $emailTemplateVariables = array();
      $emailTemplateVariables['customer'] = $customerName;
      $processedTemplate = $emailTemplate->getProcessedTemplate($emailTemplateVariables);
      $recipientEmail = Mage::getStoreConfig('contacts/email/recipient_email');
      $recipientName = "Sales";
      $mail = Mage::getModel('core/email')
              ->setToName($recipientName)
              ->setBody($processedTemplate)
              ->setSubject($post_data['subject'])
              ->setFromEmail($senderEmail)
              ->setFromName($senderName)
              ->setType('html')
              ->setToEmail($recipientEmail);

      try{
                   $mail->send();
          }
          catch(Exception $error)
          {
              Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->addError($error->getMessage());
              return false;
          }
      }

Try this code. Not sure other things you have done are correct or not. If you are using any mail senders like mandril then the sender email should be in your domain.