Inchoo`s Magento Posts

Transcription

September 8th, 2009
Published by: inchoo
Inchoo's Magento Posts
You're reading the 200th blog post edition of Inchoo's
Magento e-book. It collects all of our blog posts on
Magento. We want to thank everyone for staying with
us so far and hope we will live to see 1000th blog post
anniversary. :)
Inchoo is an ecommerce design and development
company specialized in building Magento online stores.
Boost the speed of your Magento
One of the drawbacks of Magento is currently its speed if
default configuration is used. There are certain ways of making
it run faster. The best one is to enable GZip compression by
changing .htaccess file a little. You just need to uncomment
part of the code. In my case, the speed increase was exactly
235%.
Add custom structural block / reference
in Magento | Inchoo
If you already performed some Magento research, you will
know that it is built on a fully modular model that gives
great scalability and flexibility for your store. While creating
a theme, you are provided with many content blocks that you
can place in structural blocks. If you are not sure what they
are, please read Designer’s Guide to Magento first. Magento
provides few structural blocks by default and many content
blocks. This article tells what needs to be in place to create new
structural block.
What are structural blocks?
They are the parent blocks of content blocks and serve to
position its content blocks within a store page context. Take
a look at the image below. These structural blocks exist in the
forms of the header area, left column area, right column…etc.
which serve to create the visual structure for a store page. Our
goal is to create a new structural block called “newreference”.
Step 1: Name the structural block
Open the file layout/page.xml in your active theme folder.
Inside you will find lines like:
<block type="core/text_list" name="left" as="left"/>
<block type="core/text_list" name="content" as="content"/>
<block type="core/text_list" name="right" as="right"/>
Let’s mimic this and add a new line somewhere inside the same
block tag.
<block type="core/text_list" name="newreference" as="newrefe
Good. Now we told Magento that new structural block exists
with the name “newreference”. Magento still doesn’t know
what to do with it.
Step 2: Tell Magento where to place it
We now need to point Magento where it should output this
new structural block. Let’s go to template/page folder in our
active theme folder. You will notice different layouts there.
Let’s assume we want the new structural block to appear only
on pages that use 2-column layout with right sidebar. In that
case we should open 2columns-right.phtml file.
Created using zinepal.com. Go online to create your own zines or read what others have already published.
1
September 8th, 2009
TRUNCATE `sales_order_entity_datetime`;
Let’s assume we wish the “newreference” block to be placed
TRUNCATE `sales_order_entity_decimal`;
below 2 columns, but above the footer. In this case, our
TRUNCATE `sales_order_entity_int`;
updated file could look like this:
TRUNCATE `sales_order_entity_text`;
TRUNCATE `sales_order_entity_varchar`;

TRUNCATE `sales_order_int`;
<div class="middle-container">
TRUNCATE `sales_order_text`;
<div class="middle col-2-right-layout">< ?php getChildHtml('breadcrumbs') ?>
TRUNCATE `sales_order_varchar`;

TRUNCATE `sales_flat_quote`;
<div id="main" class="col-main">
TRUNCATE `sales_flat_quote_address`;
< ?php getChildHtml('global_messages') ?>
TRUNCATE `sales_flat_quote_address_item`;

TRUNCATE `sales_flat_quote_item`;

TRUNCATE `sales_flat_quote_item_option`;
< ?php getChildHtml('content') ?>
TRUNCATE `sales_flat_order_item`;
</div>
TRUNCATE `sendfriend_log`;

TRUNCATE `tag`;
TRUNCATE `tag_relation`;

TRUNCATE `tag_summary`;
<div class="col-right side-col">< ?php getChildHtml('right') ?></div>
TRUNCATE `wishlist`;
</div>
TRUNCATE `log_quote`;
<div>< ?php getChildHtml('newreference') ?></div>
TRUNCATE `report_event`;
</div>

ALTER TABLE `sales_order` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_datetime` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
Step 3: Populating structural block
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_decimal` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_entity` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
We have the block properly placed, but unfortunately nothing
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_entity_datetime` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
is new on the frontsite. Let’s populate the new block with
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_entity_decimal` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
something. We will put new products block there as an
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_entity_int` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_entity_text` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
example. Go to appropriate layout XML file and add this block
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_entity_varchar` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
to appropriate place.
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_int` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `sales_order_text` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
<reference name="newreference">
TABLE `sales_order_varchar` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
<block type="catalog/product_new" name="home.product.new" ALTER
template="catalog/product/new.phtml"
/>
ALTER TABLE `sales_flat_quote` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
</reference>
ALTER TABLE `sales_flat_quote_address` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `sales_flat_quote_address_item` AUTO_INCREMENT=1
That’s it. I hope it will help someone
ALTER TABLE `sales_flat_quote_item` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `sales_flat_quote_item_option` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
There are 15 comments
ALTER TABLE `sales_flat_order_item` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `sendfriend_log` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `tag` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `tag_relation` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `tag_summary` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `wishlist` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
ALTER TABLE `log_quote` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
You got a Magento project to develop, you created a Magento
ALTER TABLE `report_event` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
How to delete orders in Magento? |
Inchoo
theme, you placed initial products and categories and you
also placed some test orders to see if Shipping and Payment
methods work as expected. Everything seems to be cool and
the client wishes to launch the site. You launch it. When you
enter the administration for the first time after the launch, you
will see all your test orders there. You know those should be
deleted. But how?
If you try to delete orders in the backend, you will find out
that you can only set the status to “cancelled” and the order is
still there. Unfortunately, Magento doesn’t enable us to delete
those via administration, so you will not see any “Delete order”
button. This can be quite frustrating both to developers and
the merchants. People coming from an SAP world find the
inability to delete to have some merit but there should be a
status that removes the sales count from the reports i.e. sales,
inventory, etc.
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
`sales_order`;
`sales_order_datetime`;
`sales_order_decimal`;
`sales_order_entity`;
-- reset
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
customers
`customer_address_entity`;
`customer_address_entity_datetime`;
`customer_address_entity_decimal`;
`customer_address_entity_int`;
`customer_address_entity_text`;
`customer_address_entity_varchar`;
`customer_entity`;
`customer_entity_datetime`;
`customer_entity_decimal`;
`customer_entity_int`;
`customer_entity_text`;
`customer_entity_varchar`;
`log_customer`;
`log_visitor`;
`log_visitor_info`;
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
`customer_address_entity` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`customer_address_entity_datetime` AUTO_INCREMEN
`customer_address_entity_decimal` AUTO_INCREMENT
`customer_address_entity_int` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`customer_address_entity_text` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`customer_address_entity_varchar` AUTO_INCREMENT
`customer_entity` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`customer_entity_datetime` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
2
September 8th, 2009
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
ALTER
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
TABLE
`customer_entity_decimal` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`customer_entity_int` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`customer_entity_text` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`customer_entity_varchar` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`log_customer` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`log_visitor` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
`log_visitor_info` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
-- Reset all ID counters
TRUNCATE èav_entity_store`;
ALTER TABLE èav_entity_store` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;
After you have it executed, the test orders will not be in the
database any more. Keep in mind that this will delete ALL
orders, in the database. So, you should execute this queries
immediately after launch.
connect2MAGE | WordPress plugin for
easy Magento database connection
Hi everyone. I wrote this little plugin while working on one
of our projects. If you know your way around WordPress
then you know what $wpdb variable stands for. Imagine the
following scenario. You have WordPress installation on one
database, Magento on another. You know your way around
SQL. You can always make new object based on WPDB class
inside your template files giving it database access parameters,
or you can use this plugin and use $MAGEDB the same way
you use $wpdb.
Below is a little example of using $MAGEDB to connect to
Magento database and retrieve some products by reading id’s
from custom field of some post inside your WordPress.
Place this code inside one of your templates, like single.php.
< ?php
global $MAGEDB;
$MAGEDB->show_errors(true);
/** BASIC SETUP */
//$storeUrl = 'http://server/shop/index.php/';
$storeUrl = get_option('connect2MAGE_StoreUrl');
//$urlExt = '.html';
$urlExt = get_option('connect2MAGE_UrlExt');
/** END OF BASIC SETUP */
?>
< ?php if (!empty($result)): ?>
<table id="relatedProductsList">
< ?php foreach ($result as $item): ?>
<tr class="productInfo">
<td><a href="<?php echo $storeUrl ?>/< ?php echo $item->url_
<td>< ?php _e('Starting at') ?> $ < ?php echo floatval($item
</tr>
< ?php endforeach; ?>
</table>
< ?php endif; ?>
Hope some of you find this useful. Especially those who refuse
to use Web Services for connecting different systems.
Download connect2MAGE WordPress plugin.
Custom checkout cart - How to send
email after successful checkout in
Magento | Inchoo
Recently I have been working on a custom checkout page for
one of our clients in Sweden. I had some trouble figuring out
how to send default Magento order email with all of the order
info. After an hour or so of studying Magento core code, here
is the solution on how to send email after successful order has
been made.
Not sure how useful this alone will be for you, so I’ll throw a
little advice along the way. When trying to figure how to reuse
Magento code, separate some time to study the Model classes
with more detail. Then “tapping into” and reusing some of
them should be far more easier.
