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Order-Status Emails

When an order changes status, Alfa Commerce can email the customer and/or staff. Each email is assembled, not hardcoded — you pick a layout, fill per-language content blocks ("positions") on the order status, and {tokens} are substituted at send time.

How it works​

  • Layout — each status has two layout selections (customer + admin email), chosen with the Email layout picker. Layouts are PHP files under layouts/emails/order/ (the shipped one is default). The layout sets the visual frame and which content slots exist.
  • Positions — a layout requests named slots via $position('intro') / $hasPosition('legal') (the default asks for header, intro, outro, legal). The composer auto-discovers them and shows one WYSIWYG editor per slot, per installed language, with a Subject field above.
  • Structural blocks — items, totals, payments and shipments are rendered by the layout via $render('emails.partials.order_items') etc. — not editor slots; in the composer they're read-only with a show/hide toggle.
  • Tokens — a palette inserts {order_number}, {order_total}, {status_customer}, {user_name}, {site_name}, one {field_<name>} per form field, etc. Substitution is a single central pass over the finished HTML, so tokens resolve in admin content, partials, and layout text alike.
  • Preview / test — once saved, Preview and Send test render against the latest real order.
  • Storage — per-language content lives as JSON in #__alfa_orders_statuses_<langtag>.

Customizing​

  • Content: on the order status, pick a layout, then author the Subject + each position per language and toggle the structural blocks. Customer and admin emails are configured independently.
  • Re-skin the frame: copy layouts/emails/order/default.php to templates/<admin-template>/html/layouts/com_alfa/emails/order/default.php — picked up automatically.
  • New layout variant: drop emails/order/<name>.php (component or admin-template path); it appears in the picker, and the positions it requests drive the composer. Override emails/partials/order_*.php to restyle the items/totals/payments/shipments tables.

Reference: OrderEmailHelper, OrderStatusEmailLayoutField, EmailPositionsField, layouts/emails/.