Preview Email

See every email your store can send, built from your own recent customers, orders and products, as HTML or as the plain-text part, and send yourself a test in either format. Version 3.0.0 continues the Preview Email line begun by Scott C. Wilson (That Software Guy): the 1.x and 2.x releases previewed the twelve core emails that have template files; 3.0.0 is a rewrite as an encapsulated plugin that covers every email Zen Cart sends, finds the emails your add-ons send, previews the plain-text part too, and sends tests.

Tools > Preview Email lists them in groups: the Zen Cart emails, the admin notices, one group per add-on that ships or is covered by a definition (Social Contact Footer, Admin Add Customer, Fraud Screen, Back in Stock, Recover Cart Sales), your store's own, and any template file nothing else claims. Preview HTML opens the message as core would build it, with a strip naming the template used and any placeholder nothing fills. Preview text shows what a TEXT-only customer receives. Send test sends it to the address you type, as HTML or plain text, overriding that address's stored preference for the one send.

Sample data comes from the store, a customer and an order from the last twenty chosen at random, so repeated previews show different records; a store with none of those gets invented data rather than an error. Your own emails are described in an email_preview/ folder under your admin directory, and plugins can ship definitions of their own.

Want more? Preview Email Pro lets you edit any email's template or its stylesheet beside a live preview, without leaving the admin, with a backup of every save and Save and Send Test. This plugin stays complete and free on its own.

Zen Cart v1.5.8 through v3.0.0, PHP 7.4 through 8.5, one codebase. Encapsulated plugin, installs from Plugin Manager; upgrading from the copy-files 1.x and 2.x is covered in the docs. GPL-2.0; 1.x and 2.x copyright Scott C. Wilson.