Get custom HTML variable from email template

Question

I had this issue:

I have created a custom mail where I send a list of products. For this in my controller i concatenated a variable like this:

foreach (.....){
    $orderItems .= "<tr>
      <td>
        <p>" . $productSku . "</p>
        <p>" .  $differanceQty . "</p>                         
      </td>
    </tr>";
}

When I tried to send this variable from my controller to the email template in my email I received the HTML code instead of only the value. So my custom email doesn't interpret my variable in the right way.

So I started looking for an answer and I didn't find anything related to this issue so that's why I posted this, maybe this will help someone.

the solution is to use the variable like this in the mail :

{{var order}} insead of {{htmlescape var=$order}}

Answer 1

The reason why you can get the variable {{var order}} is because you have the possibility to setTemplateParams() where you specify an array with params. This can be seen in Mage_Core_Model_Email_Template_Mailer:147

public function setTemplateParams(array $templateParams)
{
    return $this->setData('template_params', $templateParams);
}

Then the class core/email_template sends the array of params via its method sendTransactional() and that is why the custom variables are working for you.

Answer 2

This depends on the email that you want to send and the variable that you need, for exemple for the sales order email the function responsible is sendNewOrderEmail()located in : app/code/core/Mage/Sales/Model/Order.php and if you want to add some params in your case variable, you should rewrite this file in local (it's forbidden to update the core Magento files) I think you already know.

Solution 1: (Model)

So i'll give an exemple to well understand how to add your custom variable.

For the new order email template:

After rewritting the function in your locale codePool, you can add you new variable like this:

public function sendNewOrderEmail()
{
/*.
  .
  . there is some Magento code here*/

    // it's here where you have to add a variable
    $myValue = Mage::getModel('customer/customer')->load($this->getMyValue()); // for exemple
    $mailer->setTemplateParams(array(
      'order'         => $this,
      'billing'       => $this->getBillingAddress(),
      'payment_html'  => $paymentBlockHtml,
      'new_variable'  => $myValue // your new param here (variable)
   ));
   /*Rest of the code remains the same*/
 }

Now you can get your variable in the this template email like this: {{var new_variable}}

Solution 2: (phtml)

You add your variable in some phtml that you get it in the email template like this:

{{block type='core/template' area='frontend' template='page/html/email/var1.phtml' order=$order}}

And you add your variable value in this phtml like this:

<?php 
 $customer_id = 10;
 $myValue = Mage::getModel('customer/customer')->load($customer_id);
 echo $myValue->getMyValue() ; 
?> // for exemple