How to create a mailing based on a template with API

Question

I'm trying to create a mailing based on a template through the CiviCRM API.

Here's my code:

$params = array(
  'name' => $subject,
  'msg_template_id'=> 87,
  'created_id' => 1,
  'header_id' => 1,
  'footer_id' => 17,
  'from_email' => $from,
  'groups' => array(
    'include' => array(
      '0' => 893,
     ),
  ),
  'mailings' => array(
    'include' => array(),
    'exclude' => array(),
  ),
  'options' => array(
    'force_rollback' => 1,
  ), 
  'api.mailing_job.create' => 1, 
  'api.MailingRecipients.get' => array(
    'mailing_id' => '$value.id',
    'api.contact.getvalue' => array(
      'return' => 'display_name',
    ),
    'api.email.getvalue' => array(
      'return' => 'email',
    ),
  ),
);

$result = civicrm_api3('Mailing', 'create', $params);

In mailing everything is correct, the template chosen in the settings is the correct one. But there is no content in the mail.

How to make the content of the mail automatically filled by the content of the template and not from the body_html parameter?

Answer 1

We are using a separate API call to retrieve the required parameters for subject, body_html and body_text:

$result = civicrm_api3('MessageTemplate', 'getsingle', array(
   'id' => 87,
 ));

You could use API chaining with Mailing.create but I don't see a huge benefit.