Sending an email using a template file - php

Question

I am trying to figure out the best way to send emails from an external template file, at the moment I have a template file that looks like this:
Thank you, your order has been received, someone will review it and process it. No money has been taken from your account.
<?php
echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
?>
<pre>
<?php print_r($this->data); ?>
</pre>
And then my send method looks like this:
public function notify($template) {
// get the template from email folder
$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'templates/email/'.$template.'.php';
if(file_exists($path)) {
ob_start();
require_once($path);
$body = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
$subject = 'email send';
foreach($this->emailTo as $email)
new Mail($email,$subject,$body);
}
}
This all works fine when I call it like this:
$notifications = new notifications();
$notifications->setData(array('order' => $order->order));
$notifications->addEmail($order->order->email);
$notifications->notify('orderReceived');
However, if I try to make two calls to the "notify" method then the second email is blank, I know this is because the object buffer, but I cannot think of any other way to do it.
Thanks,
Ian

Answer 1

You are using require_once, so the file will only load once. Try require.
Also consider loading a pure text template and use str_replace to replace the variables in the template like this:
$template = "<pre>%DATA%</pre>";
$text = str_replace('%DATA%', $this->data, $template);

Answer 2

I would do this:
Template file
Thank you, your order has been received, someone will review it and process it. No money has been taken from your account.
%s
<pre>
%s
</pre>
Notify function
public function notify($template) {
// get the template from email folder
$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'templates/email/'.$template.'.php';
if (!file_exists($path)) {
// Return false if the template is missing
return FALSE;
}
// Create the message body and subject
$body = sprintf(file_get_contents($path), date('Y-m-d H:i:s'), print_r($this->data, TRUE));
$subject = 'email send';
// Send the mail(s)
foreach($this->emailTo as $email) {
new Mail($email, $subject, $body);
}
// Return true for success
return TRUE;
}
This will solve the problem - which could be solved anyway by changing require_once to require.
Using require_once means the template file will only be loaded once (clue's in the function name), so the second call will result in a blank body.