Can't get any order details in extension template when used in email template

Question

I'm trying to get a custom attribute from an order into the new order transactional email template, BUT I need to pass it through some custom PHP for a bit of formatting first.

In the email template I use the following declaration:

{{block type='mymodule/myblock' area='frontend' template='mynamespace/mymodule/mytemplate.phtml'}}

With a block like this:

class Mynamespace_Mymodule_Block_Myblock extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
{
    public function getValue()
    {
        return "Some value";
    }
}

and mytemplate.php like this:

echo $this->getValue();

This all works and I get "Some value" appearing where I expect in the transactional email.

The problem I have is that I cannot get any information about the order within the block or template. Using code such as this:

$orderid = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session')->getLastOrderId();  
$order = Mage::getModel('sales/order')->load($orderid);

just gives me NULL. For some reason by the time it get to processing my block the session data has been cleared.

I've tried changing my block to extend Mage_Sales_Block_Items_Abstract as the core magento email template does, but then when I copy the code in app/design/frontend/base/default/template/email/order/items.phtml to my template the checkout process doesn't complete on step 5 and it just keeps showing the 'place order' button.

Answer 1

I think that the issue is with what the function getLastOrderId returns and not actually with the session, this can be tested by mage::log($orderid)

The function getLastOrderId actually returns the order increment id, that is the id that the user sees and not the entity_id on the order table.

But this is no issue as you can load the order by increment id as well as entity_id.

Mage::getModel('sales/order')->loadByIncrementId($orderIncrementId)

This would mean you could change your code as follows:

$orderid = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session')->getLastOrderId();  
$order = Mage::getModel('sales/order')->loadByIncrementId($orderid);