Email Cart

The Email Cart app adds an Email Cart button next to the checkout button on the cart page. When a customer clicks it, a Bootstrap 5 modal slides open with an address collection form. After filling in their details and clicking Send, the cart contents — including item names, quantities, unit prices, and totals — are emailed to the store admin, the customer, or both.

This is useful for B2B stores where customers need to request a quote, for stores that want to let customers save and share their carts by email, and for any scenario where a customer wants a record of their basket before committing to checkout.

Add-on Extension

Email Cart is a separate add-on available from the J2Commerce Extensions Store. It is not included with the core J2Commerce 6 component.

Installation

1. Purchase and download the app_emailbasket.zip package from the J2Commerce website.
2. Go to System -> Install -> Extensions.
3. Upload the app_emailbasket.zip package file.
4. The plugin installs and enables automatically.

After installation, go to J2Commerce -> Apps to configure it.

Quick Start

1. Go to J2Commerce -> Apps and click Email Cart.
2. Set Enable to Yes in the plugin status toggle.
3. On the Email Configuration tab, add at least one row in Email Translations with a subject and body.
4. Click Save.

The Email Cart button now appears on the cart page automatically.

Configuration Reference

tip

Click the Toggle Inline Help button in the toolbar and the app will show a description below each field as you configure it.

Basic Tab

Setting	Description	Default
Disable Proceed to Checkout	When Yes, hides the standard checkout button so customers can only email the cart.	No
Thank You Message Article	Select a Joomla article to display after a cart is successfully sent. Leave empty to show a flash message instead.	—
Display Terms and Conditions	When Yes, a checkbox appears in the form. Customers must accept it before sending.	No
Empty Cart After Email	When Yes, clears the customer's cart session after a successful send.	No
Empty Cart Delay (Milliseconds)	How long to wait before clearing the cart or closing the modal after a successful send.	2000
Show Save Cart Button	When Yes, displays a secondary Save Cart button that links guests to the registration page.	No
Enable reCAPTCHA	Enable Google reCAPTCHA v2 spam protection on the email form.	No
reCAPTCHA Site Key	Your reCAPTCHA v2 site key. Required when reCAPTCHA is enabled.	—
reCAPTCHA Secret Key	Your reCAPTCHA v2 secret key. Required when reCAPTCHA is enabled.	—

Layout Tab

Setting	Description
Form Layout	HTML template using shortcodes to arrange the address fields inside the modal. See Shortcodes below.
Envelope Icon	CSS class for the icon shown on the Email Cart button (e.g. fa-solid fa-envelope or bi bi-envelope).
Cart Icon	CSS class for the icon shown on the Save Cart button.
Modal Custom CSS	Free-form CSS injected into the page <style> tag to style the modal.

Email Configuration Tab

Setting	Description
Send Email To	Choose Admin Only, User Only, or Both. When Both, the customer receives the email as To and admin addresses are copied as CC.
Email Translations	Repeatable rows, one per language. Each row has a Language Tag, Email Subject, and Email Body. The row matching the current Joomla site language is used. If no match, the first row is used as a fallback.

Email Translations Row Fields

Field	Description	Example
Language Tag	Joomla language tag for this row	en-GB, de-DE, fr-FR
Email Subject	Subject line. Supports shortcodes.	[user_name] has emailed their cart
Email Body	HTML body. Use [cart_item] to insert the cart table. Supports all shortcodes.	<p>Hello,</p><p>[cart_item]</p>

Advanced Tab

Setting	Description
Enable Redirect After Send	When Yes, redirects the customer to a custom URL instead of closing the modal.
Redirect URL	Full URL to redirect to after a successful cart email. Visible only when redirect is enabled.
Debug Mode	Writes detailed log entries to administrator/logs/app_emailbasket.php and outputs debug information to the browser console. Disable in production.

Shortcodes

Shortcodes can be used in the Form Layout, Email Subject, and Email Body fields. Enclose each field name in square brackets.

