Add tracking link to mail

Question

How do I add a tracking link to mail template?

Here is what I tried:

In System > Transactional Emails I opened the template for Shipment Email Template for Guest (GLOBAL). I thought tracking numbers are included here:

{{block type='core/template' area='frontend' template='email/order/shipment/track.phtml'
  shipment=$shipment order=$order}}

So I copied email/order/shipment/track.phtml into my template and added a tracking link but it does not show up in the email:

<td align="center" valign="top" style="padding:3px 9px"><a href="http://nolp.dhl.de/nextt-online-public/set_identcodes.do?lang=de&idc=<?php echo $_item->getNumber() ?>"><?php echo $_item->getNumber() ?></a></td>

Answer 1

The problem is that this is PHP code:

<td align="center" valign="top" style="padding:3px 9px">
<a href="http://nolp.dhl.de/nextt-online-public/set_identcodes.do?lang=de&idc=
<?php echo $_item->getNumber() ?>">
<?php echo $_item->getNumber() ?></a>
</td>

You can't execute PHP from inside of an email template - instead, look to a tutorial to implement:

http://forum.azmagento.com/how-to/how-do-i-add-tracking-link-to-shipment-transactional-email-63-nbsp--82195.html

Or an extension:

http://ecommerce.aheadworks.com/magento-extensions/mobile-order-tracking.html

This plugin has the following feature which sounds handy to insert into your transactional shipment email: "Ability to insert order tracking link via widget and CMS"