PHP (Translations) in email templates

Question

I wrote a module which actions get triggered by a cronjob. The action says that I lookup the orders made between X days ago and NOW.

With the information I want to send out an feedback mail to the customer to ask how they felt how the order process went through.

However, since I have a multilang shop (fr,en,de,ru,it,es) I'd like to have only one email template for that and use the translation feature within that template.

The tricky part is, to get any PHP code running in the template. I named it customer_feedback_email_template.phtml, its in locale/de_DE/template/email/ and its setup in my modules config.xml.

I extended the Mage_Core_Model_Email_Template class to overwrite its sendMail method like this:

    /**
     * Send email to recipient
     *
     * @param string $templateId template identifier (see config.xml to know it)
     * @param array  $sender     sender name with email ex. array('name' => 'John D.', 'email' => 'email@ex.com')
     * @param string $email      recipient email address
     * @param string $name       recipient name
     * @param string $subject    email subject
     * @param array  $params     data array that will be passed into template
     */
    public function sendEmail($templateId, $sender, $email, $name, $subject, $params = array())
    {
        /*
         * To enable translating
         */
        Mage::app()->getTranslator()->init('frontend', TRUE);
        $this->setDesignConfig(array('area' => 'frontend', 'store' => $this->getDesignConfig()->getStore()))
            ->setTemplateSubject($subject)
            ->sendTransactional(
                $templateId,
                $sender,
                $email,
                $name,
                $params
            );
    }

$params contains some customer and order informationen I'd like to use in the template.

Using the template with this content

{{var customer_first_name}}

is just fine, but if I add

<? echo "Blablabla"; ?>

I will only see the customers first name again, but not anything else (so the echo wont be executed?).

How may I enable PHP execution (and therefore translation) in email templates?

//Edit My config.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
    </modules>
    <global>
        <sales>
            <order>
                <statuses>
                    <sent_feedback translate="label">
                        <label>Sent Feedback</label>
                    </sent_feedback>
                </statuses>
                <states>
                    <complete>
                        <statuses>
                            <sent_feedback/>
                        </statuses>
                    </complete>
                </states>
            </order>
        </sales>
        <models>
            <mscg_feedback_customer>
                <class>Mscg_FeedbackCustomer_Model</class>
                <resourceModel>mscg_feedback_customer_resource</resourceModel>
            </mscg_feedback_customer>
        </models>
        <helpers>
            <feedbackcustomer>
                <class>Mscg_FeedbackCustomer_Helper</class>
            </feedbackcustomer>
        </helpers>
        <models>
            <feedbackcustomer>
                <class>Mscg_FeedbackCustomer_Model</class>
                <resourceModel>feedbackcustomer_mysql4</resourceModel>
            </feedbackcustomer>
        </models>
        <template>
            <email>
                <mscg_customerfeedback_email_template translate="label" module="mscgfeedbackcustomer">
                    <label>Mscg Customer Feedback Email</label>
                    <file>mscg_customer_feedback_email_template.phtml</file>
                    <type>html</type>
                </mscg_customerfeedback_email_template>
            </email>
        </template>
        <translate>
            <modules>
                <Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
                    <files>
                        <default>feedback_en.csv</default>
                        <de>feedback_de.csv</de>
                        <fr>feedback_fr.csv</fr>
                        <en>feedback_en.csv</en>
                        <it>feedback_it.csv</it>
                        <ru>feedback_ru.csv</ru>
                        <es>feedback_es.csv</es>
                    </files>
                </Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
            </modules>
        </translate>
    </global>
    <default>
        <feedbackoptions>
            <orders_older_than_days>100</orders_older_than_days>
            <email_from_name>MSCG Feedback</email_from_name>
            <email_from_emailaddress>xxxx</email_from_emailaddress>
        </feedbackoptions>
    </default>
    <crontab>
        <jobs>
            <feedbackcustomer_sendfeedbackmail>
                <schedule>
                    <cron_expr>*/5 * * * *</cron_expr>
                </schedule>
                <run>
                    <model>feedbackcustomer/cron::sendFeedbackMail</model>
                </run>
            </feedbackcustomer_sendfeedbackmail>
        </jobs>
    </crontab>
</config> 