Latest News RSS box in Magento using
Zend_Feed_Rss | Inchoo
You would like to have a eCommerce power of Magento, but
also have a blog to empower your business? In this case,
you probably know that Magento doesn’t have some article
manager in the box. Many clients seek for supplementary
solution like Wordpress to accomplish this goal. Ok, so you
created a blog on same or different domain and you would
like those articles to appear somewhere in Magento (probably
sidebar). This article will explain how to do it.
Let’s
create
a
file
called
latest_news.phtml
in
app/design/frontend/default/[your_theme]/template/
callouts/latest_news.phtml
$result = array();
Now we will create a PHP block that will display the list
if(!empty($entityIds))
of articles from RSS feed. We will use Inchoo RSS for
{
demonstration purposes. In your scenario, replace it with your
$entityIds = $entityIds[0];
valid RSS URL.
$sql = "SELECT è`.*, `_table_price`.`value` AS `price`, own
IFNULL(_table_visibility.value,
_table_visibility_default.va
$entityIds = get_post_custom_values(get_option('connect2MAGE_CustomFieldName'));
$result = $MAGEDB->get_results($sql);
var_dump($result);
}
< ?php $channel = new Zend_Feed_Rss('http://feeds.feedburner
<div class="block block-latest-news">
<div class="block-title">
else
<h2>< ?php echo $this->__('Latest News') ?></h2>
{
</div>
echo '<p class="relatedProductInfo">No related products available...</p>';
<div class="block-content">
}
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September 8th, 2009
<ol id="graybox-latest-news">
• use
the
http://somestore.domain/catalogsearch/
< ?php foreach ($channel as $item): ?>
partnumber as a link
<li><a href="<?php echo $item->link; ?>">< ?php echo $item->title; ?></a></li>
< ?php endforeach; ?>
• show only custom_partnumber field on the search form
</ol>
</div>
First, we have to see where does the /advanced come from.
</div>
Lets open our template folder at
Step 2
Now, we should decide where to place it. I assume you already
know how Magento blocks and references work. Let’s assume
you would like to place it in right column by default for whole
catalog. In this case open your app/design/frontend/default/
[your_theme]/layout/catalog.xml file and under “default” tag
update “right” reference with something similar.
That’s it. You should be able to see the list of articles from RSS
feed with the URLs. Hope this will help someone.
Advanced search in Magento and how to
use it in your own way
It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been working on
Magento quite actively last two months. I noticed this negative
trend in my blogging; more I know about Magento, the less
I write about it. Some things just look so easy now, and they
start to feel like something I should not write about. Anyhow….
time to share some wisdom with community
Our current client uses somewhat specific (don’t they all) store
set. When I say specific, i don’t imply anything bad about it.
One of the stand up features at this clients site is the advanced
search functionality. One of the coolest features of the built in
advanced search is the possibility to search based on attributes
assigned to a product.
To do the search by attributes, your attributes must have that
option turned on when created (or later, when editing an
attribute). In our case we had a client that wanted something
like
http://somestore.domain/catalogsearch/partnumber
or
http://somestore.domain/catalogsearch/brand
instead of the default one
http://somestore.domain/catalogsearch/advanced
with all of the searchable fields on form.
app\design\frontend\default\default\template
\catalogsearch\
there you will see the /advanced folder. Make a copy of that
entire folder, in the same location, and name it to something
like /custom.
Now your /custom folder should have 2 files: form.phtml and
result.phtml.
Next in line is the /layout folder in our template. You need
to open catalogsearch.xml file. Go to line 64. Do you see the
<catalogsearch_advanced_index> tag there. Make the copy of
it (including all of the content it hold with the closing tag also).
Put the copy of that entire small chunk of code right below.
Now rename all of the occurrences of “advanced” to “custom”
there like on code below:
<catalogsearch_custom_index>
<!– Mage_Catalogsearch –>
<reference name=”root”>
<action
method=”setTemplate”><template>page/2columnsright.phtml</template></action>
</reference>
<reference name=”head”>
<action
method=”addItem”><type>js_css</
type><name>calendar/calendar-win2k-1.css</
name><params/><!–<if/
><condition>can_load_calendar_js</condition>–></
action>
<action
method=”addItem”><type>js</
type><name>calendar/calendar.js</name><!–<params/
><if/><condition>can_load_calendar_js</condition>–
></action>
Some of you might say why not use the default and call it a day.
Well, default one does not get very user friendly when large
number of custom added searchable attributes are added in
Magento admin interface. Then the frontend search form gets
cluttered and users are easily to get confused.
<action
type><name>calendar/lang/calendar-en.js</name><!–
<params/><if/><condition>can_load_calendar_js</
condition>–></action>
So in our example we would like to use the advanced search
and all of it’s behaviour and logic but to use it on somewhat
special link and to hide unnecessary fields. Therefore, our
custom pages he would have only one input field on form and
the submit button. How do we set this up? Well, all of the logic
and functionality is already there.
<action
type><name>calendar/calendar-setup.js</name><!–
<params/><if/><condition>can_load_calendar_js</
condition>–></action>
What we need is to:
</reference>
<reference name=”content”>
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September 8th, 2009
<block
type=”catalogsearch/custom_form”
name=”catalogsearch_custom_form”
template=”catalogsearch/custom/form.phtml”/>
This might not be the best method of reusing already written
code, however I hope it’s any eye opener to somewhat more
elegant aproach.
Enyoj.
</reference>
</catalogsearch_custom_index>
Do the same for <catalogsearch_advanced_result> tag.
Now go to the app\code\core\Mage\CatalogSearch\Block
folder. And make a copy of /Advanced folder naming
it /Custom. Open /Custom/Form.php and replace
class name Mage_CatalogSearch_Block_Advanced_Form
with
Mage_CatalogSearch_Block_Custom_Form,
then
open
/Custom/Result.php
and
replace
class
name Mage_CatalogSearch_Block_Advanced_Result with
Mage_CatalogSearch_Block_Custom_Result.
Inside Form.php there is getModel() function. DO NOT
replace the Mage::getSingleton(’catalogsearch/advanced’);
with Mage::getSingleton(’catalogsearch/custom’);. The point
is to use the default advanced search logic here. Same goes for
getSearchModel() function inside Result.php file.
Next in line, controllers. We need to make
the copy of AdvancedController.php and name it
CustomController.php, then open it and replace the
class name Mage_CatalogSearch_AdvancedController with
Mage_CatalogSearch_CustomController.
Inside this CustomController.php there is a function
called resultAction(). You need to replace the ( …
Mage::getSingleton(’catalogsearch/advanced’) … ) string
‘catalogsearch/advanced’ with ‘catalogsearch/custom’. This is
the one telling the browser what page to open.
Related products
There are three types of product relations in Magento:
Up-sells, Related Products, and Cross-sell Products. When
viewing a product, Upsells for this product are items that your
customers would ideally buy instead of the product they’re
viewing. They might be better quality, produce a higher profit
margin, be more popular, etc. These appear on the product
info page. Related products appear in the product info page
as well, in the right column. Related products are meant to
be purchased in addition to the item the customer is viewing.
Finally, Cross-sell items appear in the shopping cart. When
a customer navigates to the shopping cart (this can happen
automatically after adding a product, or not), the cross-sells
block displays a selection of items marked as cross-sells to the
items already in the cart. They’re a bit like impulse buys – like
magazines and candy at the cash registers in grocery stores.
Upsells
This is the example of the Up-sell. Ideally, the visitor is
supposed to analyze those products as they should be relevant
to the one that is just loaded.
Now if you open your url link in browser with /index.php/
catalogsearch/custom instead of /index.php/catalogsearch/
advanced you will see the same form there.
And for the final task… As we said at the start, the point of all
this is to 1) get more custom link in url and 2) display only one
custom searchable attribute field in form. Therefore, for the
last step we need to go to the template\catalogsearch\custom
folder and open form.phtml file.
Inside that file, there is one foreach loop that goes like
<?php foreach ($this->getSearchableAttributes()
$_attribute): ?>
as
All we need to do now is to place one if() condition
right below it. If your custom attribute name (code) is
“my_custom_attribute” then your if() condition might look
something like
<?php
foreach
($this->getSearchableAttributes()
$_attribute): ?>
<?php if($_code == ‘my_custom_attribute’): ?>
as
File upload in Magento
Now, Magento already have frontend and admin part of file
upload option implemented in themes. Since backend part is
still missing, understand that this still doesn’t work, however,
if you’re interested how it looks, read on ..
We are coding module of similar functionality for one of our
clients as we speak, but we have our fingers crossed to see this
option in next Magento version!
…
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
And you are done. Now you have somewhat more custom url,
and only one custom field displayed on that url.
5
September 8th, 2009
Inchoo TV – Magento channel
Making use of Magento getSingleton
method
In one of my previous articles I showed you how to use
getModel and getData methods in Magento. Although we
should not put those to methods at the same level, since I’d say
the getModel is a bit more higher. Higher in sense, you first
use the geModel to create the instance of object then you use
getData to retrieve the data from that instance. I have said it
before, and I’m saying it again; Magento is a great peace of
full OOP power of PHP. It’s architecture is something not yet
widely seen in CMS solutions.
One of the architectural goodies of Magento is it’s Singleton
design pattern. In short, Singleton design pattern ensures a
class has only one instance. Therefore one should provide a
global point of access to that single instance of a class.
