Magento – layout handle not working in custom email

ce-1.7.0.2email-templateslayouttransactional-mail

trying to send email programmaticaly with order items grid using {{layout handle="sales_email_order_items" order=$order}} but its not working. {{htmlescape var=$order.getCustomerName()}} show customer name properly.

what is missing?

following is code for email and 29 is id of template in which {{layout handle="sales_email_order_items" order=$order}} is mentioned.

Mage::app()->getLocale()->emulate($storeId);
$SalesOrder = Mage::getModel("sales/order")->load($requestParams['order_id']);
$storeEmail = Mage::getStoreConfig('trans_email/ident_custom1/email');
$storeName =  Mage::getStoreConfig('trans_email/ident_custom1/name');
$recvEmail = $CustomerName;
$recvName =  $email;
$templateId = 29;
//set data to use in array
$edata['comment'] = $ResultData->URL;
$edata['order'] = $SalesOrder;
//Core email sending code
$emailTemplate = Mage::getModel('core/email_template')->
                    addBcc('abc@example.com')->
                    sendTransactional($templateId);
$emailTemplate->getProcessedTemplate($edata);
$emailTemplate->setSenderEmail($storeEmail);
$emailTemplate->setSenderName($storeName);
$emailTemplate->setType('html');
$emailTemplate->send($recvEmail,$recvName,$edata);

Thanks in advance.

Note: If you know any good tutorial on sending email programmatically with ordered item grid. please tell me.

Best Answer

I had the exact same problem, but was able to fix it by using store emulation.

It turned out the design package was incorrect. The email was being built using the adminhtml package instead of the frontend, even though I set "area=frontend" in the {{layout}}. That didn't help.

Before sending the email, you should add:

// Start store emulation process
$appEmulation = Mage::getSingleton('core/app_emulation');
$initialEnvironmentInfo = $appEmulation->startEnvironmentEmulation($storeId);

And after sending you should restore the original environment:

// Stop store emulation process
$appEmulation->stopEnvironmentEmulation($initialEnvironmentInfo);

Be careful to reset the environment at the end, since the design model is a singleton, it may give unexpected results later on. You should put the email sending in try-catch, and restore afterwards. Don't let an exception prevent your from restoring the environment.

Related Solutions

Magento – Transactional Email Layout Handle Not Working

You cannot specify the package name in the e-mail template. The layout is loaded from the current store, or the emulated store.
So if you place the layout file in the theme used by the store that is sending the e-mail then it should work.

Magento Custom Category Layout Not Working – Troubleshooting Guide

If you just want to avoid layered navigation for a category, then you can go with one of following options:

Make your category a default category. You can do this by setting isAnchor to No from admin side by selecting the categories that you need. Now your category will not use layered navigation and thus you will get required behaviour.

Put this code inside Custom Layout Update section inside your category page (by editing via admin)

    <reference name="left">
        <action method="unsetChild"><name>catalog.leftnav</name></action>
        <block type="catalog/navigation" name="catalog.leftnav" after="currency" template="catalog/navigation/left.phtml"/>
    </reference>

Or use this below code if you want to go with layout update method only.

File : app\design\frontend\{package}\{theme}\layout\local.xml

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <layout>
        <CATEGORY_{ID}>
            <reference name="left">
                <action method="unsetChild"><name>catalog.leftnav</name></action>
                <block type="catalog/navigation" name="catalog.leftnav" after="currency" template="catalog/navigation/left.phtml"/>
            </reference>
        </CATEGORY_{ID}>
    </layout>

where {ID} should replace with category-id of your specific category. For an example, if category id is 15, then layout update handle will be CATEGORY_15

Hope that makes sense.

EDIT - 1

This is the final solution which came to my mind.You need to include page layout handle as one of the layout update handle for category page.

For this, observe to the event controller_action_layout_load_before and put this inside your observer

<?php
class ISN_Layouts_Model_Observer
{
    public function beforeLoadLayout(Varien_Event_Observer $observer)
    {
        $layout = $observer->getEvent()->getLayout();
        if (Mage::registry('current_category')) {
            $category = Mage::registry('current_category');
            $settings = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/design')
                ->getDesignSettings($category);
            $pl = $settings->getPageLayout();
            if ($pl) {
                $layout->helper('page/layout')->applyHandle($pl);
            }
        }
        return $this;
    }
}

You are done. Now clear your cache and you will see the changes that you have specified within your page layout handle, ie noanchor

EDIT - 2

Here is your full extension. Please checkout and feel free to use it.

EDIT - 3

For category pages, you can use the following condition check

if ($observer->getEvent()->getAction()->getFullActionName() == 'catalog_category_view') {
     //go on
}

See the changes in Observer.php in github.

^{Note : Out of 3 options, use only one option at a time. Dont forget to clear your cache after changes made.}