Question

I made some template changes to Magento’s New Order transactional email template in the backend. The textual changes at the top of the email (in the “thanks for your order…” section) worked fine. But when I change the templates for the order details, they are not appearing in my email.

I have created two files within my template which I thought would override the email:

1. app/design/frontend/default/mythemehere/template/email/order/items.phtml
2. app/design/frontend/default/mythemehere/template/email/order/items/order/default.phtml

These are referenced in my sales.xml file in app/design/frontend/default/mythemehere/layout

<sales_email_order_items>
    <block type="sales/order_email_items" name="items" template="email/order/items.phtml">
        <action method="addItemRender"><type>default</type><block>sales/order_email_items_order_default</block><template>email/order/items/order/default.phtml</template></action>
        <action method="addItemRender"><type>grouped</type><block>sales/order_email_items_order_grouped</block><template>email/order/items/order/default.phtml</template></action>
        <block type="sales/order_totals" name="order_totals" template="sales/order/totals.phtml">
            <action method="setLabelProperties"><value>colspan="2" align="right" style="padding:3px 9px"</value></action>
            <action method="setValueProperties"><value>align="right" style="padding:3px 9px"</value></action>
            <block type="tax/sales_order_tax" name="tax" template="tax/order/tax.phtml">
                <action method="setIsPlaneMode"><value>1</value></action>
            </block>
        </block>
    </block>
    <block type="core/text_list" name="additional.product.info" />
</sales_email_order_items>

However, when I place my order, I get the base template in the email.

If I commit the Cardinal Sin in Magento of overriding base template files (app/design/frontend/base/default/template/email/order ...), lo and behold, I see my changes! Seems Magento is very keen to use its base template.

I have overridden other templates in the sales section (eg: sales/order/view.phtml, sales/order/print.phtml), and various posts on Magento’s forums indicate I’m doing the right thing in concept. But alas! It’s just not working for me.

Answer 1

I had the same problem. I discovered that the emails will use the /app/design/frontend/default/default templates before the ‘base’ templates. So if you copy the base templates into the default/default folder your files will not be overwritten on update.

However it is still not ideal as this is still outside your theme folder, however it is better than using ‘base’ files. I still haven’t found a true solution.