So why would you want to limit yourself to only one instance?
Let’s say you have an application that utilizes database
connection. Why would you create multiple instance of the
same database connection object? What if you had references
to an object in multiple places in your application? Wouldn’t
you like to avoid the overhead of creating a new instance of
that object for each reference? Then there is the case where
you might want to pass the object’s state from one reference
to another rather than always starting from an initial state.
Inside the Mage.php file of Magento system there is a
getSingleton method (function if you prefer). Since it’s
footprint is rather small, I’ll copy paste the code for you to see
it.
First, notice the word static. In PHP and in other OOP
languages keyword static stands for something like “this can
be called on non objects, directly from class”. Now let me show
you the footprint of the getModel method.
Do you notice the parameters inside the brackets? They are the
same for both of theme. Where am I getting with this? Well,
I already showed you how to figure out the list of all of the
available parameters in one of my previous articles on my site.
So all we need to do at this point is, play with those parameters
using getSingleton() method and observe the results.
Most important thing you need to remember is that using
getSingleton you are calling already instantiated object. So if
you get the empty array as a result, it means the object is
empty. Only the blueprint is there, but nothing is loaded in it.
We had the similar case using getModel(’catalog/product‘)
on some pages. If we done var_dump or print_r we could
saw the return array was empty. Then we had to use the load
method to load some data into our newly instantiated object.
What I’m trying to say, you need to play with it
to get the feeling. Some models will return data rich
objects some will return empty arrays. If we were to do
Mage::getSingleton(’catalog/session) on view.phtml file we
would retrieve an array with some useful data in it. Do
not get confused with me mentioning the view.phmtl file,
it’s just he file i like to use to test the code. Using
Mage::getSingleton(’core/session) would retrieve us some
more data. You get the picture. Test, test, test… What’s great
about the whole thing is that naming in Magento is perfectly
logical so most of the time you will probably find stuff you need
in few minutes or so.
Figuring out Magento object context
One of the problems working under the hood of the Magento
CMS is determining the context of $this. If you are about
to do any advanced stuff with your template, besides layout
changes, you need to get familiar with Magento’s objects
(classes).
Let’s have a look at the /app/design/frontend/default/
default/template/catalog/product/view.phtml file. If you
open this file and execute var_dump($this) your browser will
return empty page after a short period of delay. By page I mean
on the product view page; the one you see when you click on
Magetno product. Experienced users will open PHP error log
and notice the error message caused by var_dump(). Error
message:
PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes
exhausted (tried to allocate 121374721 bytes)
I like using print_r() and var_dump(), mostly because so far
I had no positive experience using fancy debug or any other
debugger with systems like Magento.
Why is PHP throwing errors then? If you google out the
error PHP has thrown at you, you’ll see that PHP 5.2
has memory limit. Follow the link http://www.php.net/
manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.memory-limit to see how and
what exactly.
Google search gave me some useful results trying to solve my
problems. I found Krumo at http://krumo.sourceforge.net/.
It’s a PHP debugging tool, replacement for print_r() and
var_dump(). After setting up Krumo and running it on
Magento it gave me exactly what I wanted. It gave me the
object type of the dumped file; in this case it gave me object
type of $this.
If you’re using an IDE studio with code completion support
like NuSphere PhpED, ZendStudio or NetBeans and you
decide to do something like $this-> you won’t get any methods
listed. I haven’t yet seen the IDE that can perform this kind of
smart logic and figure out the context of $this by it self.
What you can do is use the information obtained
by krumo::dump($this). Performing krumo::dump($this)
on /app/design/frontend/default/default/template/catalog/
product/view.phtml file will return object type,
Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_View.
Now if you do
Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_View::
your IDE supporting code completion will give you
a drop down of all the available methods, let’s say
canEmailToFriend();
6
September 8th, 2009
Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_View::canEmailToFriend();
Now
all
you
need
to
do
is
to
replace
Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_View with $this like
$this->canEmailToFriend();
And you’re done. All of this may look like “why do I need this”.
What you need it a smart IDE, one that can figure out the
context of $this by it self and call the methods accordingly. No
IDE currently does that, if I’m not missing on something. For
now I see no better solution to retrieve the object context of
$this across all those Magento files.
What is “Best Value” filed?
When you go to Category page in Magento administration, you
will see “Category Products” tab. From there, you will see the
list of products that are associated to this category. The last
column in “Position”. That is how “Best Value” is determined.
So, best value is not something that is dynamically calculated.
You can tailor it to your likings.
If you need some help setting up Krumo with Magento
you can read my other, somewhat detailed article on
activecodeline.com.
Hope this was useful for you.
Get product review info (independent) of
review page
Here at Inchoo, we are working on a private project, that
should see daylight any time soon. One of the requirements
we had is to show product review info on pages independent
of product review page. Let’s say you wish to show review info
on home page for some of the products. After few weeks with
working with Magento, one learns how to use the model stuff
directly from view files. Although this might not be the “right”
way, it’s most definitely the fastest way (and I doubt most of
your clients would prefer any other
, especially if it’s some
minor modification).
Simple random banner rotator in
Magento using static blocks
This is my first post here and I’ll write about my first challenge
regarding Magento since I came to work at Inchoo.
How to change default Sort Order
The file you need to look at is: /app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/
Block/Product/List/Toolbar.php Since we’ll modify it, make a
copy to /app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Block/Product/List/
Toolbar.php
One there, you will notice this code at the beginning of the file:
$this->_availableOrder = array(
'position' => $this->__('Best Value'),
'name'
=> $this->__('Name'),
'price'
=> $this->__('Price')
);
Default order takes the first value available. So, all you have to
do is to either:
• reorder it if you want to have a selection in the Toolbar or
Please note that you are not restricted only to images, you
could use text, video or whatever you want here, but I’ll focus
on images with links as title says.
In order to show this block, you should be familiar with
Magento layouts.
Since that is out of scope for this article, I’ll show you how to
put it below the content on cms pages.
I hope this will help somebody.
Changing default category sort order in
Magento
Couple of days ago we launched a new Magento project:
Pebblehill Designs. This site utilizes Magento features and
turns it into a very powerful online catalog. You won’t notice
the Shopping Cart or checkout process yet. Even without
those, this site shows exactly what Pebblehill has to offer: the
most popular styles of custom upholstered furniture.
Category toolbar has many options. By default is shows how
many items are in the category, you can choose how many
products you wish to be displayed per page, you can change
the listing type (List or Grid) and you may choose Sort Order.
This “Sort Order” can be confusing. The default “Sort Order”
is “Best Value”. What does it mean? How is the Best value
determined? Can we change the default sort order?
• set only one value of choice if you will remove the
selection from the toolbar
You can customize the furniture collection to express your
own unique style made with the highest quality materials and
craftsmanship available.
Pebble Hill Designs’ parsons chairs are “American made” with
pride in Georgia. The quality speaks for itself. Your products
are pre-assembled and ready for use when you receive them.
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September 8th, 2009
The love and the passion for beautiful home interiors
translates into a high-quality product with a sophisticated
style manufactured in the USA. Pebblehill Designs has
assembled some of the most popular styles of custom
upholstered furniture to offer to our customers. All styles are
available in every fabric shown or you can provide your own
fabric. You can customize the furniture collection to express
your own unique style made with the highest quality materials
and craftsmanship available.
Magento part of the site can be viewed if you click at Shop by
Vehicle or Shop by Brand tabs from the main menu, but you
will notice that some blocks seamlessly integrate between two
solutions.
We developed this site as the Surgeworks team. The design
was created by one of out top designers, Rafael Torales. We
hope you enjoy it and feel free to post your comments.
The Best Shopping Cart :: Trend analysis
of osCommerce, Magento, ZenCart and
CRE Loaded | Inchoo
TeraFlex PLUS, another Magento +
Wordpress duo
After we launched TeraFlex Suspensions website few months
ago, we created a new similar website for Teraflex PLUS.
Although the name is similar, this is not the same company.
The primary goal of this site is to help Jeep owners to upgrade
their pets with parts and accessories for any type of adventure.
The secondary goal is to create a Jeep enthusiast community
in Utah, USA and surroundings. The site is powered by
Wordpress and Magento combination.
If you try to ask this question on some forum or newsgroup,
you will surely get many replies. Everyone will present you
his favorite. My first developed online store was created with
standard osCommerce platform. After three or four projects,
I started to work with CRE Loaded and used it frequently for
years. Although it was also an osCommerce fork, it had many
advantages. I switched to Magento™ early this year and this
is my final choice.
Google™ Trends is a great tool to check some platforms
popularity by comparing it to the competition. For my short
analysis, I compared:
Magento is a superb Shopping Cart, but it lacks some of the
CMS features. Wordpress is a superb CMS, but it fails to
provide the needs for the eCommerce goals. The combination
of these can create a very powerful website. We present you
TeraFlex PLUS : Jeep Adventure Outfitters
http://www.teraflexplus.com/
As you can see, osCommerce still remains the most popular
eCommerce platform. However, you can notice that this
8
September 8th, 2009
popularity is fading. ZenCart is stable for the past two years.
And my previous favorite, CRE Loaded (much better solution
than ZenCart in my opinion), is very low. Its popularity is also
fading even after their team put great effort into a new website
and identity.
