Is it possible to send an e-mail programmatically in Magento?

Question

Is it possible to send an e-mail programmatically in Magento? Maybe from a controller in a custom module, could you get hold of a template, populate its variables, and send

Answer 1

Absolutely. Here's an example from the Checkout helper:

$mailTemplate = Mage::getModel('core/email_template');   
$template = Mage::getStoreConfig('checkout/payment_failed/template', $checkout->getStoreId()); 
$mailTemplate->setDesignConfig(array('area'=>'frontend', 'store'=>$checkout->getStoreId()))
    ->sendTransactional(
        $template,
        Mage::getStoreConfig('checkout/payment_failed/identity', $checkout->getStoreId()),
        $recipient['email'],
        $recipient['name'],
        array(
            'reason' => $message,
            ...
            'total' => $total
        )
    );