Product thumbnail in sales email - magento

Question

I want to add products image in my sales template. Do I need to add some code or is it an option in magento.

Answer 1

Yes we need to customize our email templates, based on the themes email template style were differed. For your question refer the sales.xml layout file under the layout folder of current theme and notice the Email layouts section from there we can know which files are play the role. Now come to your answer.
<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="core/template" name="order_totals_wrapper" as="order_totals" template="email/order/totals/wrapper.phtml">
<block type="sales/order_totals" name="order_totals" template="sales/order/totals.phtml">
<action method="setLabelProperties"><value>colspan="3" 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>
<block type="core/text_list" name="additional.product.info" />
</sales_email_order_items>
This is sample layout section for a email template
sales_email_order_items node have the wrapper for items email/order/items.phtml. In this file you can add the below lines for show thumbnail header.
<th>Tumbnail</th>
And for render the items used the email/order/items/order/default.phtml
Open this default.phtml file and add the below lines under the
<tbody><tr>
tag
<td>
<?php if ($_item->hasProductUrl()):?>
<a href="<?php echo $_item->getProductUrl() ?>" title="<?php echo $this->escapeHtml($_item->getProductName()) ?>" class="product-image">
<?php endif;?>
<img src="<?php echo $_item->getProductThumbnail()->resize(180); ?>" alt="<?php echo $this->escapeHtml($_item->getProductName()) ?>" />
<?php if ($_item->hasProductUrl()):?>
</a>
<?php endif;?>
</td>
Now the sales order email will send with product image.
For better solution make a duplicate copy of these files and give these file names in layout file. Because do not editing core files.