Now, take a look at blue line. My prediction is that sometime
in Q1 2009, Magento will become most popular eCommerce
platform. It will surely kick osCommerce off the throne where
that fat duck was sitting for many years. It was about time.
First of all, let me inform you that this article is for those of
you who are just starting with Magento. If you are a Magento
expert, you will probably know this. Consider it just a reminder
for those who use Magento for first time. There are three
common mistakes that most people do when they try to use
Magento for first time, so read this article and you won’t be
one of them.:)
• More experienced PHP developers will first read
Magento Designers Guide before they try to style
Magento, but others won’t and that’s the mistake
number two. Since Magento has great theme fallback
system there is really no need to touch default theme.
Although easiest way to make new theme for new
Magento is top copy the whole theme to a new folder,
don’t do that. Copy only the files you will need: from /
design/frontend/default/default/ directory to /design/
frontend/default/YOUR_NEW_THEME directory. Do
the same thing with /skin/frontend/default/default/
Congratulations, you have your own theme just like
that. All that left is to apply new theme (System>Configuration->Design) and you are ready to do with
your theme files whatever you want.
• Third mistake is modifying Magento core files. What files
are core ones? All what is in app/code/core folder. If you
have a need to modify some of those ones, you just need
to duplicate that file in the same directory path to app/
code/local. For example, if you need to modify the file
app/code/core/Mage/Checkout/Block/Success.php
copy it to
app/code/local/Mage/Checkout/Block/Success.php
and leave the core file intact. This way your Magento will
be more bullet-proof to future updates.
Custom CMS page layout in Magento |
Inchoo
Last week I had a request to add new custom layout
for few cms pages in one Magento shop. It’s really
useful for different static pages of your shop. First create
extension with only config file in it: app/code/local/Inchoo/
AdditionalCmsPageLayouts/etc/config.xml
Add your page/custom-static-page-1.phtml template file (or
copy some default one for start) and you’re done
There is
also tutorial about this on Magento Wiki. However i don’t like
approach of duplicating and overriding Mage files from /local,
if it can be avoided, so i decided to write this small and useful
example of adding or overriding default Magento settings
through separated config files. And yes, Magento values can
be overridden this way. Default layouts config can be found
in app/code/core/Mage/Cms/etc/config.xml along with used
xml code structure, so check it out. Thank you for listening!
Drupal to Magento integration, simple
link tweak with multilingual site
I see my coworker and friend Željko Prša made a nice little post
on Adding a new language in Magento so I figure I’ll jump with
a little Drupal to Magento integration trick concerning link
issues and multilingual sites. Here is a piece of code you can
use in your Drupal templates to do the proper switching from
Drupal site to Magento while keeping the selected language of
site. Note, this tweak assumes you have the desired language
setup on both Drupal and Magento side.
This part goes to some of your Drupal theme file
...
global $language ;
$lname = ($language->language == null) ? 'en' : $language->l
$storeView = null;
if($lname == 'de') { $storeView = '?___store=german&amp;
??>
</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a id="main_menu_shop" href
...
Note the $storeView variable; GET ___store holds the value
of code name of the view you assigned in Magento, while GET
___from_store variable is used as helper to Magento inner
workings. You can basically omit the other one. Your links to
Shop from Drupal to Magento should now activate the proper
language, the same one you have active on Drupal side.
Adding a new language in Magento
As anything in Magento adding a new language is something
that requires a certain procedure which we will explain right
now and for future reference.
• 3. Now go to: Configuration -> Current Configuration
Scope (Select your language from the dropdown) and on
the right side under “Locale options” choose the desired
language.
That’s it, now when you go to the frontend of the site, you’ll
notice a dropdown menu allowing the language switching.
Access denied in Magento admin
Some of you may encountered this problem. You install new
Magento extension through downloader, try to access its
configuration settings and Magento throws “Access denied”
page at you. Although you’re administrator of the system.
9
September 8th, 2009
If you worked with osCommerce, Zen Cart, CRE Loaded or any
similar eCommerce platform before, you might find Magento
database structure quite confusing when you see it for the first
time. I advise you not to rush too much figuring out what
is what by glancing through database. Try to spend first few
hours getting familiar with some background. For purposes
of flexibility, the Magento database heavily utilizes an EntityAttribute-Value (EAV) data model. As is often the case, the
cost of flexibility is complexity. Is there something in Magento
that is simple from developers point of view?
So what happened here? Magento just doesn’t have stored
privileges for this new extension.
First just try to logout and login again. If that doesn’t work,
you need to reset admin privileges.
Navigate to System->Permissions->Roles
Administrators role.
and
click
Check your Role Resources settings just in case, Resource
Access dropdown should be already set to All for
administrators.
Data manipulation in Magento is often more knowledge
demanding than that typical use of traditional relational
tables. Therefore, an understanding of EAV principles and
how they have been modeled into Magento it is HIGHLY
recommended before making changes to the Magento
data or the Magento schema (Wikipedia: Entity-attributevalue_model). Varien has simplified the identification of EAV
related tables with consistent naming conventions. Core EAV
tables are prefixed with “EAV_”. Diagrams in this post contain
a section labeled “EAV” which displays Magento’s core EAV
tables and thier relationships to non-EAV tables.
Database diagrams and documents found in this post are
intended to mirror the database schema as defined by Varien.
Table relationships depicted in the diagrams represent only
those relationships explicitly defined as Foreign Keys in the
Magento database. Additional informal/undiagrammed table
relationships may also exist, so when modifying the schema
or directly manipulating data it is important to identify and
evaluate possible changes to these tables as well (and the
tables they relate to, and the tables they relate to…).
The author of Database Diagram is Gordon Goodwin, IT
Consultant. You can see his info in the PDF.
Magento + .Net Framework, simple order
preview app
Without changing anything just click “Save Role” button, so
that Magento re-saves all permissions.
You should be able to access your new extension now without
problems.
For those of you who are into kinky stuff I made a simple,
more of a proof of concept, application that sits in Widnows
taskbar and shows the order info in balloon popup. Took me
little more than half of hour to get this working. Almost forgot
how great C# is
10
September 8th, 2009
Magento has this great feature, rss feed for orders. You
can access it via link http://myshopsite/rss/order/new. It
requires authentication, so you need to provide Magento user
and pass to access this link. Idea I wanted to play around
was how to get this info in my windows app. It’s really, really
simple. Below is the screenshot of this little app for you to see
what I’m talking about.
And here is the application it self simpleorderpreview and full
source code (Visual Studio 2008 Express C#, entire solution
project) acmnewproducts.
Technically, we create a simple products and after that a
grouped products. When we edit the grouped product, we will
associate simple products to it.It works very fine, but some of
you might have issue if a simple product has custom options.
If that’s the case, and if costum options are set as required
(default way), the simple product will not be associative to the
grouped product. Let’s see what needs to be changed in that
case.
When you un-archive files from simpleorderpreview there is
only one thing you need to do prior to running .exe file. You
need to open ACMNewProducts.exe.config and set username,
password and url of your own Magento shop. That’s it. Now
you can run the app.
On Magento site, there is a nice tutorial how to create a
grouped product. Please read it first to become familiar with
the process. If you don’t have to assign simple products with
custom options to a grouped product, that tutorial will be
enough.
One click on Magento icon inside the taskbar executes
show order process, while double cliking the icon closes the
application.
I will not go into the details in this post on how this works.
Basicaly it’s simple XML parser. Most important part is the
HTTP authentification, which you can see in code source code.
Hope you find this usefull, something to play with.
Associate simple product with custom
options in grouped product in Magento |
Inchoo
Does the title sound complicated? Grouped Products display
several products on one page. For example – if you’re selling
chef’s knives and you have the same knife in four sizes, you can
make a grouped product to display all four sizes. Customers
can select the size(s) they want and add to cart from this page.
Another example would be a themed bedroom set – you can
create a grouped product and sell the sheets, comforter, and
pillow cases all from the same page.
Manually create Google Sitemap in
Magento | Inchoo
Most of you probably know this, but let’s define what the
sitemaps are. Sitemaps are a simple way for site creators to
give search engines the information about pages on their site
that are available for public. Basically, those are just 1 or more
XML files that lists URLs for a site along with additional meta
informatio about each URL (like last update, how often it
changes, its importance relevant to other pages). With this in
mind, search engines can be more clever while crawling the
site. Click here see how sitemap of this site looks like.
You will hear the term Google Sitemap a lot, but XML Schema
for the Sitemap protocol is not related only to Google at all. It
can be used in many places, but the most important ones are
Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo! Site Explorer.
11
September 8th, 2009
How do we create Google Sitemap in Magento?
1. Sitemap File Configuration
First we need to create sitemap file in Magento. This is
basically pointer to tell Magento where to create sitemap file
and how to name it. Log in to Magento Administration and go
to:
Catalog -> Google Sitemap
Check to see if the sitemap file is already present. Lets
assume we wish to create sitemap in the URL: http://
www.yourstore.com/sitemap/sitemap.xml
To do it successfully,
1. FTP to the server
2. create sitemap folder
3. chmod the folder to 777
On some servers, previous steps will not be required, but it is
better to create the file first so that Magento can edit it.
Let’s go to Magento administration now and click on “Add
Sitemap” button. Just insert the default values.