Shortcode	Description
[first_name]	Customer first name
[last_name]	Customer last name
[email]	Customer email address
[phone_1]	Primary phone number
[phone_2]	Secondary phone number
[company]	Company name
[tax_number]	VAT / tax registration number
[address_1]	Address line 1
[address_2]	Address line 2
[city]	City
[zip]	Postcode / ZIP
[country_id]	Country (resolved to country name in emails)
[zone_id]	State / province (resolved to zone name in emails)
[user_name]	Full name (first + last name combined)
[site_name]	Joomla site name from Global Configuration
[cart_item]	Cart items table (email body only)

Form Layout Example

The default layout uses Bootstrap grid columns to arrange fields in two columns on larger screens:

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 emailcart-field">[email]</div>
  <div class="col-12 emailcart-field">[company]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[first_name]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[last_name]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[address_1]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[address_2]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[city]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[zip]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[country_id]</div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 emailcart-field">[zone_id]</div>
</div>

Any shortcode can be omitted from the form layout to hide that field from customers.

Multi-Language Email Templates

The Email Translations subform lets you configure separate subject lines and body text for each language your store supports.

Example setup for a bilingual store:

Language Tag	Subject	Body
en-GB	[user_name] emailed their cart	<p>Hi,</p><p>[cart_item]</p>
de-DE	[user_name] hat den Warenkorb per E-Mail gesendet	<p>Hallo,</p><p>[cart_item]</p>

When a German-language visitor sends their cart, the German subject and body are used. If the visitor's language has no matching row, the first row in the list is used as a fallback.

Setting Up reCAPTCHA

1. Visit Google reCAPTCHA and register your domain with reCAPTCHA v2 ("I'm not a robot" Checkbox).
2. Copy the Site Key and Secret Key Google provides.
3. In the Email Cart plugin settings, switch Enable reCAPTCHA to Yes.
4. Paste the Site Key and Secret Key into the corresponding fields.
5. Save the plugin.

The reCAPTCHA widget appears at the bottom of the email form. Customers must complete it before the Send button becomes active.

Disabling Checkout

To use Email Cart as your only conversion path — for example, in a B2B quote-only store — set Disable Proceed to Checkout to Yes. This hides the checkout button via CSS so customers see only the Email Cart button.

caution

Disabling checkout prevents all customers from completing a purchase directly. Only enable this if your business model requires it.

Empty Cart After Email

When Empty Cart After Email is set to Yes, the cart session is cleared after a successful send. The Empty Cart Delay controls how long the confirmation message is visible before clearing occurs. The default is 2000 milliseconds (2 seconds).

Use this together with a Thank You Message Article to show customers a confirmation page after their cart is emailed.

Tips

• Keep the Email Body shortcode [cart_item] in every translation row — this is what inserts the actual cart table into the email.
• If the zone dropdown does not appear for a country, that country has no zones configured in J2Commerce -> Localization -> Zones.
• The Send Email To → Both setting is the most useful for quote-request workflows: the customer gets a copy for their records, and the admin receives the same email.
• Use Modal Custom CSS to match the modal's appearance to your site theme without modifying template files.

Troubleshooting

The Email Cart button does not appear

Cause: The plugin may not be enabled, or the cart is empty.

Solution:

1. Go to J2Commerce -> Apps and verify Email Cart is enabled (green toggle).
2. Add at least one item to the cart and reload the cart page.
3. Check that your Joomla template loads Bootstrap 5 — the modal requires it.

reCAPTCHA validation always fails

Cause: The domain registered in Google reCAPTCHA does not match the site domain, or the secret key is entered incorrectly.

Solution:

1. Log in to your Google reCAPTCHA admin console.
2. Verify the domain listed matches your Joomla site URL exactly.
3. Re-copy the Secret Key and paste it into the plugin settings — do not include any trailing spaces.

Email is not being received

Cause: Joomla mail settings may not be configured, or the email is being caught by spam filters.

Solution:

1. Go to System -> Global Configuration -> Server tab and verify your mail settings. Send a test email using System -> System Information -> Mail to confirm Joomla can send mail.
2. Check the spam folder of the recipient inbox.
3. Enable Debug Mode in the plugin's Advanced tab and attempt a send — the log at administrator/logs/app_emailbasket.php will show any sending errors.

Zone dropdown does not populate after selecting a country

Cause: The selected country has no zones configured in J2Commerce.

Solution: Go to J2Commerce -> Localization -> Zones and add zones for the required country, or remove [zone_id] from the Form Layout if zones are not needed.

Related Topics

• Countries
• Zones
• Cart Page Layout
• Ask Question / Quote