//Edit This solution works for me:

config.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
    </modules>
    <global>
        <sales>
            <order>
                <statuses>
                    <sent_feedback translate="label">
                        <label>Sent Feedback</label>
                    </sent_feedback>
                </statuses>
                <states>
                    <complete>
                        <statuses>
                            <sent_feedback/>
                        </statuses>
                    </complete>
                </states>
            </order>
        </sales>
        <models>
            <mscg_feedback_customer>
                <class>Mscg_FeedbackCustomer_Model</class>
                <resourceModel>mscg_feedback_customer_resource</resourceModel>
            </mscg_feedback_customer>
        </models>
        <helpers>
            <feedbackcustomer>
                <class>Mscg_FeedbackCustomer_Helper</class>
            </feedbackcustomer>
        </helpers>
        <models>
            <feedbackcustomer>
                <class>Mscg_FeedbackCustomer_Model</class>
                <resourceModel>feedbackcustomer_mysql4</resourceModel>
            </feedbackcustomer>
        </models>
        <resources>
            <mscg_feedback_customer_setup>
                <setup>
                    <module>Mscg_FeedbackCustomer</module>
                    <class>Mage_Sales_Model_Mysql4_Setup</class>
                </setup>
                <connection>
                    <use>core_setup</use>
                </connection>
            </mscg_feedback_customer_setup>
            <mscg_feedback_customer_write>
                <connection>
                    <use>core_write</use>
                </connection>
            </mscg_feedback_customer_write>
            <mscg_feedback_customer_read>
                <connection>
                    <use>core_read</use>
                </connection>
            </mscg_feedback_customer_read>
        </resources>
        <template>
            <email>
                <mscg_customerfeedback_email_template translate="label" module="mscgfeedbackcustomer">
                    <label>Mscg Customer Feedback Email</label>
                    <file>mscg_customer_feedback_email_template.phtml</file>
                    <type>html</type>
                </mscg_customerfeedback_email_template>
            </email>
        </template>
    </global>
    <frontend>
        <translate>
            <modules>
                <Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
                    <files>
                        <default>feedback_en.csv</default>
                        <de>feedback_de.csv</de>
                        <fr>feedback_fr.csv</fr>
                        <en>feedback_en.csv</en>
                        <it>feedback_it.csv</it>
                        <ru>feedback_ru.csv</ru>
                        <es>feedback_es.csv</es>
                    </files>
                </Mscg_FeedbackCustomer>
            </modules>
        </translate>
    </frontend>
    <default>
        <mscg_feedbackcustomer>
            <feedbackoptions>
                <orders_older_than_days>100</orders_older_than_days>
                <email_from_name>MSCG Feedback</email_from_name>
                <email_from_emailaddress>xxx</email_from_emailaddress>
            </feedbackoptions>
            <orderattributes>
                <customer_informed>x_customerfeedback</customer_informed>
            </orderattributes>
        </mscg_feedbackcustomer>
    </default>
    <crontab>
        <jobs>
            <feedbackcustomer_sendfeedbackmail>
                <schedule>
                    <cron_expr>*/5 * * * *</cron_expr>
                </schedule>
                <run>
                    <model>feedbackcustomer/cron::sendFeedbackMail</model>
                </run>
            </feedbackcustomer_sendfeedbackmail>
        </jobs>
    </crontab>
</config>

And load the correct translations

Mage::getSingleton('core/translate')->setLocale($countryKey)->init('frontend', TRUE);

$countryKey = standard country code for localization in magento (eg. fr_FR, de_DE, en_US ..)

template is using {{var variableName}} which I pass along $params when calling my sendMail method which I extend from Mage_Core_Model_Email_Template