After this step, we just told Magento where to create sitemap
file. It is not yet created.
2. Configure Sitemap
Sitemap can be configured from the interface System ->
Configuration -> Catalog->Google Sitemap. If you are not sure
what does it all mean, check XML Tag definitions section from
“Sitemaps XML format” document.
3. Create Sitemap Manually
Looks like Magento folks were thinking that sitemap should
only be created by a cron job. Yes, it can be done that way
also. Be sure to read Wiki article How to Set Up a Cron Job
to get familiar with it. If you are looking for manual creation,
quit your search for “Create Sitemap” button. You will not find
it. But there is a workaround. You can enter manual URL to
execute sitemap creation:
http://www.yourstore.com/index.php/admin/sitemap/
generate/sitemap_id/[ID of Sitemap from step 1]
Of course, replace the content with square brackets with actual
Sitemap ID.
Observer pitfalls of building serious
modules in Magento
Unlike good old WordPress that “every kid in the block” knows
how to create a plugin for, Magento is a whole new system. It
requires extensive knowledge of OOP, ORM’s, MVC, and few
other stuff. This is why not “every kid in the block” can write a
module for Magento, and this is why I love it. However, unlike
WordPress, Drupal and other community driven systems out
there who keep in mind backward compatibility things with
Magento things are a bit different.
One of the things that caught my eye and made me
wonder about the consequences is the Observer and override
functionality that probably most of the serious custom made
Magento modules will utilize. Utilizing Observers enables you
to observe and execute some action inside the “customer work
flow” or even some admin stuff. Such functionality is heavily
known is systems like WordPress and it’s called “hooks”.
Besides hooking, another useful an very powerful feature
which is actually related more to the OOP concept itself is the
overriding. Personally i find the combination of observers and
overrides to be the coolest and most powerful stuff in Magento
module development.
So where is the issue? As of time of this writing, the
latest Magento version is 1.3.1. Let’s look at the previous
“major” release prior to that one, version 1.2.1.2. Here is
a prepareForCart method signature from app/code/core/
Mage/Catalog/Model/Product/Type/Abstract.php (line 239,
Magento version 1.2.1.2):
Notice the difference? Although this might not look like
“that big of a deal” suppose you had implemented override
functionality like
In the above code, we override the prepareForCart method to
to some custom stuff for us. This peace of code would work
perfectly fine in version 1.2.1.2, but when client decides to
upgrade the shop to 1.3.1 or newer he would get the error like
To me, stuff like this is a serious downside towards building
advanced modules. Changing core files and core functionality
can have serious impact on custom made modules each
Magento upgrade. Therefore, one should keep an eye open
on what modules he will throw into the shop. Personally I
consider online stores very serious and have strong feelings
about each store owner having somewhat of dedicated
developer that will be in charge even for stuff like adding new
modules.
Just consider the financial loss for a store owner of any more
serious web shop if he decides to download the and install
module himself just to realize that for incompatibility reasons
this new module made his shop fully nonfunctional.
How to transfer large Magento database
from live to development server and
other way round
I have been involved in Magento development for almost a
year now. God knows I had (and still have) my moments of
pain with it
. If you are in professional, everyday, PHP
development that focuses mainly on Magento then your life
probably isn’t all flowers and bees. Magento is extremely rich
eCommerce platform, but its main downside IMHO is its size
and code complexity. If you download Magento via SVN, you
will sound find out it has around 11 600 and more files. This
is no small figure. Transferring that much of files over the
FTP can be a real night mare. Luckily we have SSH and tar
command to handle this really neat.
But what about database. Today I worked on database with
more than 20 000 products in store and with extremely
large number of categories. What seemed like easy database
12
September 8th, 2009
transfer from live site to local developer machine to do a test
and fix on few issues tunerd out to be an issue for itself.
Without further delay, here is my favorite tool to handle all
database related work from now on: Navicat.
Among my favorite features is the Data transfer. Directly
moving one database to another among different MySQL
servers works like a charm. I find yourself strangled among
often database recommended action I suggests you test the
trial version of this tool.
Here are some screenshots of Navicat Data transfer in Action.
Affiliates for all, are modules I consider loosely related to core.
They are in one or another way connected to Magento but they
are self standing, independent, applications.
Installation of Affiliate module is a trivial task. It mostly
comes down to extracting downloaded archive file to a web
accessible directory (to your server, hosting) and configuring
the config.inc file. (For security reasons, try renaming
the config.inc to config.inc.php, plus changing the /lib/
bootstrap.php on line 23 to include config.inc.php). After
importing affiliates.sql into the database our installation is
done.
To configure Magento part, one needs to copy required files
form /carts directory of Affiliate module and then (turn off
Cache) go to System > Configuration and set the required
options. After that you can go back to your Affiliate For
All application, upload some banners and set their url links
to point to your Magento shop. When you test banner the
links (click on one of them to get you to Magento store,
then Magento store url should have a little GET variable
in url like ?ref=someNum). Now when you do the entire
checkout process, order info gets recorded to Affiliate For All
application.
If you wish to play with Affiliate For All without installing it,
you can check out the demo (just use “Admin” both for user
and password).
New Magento theme tutorial | Inchoo
There are many new Magento stores that are published
each day. If you are with Magento for a longer time, you
will also notice that many of those look similar to default
or modern Magento theme. Creating an totally unique and
custom one can be a difficult process, easpecially taking into
consideration number of different interfaces we have. This is
why many Magento developers choose to use the CSS from
one of mendioned Magento themes that come with default
installation and style those up. This is not a bad choice at all
as it speeds up the process and those default themes are very
good. But, for those of you who wish to make an extra effort,
we suggest that you to take a look at Magento Blank Theme for
a head start.
Before you get to this point, be sure to read Magento
Designer’s Guide, where the Magento design terminology is
explained in this PDF document.
Affiliates for all – Magento integration
Recently one of our clients needed and info on Affiliate module
for Magento. When it comes to Magento, word “module” is
loosely related. Sure, every module needs config files in order
to report it’s “connection” to Magento core. Modules like this,
Blank Theme is a sample skeleton theme for Magento designer
and a perfect way to start a new one. Let’s be honest, we will
rarely want to develop a totally new layout. We wish the header
on the top, footer on the bottom. We wish to have 1, 2 or 3
columns, we wish to have boxes. Blank Theme does just that:
provides a layout, but without any heavy styling. This makes
it excellent base ground for a new Magento project. It doesn’t
come with default installation, so you will have to use Magento
Connect to get it.
http://www.magentocommerce.com/extension/518/blanktheme
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September 8th, 2009
Magento community member Ross gave a good review
comment:
This is a great theme to use for wire-framing or as a base
for developing a custom theme! It looks like a lot of work has
gone in to slimming down the HTML and CSS, which makes
it much easier to work with compared to the default theme.
I particularly appreciate the well structured and commented
CSS. The only things I would want different at this stage is
for the ‘callouts’ to be taken out (and removal of associated
media images), and for this theme to be included in the main
Magento download (I would even like it to be the ‘default’). 5
stars from me!
Take a sneak peak of how does product info page looks line
with no styling, but in finished layout. I’m sure that the CSS
wizards will find this invaluable.
Create a Color Switcher in Magento
Magento comes packed with a lot of options. But no matter
how many options you put into some product you can never
cover all of them. One of such options (for now) is a color
switcher in Magento. To be more precise, an image switcher
based on color selection.
Recently I’ve made a screencast on my site on this subject,
with somewhat different title. The idea is to have a dropdown
box from which you choose a color and based on the color
selection product image changes. All of this is to be based on
some simple javascript (in my case, jQuery).
Before we continue, you might want to see color switcher in
action. We used this solution on our Kapitol Reef project.
First you need to upload some images to your product and
give them some meaningful names like Red, Blue, Green
depending on your product color. When I say give them
name, I mean on label values. Same goes for creating custom
attribute. You create a dropdown selection box and create the
same amount of dropdown options as you have images, giving
them the same name Red, Green, Blue… and so on. Here are
some images for you to see what I’m talking about:
Magento product view page analysis |
Inchoo
One of the most edited file in Magento is the template file
View.phtml file. Reason for this is that a lot of clients would
like to rearrange it differently on their online stores. Here is
the analysis of that file and the list of all the methods it uses.
One thing to keep in mind, this document shows you the
View.phtml block file and shows you it’s inherited methods.
All of the Magento block files have the similar inheritance
principle. Therefore to find out the available methods all you
need to do is open up the extended (inherited) classes.
If you are using some smart IDE solution like NetBeans 6.5
with PHP code completion support, you can simply do the
Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_View-> and press the Ctrl +
Space to get the dropdown list of all the available methods.
If that’s not the case, then you will how to do the things the
manual way.
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September 8th, 2009
After this is done we go to the code part. There are three things
you need to do here.
Upload the jQuery and save it into the /js/jquery/jquery.js.
One important note on jQuery; for some reason I had to use
jQuery 1.2.3 to get this example working. Latest version 1.2.6
(as of time of this writing) did not work. You can see the exact
error it gave me on my screencast.
Now you need to modify /template/page/html/head.phtml
file to include the jQuery script (or any other if you can code
the same logic into it) and write down few lines of JS to
do the switching (you can download my version of file here
head.phtml)
And finaly, you need to modify the /template/catalog/
product/view/media.phtml file to grab all of the product
images and dump them into some div. Here is my sample
(media.phtml) so just copy paste the code.
