Transactional email based on category

Question

I would like to send different transactional email based on ordered product category. What is the best solution to achieve this?

The goal is to send emails: - based on category if ordered products are from single category - send default one for products from multiple categories

Since content will be very similar, maybe its better to add layout handle?

Answer 1

You can make use of the control-flow if keyword in email templates to handle outputting blocks for you:

{{if order.getCategoryIsShoes()}}
    <p><!-- your content here --></p>
{{else}}
    <p><!-- your default content here --></p>
{{/if}}

Of course you'll have to rewrite Mage_Sales_Model_Order with your own module to create that method:

<?php

class YourCompany_YourModule_Model_Order extends Mage_Sales_Model_Order
{
    public function getCategoryIsShoes()
    {
        //set your shoes category id
        $shoesCategoryId = 9;

        //get order from registry
        $order = Mage::registry('current_order');

        foreach($order->getAllItems() as $_item){
            if(in_array($shoesCategoryId, $_item->getCategoryIds()){
                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
    }
}

The above is an example only - there is probably a much more elegant way to handle this, for instance, extending the category itself to include a tab with transactional email text; or better-yet, a module that allows you to assign that text on a per-category basis. This is just to get the juices flowing.

Some more reading about the email template syntax for control flow statements like depend and if/else:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/modules_reference/english/mage_adminhtml/system_email_template/index