And some additional screenshots for you to see final result
After some additional styling you can get some impressive
results for this. Hope you find it useful.
You can see complete screencast at:
http://activecodeline.com/wp-content/uploads/videos/
MagentoProductColorChooser.swf
Magento’s Onepage Checkout in a
nutshell
For the last two days I’ve been working on a custom checkout
page for one of our clients. Basicaly a page can be shown
in Magento using simple Core_Template type. Basically all
code is set inside the .phtml file so it can be shown on every
possible page or block, meaning it’s object independent, no
inheritance. Something you can call from with your layout files
like
To complete my work, I had two mayor requirements. One
was to manage my way around programmable adding a simple
products to cart, plus their quantity and other was to do
checkout with items in cart. Checkout was to be made with
predefined payment method as well as shipping method. After
reviewing a lot of Magento’s code involved in checkout process
and process of adding products to cart and so on I’ve put
together what I see as the most short example one can use to
do a checkout with such predefined conditions.
If you have such special requirements for your site below is the
code that you can place on whatever file you wish and include
it yout tempalte as block type core/template.
Where ubmitCustomCheckout is the name of the submit
button or submit input field. To extract addresses you can use
something like
Magento official documentation
download
We were among a few of the studios to receive the early release
of the Magento documentation before it’s official release date.
We broke the embargo ’cause we just didn’t have the heart
to keep it to our selves, we all now how painful it is to work
without it.
15
September 8th, 2009
Designer's Guide to Magento PDF
download | Inchoo
After many developed CRE Loaded’s online stores and
watching Magento development progress for quite some time,
I decided it was time to use Magento with my next client. My
starting point for development was official Designer’s guide.
I’m the type of guy who likes to have documents nice&clean,
so I tried to print it but print was a mess. That’s when I decided
to create PDF of the official documentation for easy print. This
is probably the best starting tutorial for creating a fresh new
Magento template.
I plan to write a short related tutorials in the days of 1st
Magento development project, so I invite you to subscribe to
RSS if you wish to be posted.
Custom admin theme in Magento
As mentioned on Magento forums the easiest way to achieve
this is with overriding adminhtml config with your local
custom one and activate it as module.
This is just a small example of different approach with Admin
Theme config option in admin panel, to show you how things
can be done in different ways in Magento.
Follow directory structure, copy files to their place and you will
notice new “Admin Theme” option in System->Configuration>General->Design (Default Config scope). Your theme goes
in app/design/adminhtml/default/yourthemename folder. It
doesn’t need to be whole theme of course, just the files you’re
changing.
Disabling wishlist functionality
If like many of the Magento store owners you find that some of
the built-in features are not useful to you or to your customers
you can always disable them via the admin interface buy
disabling their respective modules.
Wishlist is not one of them.
To remove all of the traces of the wishlist functionality you
need to do the following:
1. Go to the Admin interface (select the appropriate scope)
and under System -> Configuration -> Customers -> Whishlist
select “No” under the “Enabled” in the General options.
This will remove all of the whishlist links in the magento blocks
as well as the whishlist itself.
Magento Installation with SVN or Wget
Unix command | Inchoo
Those of you who know what SVN is, feel free to skip this
article. Those of you who are not familiar with SVN, this is
a must-read. If you use standard FTP to upload all Magento
files, you may find this process very time consuming. Magento
1.1.8 has over 6.700 files in over 2.200 folders. FTPing can
sometimes take few hours on some servers. Let’s look at
alternatives.
Both alternatives require SSH access to the server. I’m aware
that some low quality webhosting providers do not provide
you with SSH info immediately. If you don’t have SSH info,
ask webhosting support. If they don’t give it to you, change
webhosting provider. Make it a rule, you’ll make your life
much easier.
Get yourself familiar with basic UNIX commands first.
Alternative 1: SVN
In the Downloads tab on Magento website, you will notice SVN
page link:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/svn
You can see how short this page is. You have 2 commands
you can run at SVN. You can chack latest work in progress or
you can checkout latest stable version. If you are starting to
develop a real project, you will probably want a stable version.
Let’s look at the original command:
svn checkout http://svn.magentocommerce.com/
source/branches/1.1
This is probably not the exact command you wish to run on
the server. It will place the files in trunk folder. I will assume
two things:
1. You will want the clean code
2. You will want to specify the folder where you wish
Magento to be installed
If those are correct assumptions, you will want to run a
command similar to this one:
svn
export
--force
http://
svn.magentocommerce.com/source/branches/1.1
shop
• svn – This is the command
2.
Just
to
make
things
perfect
you
should
check the (yourskinname)/template/catalog/product/view/
addto.phtml and remove the “pipe” character from that file so
that it doesn’t disturb the looks of your site
• export - The difference with checkout is that with an
export, you get a clean copy of the code, and none of
the subversion metadata, so it can’t be used to svn up or
make further changes.
3. Finally, since you do not need Whishlist anymore it is wise to
disable it’s respective module output thru the admin interface
(Go to: System -> Configuration ->Advanced->Advanced and
set disable “Mage_Whishlist” )
• –force – you will overwrite all of the folders and files if
they exist
That’s it. Your whish is Magento’s command.
• http://svn.magentocommerce.com/source/
branches/1.1 - this is SVN URL. Leave it
intact.
16
September 8th, 2009
• shop - the name of the folder you wish to place the files
into. You may set the folders name to your likings.
After you’re done with setting your new templates save the
configuration by clicking on the “Save config”.
Read more about SVN at Wikipedia SVN Page and Subversion
official site.
That’s it. Wise thing to do now would be to check how the
emails look when received so make a test purchase to verify
everything is the way it should be.
Alternative 2: Installing via wget
I will not be very descriptive here. This alternative is very well
explained on Magento website in Wiki section:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/groups/227/
installing_magento_via_shell_ssh
Both scenarios will only place files. You still need to run web
based installer afterward. But, that is another story.
Custom Transactional Emails
Bestseller products in Magento
Bestseller or best selling product is one of the features people
tend to ask for when it comes to Magento™.
There are multiple ways to implement this feature.
In this example, I’m not using controller or model directories
at all; I’m going to show you how to implement this feature
using only one file: the View.
Since transactional emails are very important for the process
of online shopping you need to have them set up just the you
want them and the default templates just don’t cut it. You
need your own logo, email data and custom verbiage to be
consistent with the image of your company.
Basically, what you need to do is to create the directory inside
your template directory and place the bestseller.phtml file in
it. In my example, I’m using the custom-created directory /
inchoo. All of the screenshots provided here are based on that
directory structure.
Here how it’s done :
Adding this feature to your store is a matter of two simple
steps:
1. Creating custom transactional e-mails via Admin
a) In the admin panel of your magento installation go to:
System->Transactional Emails
You’ll be presented with a list of default emails. You’ll need
to create a custom email so the only way to avoid writing our
custom templates from scratch is to use the existing code of
the template.
Hint: If you want to see the template before copying, first click
on the “Preview” button on the right.
b) To create the new template click on the “Add new template”
above the “Transactional Emails” list. This is the part where
Magento helps you with the option to load a deafult template
for you to customize. Nice feature indeed.
Once you have loaded the deafult template give it a unique
name under the “Template name” input field by adding a
prefix of your own but leaving the deafult name as well.
Example: ” mysite :: New account “.
• copy bestseller-phtml file to your directory
• display the block on home page
To add a block to a home page, you simply log into the
Magento, CMS > Manage Pages > Home. Then add the
following to the content area:
{{block
type=”core/template”
bestseller.phtml”}}
template=”inchoo/
Notice the type attribute. I used core/template which means
you can place this code anywhere in your site and it will work.
Code does not inherit any collection objects from controllers
since it has none. All that is necessary for the bestseller.phtml
to work is defined in that single file.
That way you can easily spot them in the long list of default
and custom emails.
Afterwards you can easily customize the verbiage and styling
within the “Template subject” and “Template content”.
The “Template content” is the body of the message that the
user will recieve upon transaction so be sure to change the Email, name of the company etc. You’ll need to upload the logo
of your company in the images folder of the skin you’re using.
Once you are done with editing, save the changes and repeat
the process for the rest of the email templates.
2. Assigning the templates to different stores and storeviews
Assigning is the easiest part. Just go to the System
> Configuration > Sales > Sales Emails and select the
corresponding template minding the configuration scope.
One more thing: If you study the code in bestseller.phtml file
you will see, at the very top of the file, the part that says: $this>show_total.
17
September 8th, 2009
If I were to write
{{block
type=”core/template”
template=”inchoo/bestseller.phtml”}}
show_total=”12″
in my home page, then $this would be assigned property
show_total with a value of 12.
• Support for Downloadable Products. (to see this new
product type in action visit the Magento Demo Store. We
added an example of an MP3 product and an eBook )
• Added Layered Navigation to site search result page,
with control on the attribute level to include or exclude
attributes used on the search results page.
• Improved site search to utilize MySQL fulltext search
• Added support for fixed-taxes on product level for such
taxes as “State Environmental Fee” in the USA and
“WEEE/DEEE” in the EU.
• Upgraded Zend Framework to the latest stable version
1.7.2
• Added a Layered Navigation Cache for improved
performance of large catalogs (currently in beta and is
NOT recommended for production use).
If you need to upgrade existing Magento version through the
Magento Connect Manager to 1.2.0.1, follow this steps:
Therefore, the provided bestseller.phtml file provides the
option of setting the number of products you wish to see listed.
Here is the bestseller.phtml packed in bestseller.zip.
Hope you find this useful.
• Do NOT use your live or production site. We suggest
making a copy of your site and upgrading that copy first.
• Backup your index.php and .htaccess files (if modified)
• Log into your Magento Connect Manager.
• Select the ‘Setting’ tab.
• Change the Preferred State to ‘Stable’, and save settings.
Magento 1.2. is out with downloadable
products | Inchoo
• For the Mage_All_Latest package select upgrade.
Just at the dawn of 2008, Varien launched a new version
of Magento: 1.2. Upgrading previous Magento versions was
sometimes not an easy task since Varien used to change
standard function names which caused themes to break. We
backup the site, made a copy, took a deep breath, expected the
worse, and… Nothing
The upgrade went smoothly. Wow,
that felt good.
• After upgrade is complete click on the ‘Refresh’ button.
We were joking at the company today.
Zeljko: You know what’s easy in Magento?
Branko: There is nothing easy in Magento!
Zeljko is an front end interface developer, while Branko is
a programmer. Although creating Magento theme is a clear
process if you follow designer’s guide, programming is much
more complex. Before this version, Magento upgrades used to
cause troubles. Hope this is over.
There is always a good practice NOT to update platform to
latest version immediately. Even in this case this proved to
be valid. Two days after version 1.2. came version 1.2.0.1. that
fixed some flaws. Keep this in mind when you wish to upgrade
to newest version of the platform immediately after it appears.
New version sorts some issues from Magento 1.1.x versions
and brings some highly requested features such as:
• Click on the ‘Commit Changes’ button. The upgrade
should start.
• Copy your original index.php and .htaccess files back (if
needed)
• Log into your admin and rebuild search index
• You should now have Magento 1.2.0 installed.
Happy Magentizing
Listing out products on sale in Magento |
Inchoo
One of my recent articles was on the subject of sorting “On
Sale” product in Magento. The following is a cleaner and more
advanced look at how—with few tricks and smart moves—you
can reuse existing Magento code and modify it to suit your
needs.
Product can be “on sale” in two ways:
1. when an item has a special price assigned to it on the
individual level, or
2. when a special promotion “covers” the item
It is important to remember that you don’t have to set up the
special price on each product to get it to be on sale; you can
18
September 8th, 2009
simply create a promotion rule and say something like “Set all
the products in Category X to be on sale.”
I provided few screenshots at the bottom of this article to
provide a closer look at what I’m talking about. I will not go
into too much details here since this is a bit more advanced
HOW TO, but here is the process in a nutshell:
First, create a copy of /catalog/product/list.phtml file
and name it onsale_list.phtml. Here is my version of
onsale_list.phtml file.
Second, “activate” this new file. There are few ways you can do
this. Let’s say you wish to assign this onsale_list.phtml on one
of our categories, named “On Sale,” for instance.
We then go to Categories > Manage Categories > On Sale…
select Custom design and under Custom layout update, place
the following:
product_list_toolbar
If you now go to your category On Sale, it should only show
products you have assigned to category “On sale” that have a
special price set to them.
If you now wish to apply Promotion rules to entire “On sale”
category, then you simply assign a rule to one item, and all
the items assigned to the same “On sale” category (covered by
promotion rules) will be automatically listed in the grid.
Basically, the magic is in one simple IF statement
< ?php if(($_product->special_price !== null) or ($_product>_rule_price !== null)): ?>
for each block that lists products.
Check out the screenshots, they explain a lot.
Hope you find a way to try this out. Feel free to provide some
feedback or additional suggestions.
Magento
After many weeks of work, our 1st Magento project hit
the Web: TeraFlex Suspensions. As the purpose of the site
19
September 8th, 2009
in not primarily selling, but also branding and community
development, we decided to use Wordpress and Magento
combination to accomplish the client’s goals.
I know that this is not some breakthrough article, but I will
certanly create contact CMS page on all of my future Magento
projects.
The Magento portion is visible at http://www.teraflex.biz/
products/. We created an original and custom theme from
scratch since we did not want it to look like the default one or to
have a feel similar to the default one. It was not an easy task as
the learning curve for Magento template system is quite steep
compared to other solutions. However, it is worth the time.
We added featured products to products page, the lightbox to
products info page, and numerous styles that made this store
quite unique.
Wordpress
All the menu elements outside Products tab are run by
Wordpress. We have stuff like:
Custom price filter in Magento
Quite a few people have asked me for a price filter functionality
that comes with Magento. Mostly, the questions are same:
How does one put the price filter anywhere on the page? How
does one set it’s on price ranges in that filter? What defines
default price ranges. Is it possible to set price filter for all my
products instead of just single category? Lot of questions. The
answer might be simpler then you might think.
There are two ways to approach this problem. Head trough
wall or stop and think approach.Default Magento price filter
works with algoritam which functions on the following logic
All of these elements turn Wordpress into a feature-rich CMS
suitable for larger projects.
1. Find the lowest and highest price in the range of filtered
products.
How do you like the new site? Feel free to post a comment.
2. Find what power of 10 these are in.
3. If there’s 2 or less ranges available we go one power
down.
Place Contact form in CMS Page in
Magento | Inchoo
As you know, Magento has a built-in contact form that can
be used for general contacts. That form isn’t part of any CMS
page, you cannot edit some introduction text, you cannot
add phone numbers administration, and you cannot see the
breadcrumbs. If you wish to edit text in that default contact
form, you will need to update front-end files. Luckily, there is
an alternative.
If you are a developer, editing your contact form HTML is an
easy task. You only need to open file:
app/design/frontend/default/[yourtheme]/template/
contacts/form.phtml and you will find your way around.
However, there are cases when you would like to give your
client an option to edit some intro text, edit his phone
numbers, edit text behind the form, etc. You are probably
guessing that it would be nice to be able to embed contact form
in some CMS page. No problem.
So one approach would to be to somehow override default
price filter logic by rewriting it and embedding some new logic
of yours. I call this one head trough wall. I’m not implying
that this is wrong approach, on the contrary this is the generic
solution. However it does require some more time to come up
with.
Second solution is by far more easier. It involves using simple
HTML (could use it in your static blocks).
If one wishes to use the price range filter to filter trough entire
product collection he can simply create a subcategory under
the Default root category and add all of the products to it. Then
we write some static html code with urls made to fire up the
price filter.
Let’s look at the default Magento sample data. It gies you the
following category layout
Root Catalog (6)
• Furniture (6)
• Living Room (4)
20
September 8th, 2009
• Bed Room (4)
Notice the url link above… It wont work if you put it like http://
somesite.domain/furniture/living-room/?price=1%2C199
It wont work like that because by default you do not have price
filter functionality covering second subcategory level. What
this means is that following link wont work
http://somesite.domain/furniture/living-room/?
price=1%2C199
Since the first subcategory level is Furniture, and second are
Living Room and Bed Room, by default the following url will
work with or withoutindex.php.
• url:
price=1%2C199
http://somesite.domain/furniture/?
• url:
http://somesite.domain/index.php/furniture/?
price=1%2C199
You could therefore create simple HTML like
<select onchange=”setLocation(this.value)”>
<option
value=”http://somesite.domain/all/?
price=1%2C10000″> <!– Here you place your own ranges –
>
0,00 € – 10 000,00 €
Most of this is quite selfexplanaory so, for those who need
this kind of functionality across some special pages, hope you
integrate it withouth any problems.
Magentique - Magento Showcase
Launched | Inchoo
We launched one internal project today: magentique.com. For
the last few months we were working almost exlusively on
Magento projects. As many of you, we were also wondering
what sites are developed with it. There are very little galleries
that give the list of Magento powered stores and that’s how
this idea was created. We present you Magentique and hope
you like it.
Curiosity about this project is that we used Magento to develop
it. You’ll not see a shopping cart or Add to Cart buttons, but
Magento was the tool we used. Take a look at the gallery,
comment the sites you like. Subscribe to RSS. Share it with
you friends. Also, we would welcome your submissions of new
stores you own, you created or just the ones you like.
</option>
<option
>
10 000,00 € – 20 000,00 €
</option>
<option
>
20 000,00 € – 30 000,00 €
</option>
</select>
And put it into some of the static block. Notice the links in
above HTML code. The /all part of the url is the url key of the
All category in which we added all of our products.
Last, but not least is understanding of the “price=…”
parametar.
1%2C10000 – where 1 stands for first range of 10000 (last
number)
or
2%2C10000 – where 2 stands for second ranfge of 10000,
(first would be 0-10000).
So if we were to write something like
3%2C10 it would be the price range from 20-30, where 3
stands for third range of tens (number 10). Firs is from 0-10,
second 10-20, third 20-30.
Hi,
I like your work with Magento, and i see that y’re not
affraid of experimenting. My question is relative to http://
www.raspberrykids.com. I like the layout, especially folder tab
with ‘Description’, ‘Tags’ etc. I didnt find such a feature in
Magento. Can you explain it on Inchoo web (in some article),
of course, only when it isnt company secret ) Thankx. Have
a nice day.
Online stores on magentique.com are not only our works.
Magentique is the gallery that lists all Magento sites and not
only our portfolio.
Regarding blog topics, we try to write about the things we work
on. However, we can not cover all Magento possibilities. Hope
you agree.
21
September 8th, 2009
Can an online store have only one product? Sure it can and
we give you the one that just launched. Kapitol Reef was
founded to develop, perfect, manufacture and market a new
breed of snorkels based upon pressure-balanced breathing in
the aquatic environment. The entire focus for this company
is to deliver best-of-class products, starting with the snorkel.
Kapitol Reef is in the market for many years and this week
they published a new site. Similar to our work on Teraflex
project, we used Wordpress and Magento platforms for the
development.
The request was to have an extensive online store solution
with multiple customers groups. Those groups should have
different product prices and different payment options.
Magento seemed like a great solution for such a request,
although the initial concern was if it might be an overkill
considering the fact we only have one product to start with?
When the development started to roll out, the concern was no
more. This will work superbly. We give you the new Magento
store that uses a combination of Wordpress and Magento.
Magento portion of the site is visible from the Online Store tab.
<label for="lastname">< ?php echo $this->__('Last name') ?>
<input id="lastname" name="lastname" class="<em/><strong>inp
<label for="useremail">< ?php echo $this->__('Email') ?> <sp
<input type="text" name="useremail" id="useremail" class="<e
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="<?php echo $this-/
</form>< ?php /* END OF my-custom-form */?>
<script type="text/javascript">
//< ![CDATA[
var customForm = new VarienForm('<em><strong>my-custom-form<
//]]>
</script>
You will notice all of the input fields have one common
class name, required-entry. I’m not gonna go over all of the
available class names here. To find available class names, try
going to One page checkout page, where you have checkout
form, then simply view source and look for class names next
to input, radio select and other fields.
Most important thing besides assigning class names is that
little piece of JavaScript below the form. Remember to pass
form id into the new VarienForm object.
Basically thats it. Constructing the form this way, automaticaly
makes your form reuse already existing validation code, the
one that the rest of the shop is using.
CSRF Attack Prevention
If you login to your Magento admin today, you are welcomed
with message box that says:
CSRF Attack Prevention Read details !
Yesterday Magento team acknowledged CSRF vulnerability
and provided solution in a form of tutorial to change admin
path (frontName) of your Magento shop.
You may also notice a styled color switcher feature we
developed for this project. As this product comes in various
colors, we decided to spice up the product info page and style
the color choosing to replace the default select box.
I find this approach strange and funny at the same time. Is
hiding vulnerability new way of fixing it?
Especially since
some users of French Magento forums found similar problem
in downloader (Magento connect manager). I can confirm this
couse i tested it myself. The most funny part was that Magento
cached my get request so i couldn’t get rid of my test alert box
Form Validation in Magento | Inchoo
One of the coolest things in Magento is a form validation, and
the way how it’s done. Magento uses Prototype library (which,
personlay, I’m not a big fan of) to manage form validation. All
you need to do when writing custom form is to assign a valid
class names to your input fields. Here is an example of how
your custom form might look in order to get use of automatic
form validation.
Few fast tips for Magento admins:
1. Follow official Magento news, forums, updates.
2. Don’t click suspicious links. These kind of attacks are
usually done through malformed links that admin clicks
through mail, comment, or any other source.
3. Clear “saved passwords” from browsers. Since most
web browsers offer to remember passwords, and then
autocomplete them, these kind of attack could easily stole your
password.
<form name="<em><strong>my-custom-form</strong>" id="my-custom-form" action="" method="post">
<label for="firstname">< ?php echo $this->__('First name') ?> <span class="required">*</span></label><br />
<input id="firstname" name="firstname" class="<em/><strong>input-text required-entry</strong>" />
22
September 8th, 2009
Magento Connect
One of the first things that really confused me when i
start using Magento is Magento connect. I just started
learning things, so i was looking for some plugin examples. I
visited Magento connect page with extensions and looked for
download button, instead i found “Get extension key” one.
If i recall correctly their What is this? explanation wasn’t the
same back then .. or i was just so terrified of Magento at start
that i didn’t understand anything at that point
I knew i
need to paste that key somewhere, in something they called
my Magento connect manager or Magento downloader, but i
didn’t understand where it is.
Visit Magento connect page. There are really some great
extensions there and many of them are free.
Find extension that interest you, click “Get extension key”,
agree with license agreement and get key. Pay attention to
Stability description field (stable, alpha, beta).
This really depends on your server configuration, however
it’s always good to restore permissions to defaults if they are
changed to 777, just to be sure.
Magento™ and Google™ Website
Optimizer
I attended a webinar yesterday called “Maximizing Magento
Webinar: Optimizing Conversions with Website Testing.” It
was a nice and informative hour-long webinar with Google and
Magento team speakers that provided us some really useful
information.
First of all, you should know what Google Website Optimizer
is. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to test various page
concepts directly on your visitors and see which of your ideas
works best in practice.
The idea behind Google Website Optimizer is “You should
test that.” If you have an idea you don’t know will work—or
whether it will increase you conversions—Google has created
this tool to help you test it.
Google Website Optimizer is easily integrated in Magento.
You can test various changes on your product pages and see
which ones work best for your visitors. Only product page
integration between Magento and Google Website Optimizer
is made for now, however according to Roy Rubin, we can
expect integration with our shopping cart and checkout pages
soon.
What Google Website Optimizer does is serve different
variations of your site to the visitors so that you can test which
one converts best. You can set up easily “A-B compare” where
you serve half of your visitors one page variation and half
of your visitors another. Then all you have to do is compare
results or set up multiple page variations. The Optimizer gives
you nice, clean reports where you can see how are your page
variations performing. To learn more about conversion rates,
read how to improve your web shop conversion rates.
TIPS:
• Run the tests for at least a week or a sample of 10,000
visitors or more. You can’t know if the page variation is
actually good if your test sample was too small.
If you click Settings tab of your connect manager you will see
“Preferred State” option there. If you’re installing extension
with different “stability” or you get something similar to
you should change this option to appropriate one. You should
of course be careful with alphas and betas and know what
you’re doing.
If you are developer or just interested, ftp to downloader/
pearlib/download after you install extension and you’ll find
packed downloaded extensions there.
After you use the downloader do you need to change the folder
permissions back for security reasons or is it OK just to leave
them at 777?
• Do the big changes first, then fine-tune later. This
one comes from the Google and their experience with
Website Optimizer. You should first try to make big
differences and see in which direction has the response
you want, then refine the pages for optimal conversions.
If you can’t see the change in first five seconds of viewing
the page variation, the change is too small.
• Beware of HiPPO! This one also comes from Google.
HiPPO stands for Highest Paycheck Person’s Opinion.
When you have powerful tool such as Google Website
Optimizer, you can actually test all the ideas and see
which one makes you the most money. HiPPO will often
want to serve his visitors his idea—despite the fact that he
could earn more by serving them some other variation.
23
September 8th, 2009
wonder where did I pool the number “11″ from?
If you open your database (with any tool), and go
to sales_order table, you will notice entity_type_id
column. Each and every entry in sales_order table
has the same value for entity_type_id column. In my
Magento installation, this value is “11″. Keep in mind
that this does not have to mean yours will also be the
same.
Extending Order object and hooking on
event in Magento
One of my previous articles was a Magento Event Hooks.
This one will be a practical example on using the event
hooks. Although the more proper way would be to call them
Observers, bare with me. I’m use to this “hooks”.
Here’s the walk-trough on how to add a new property
(attribute) to an object (Mage_Sales_Model_Order object in
our case).
To add an attribute to object, we need (the dirty way) 2 little
steps
• Go to app/code/core/Mage folder. If you drill down
into most of the folders and go to /Model subfolder
there you will see /Entity subfolder under /Model for
most of the stuff (modules) under /Mage. For our
example we go to app/code/core/Mage/Sales/Model/
Entity/Setup.php file. This Setup.php file holds Objects
fields definitions in database. We need to add new fields
to public function getDefaultEntities(). Once again, this
is the “quick” and “dirty” way of adding new attributes.
The “propper” way would be to create the sql file and
update config file to read the new sql file and… Whatever,
I haven’t got the whole day
Here is the code in my
example, that I added to the array in public function
getDefaultEntities().
'inchoo_custom_info' => array(
'type'
'backend'
'frontend'
'label'
'input'
'class'
'source'
'global'
'visible'
'required'
'user_defined'
'default'
'searchable'
'filterable'
'comparable'
'visible_on_front'
'visible_in_advanced_search'
'unique'
),
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
To confirm everything went ok, just Search the database
for the “inchoo_custom_info” (or whatever you used for
attribute name).
Ok, now that we added new attribute (property) to Order
object, we will go on to Observer part. We will create a
hook that will watch for successfull checkout process and
trigger appropriate code execution. In my example I needed
to add some extra info to order upon it’s successfull creation.
Meaning as soon as checkout process is successfully executed,
order is stored in database with some extra info I saved in its
previously created field “inchoo_custom_info”.
Here is my Observer file, I called it Observer.php and
it’s saved under app/code/local/Inchoo/HookSystem/Model/
Observer.php.
< ?php
class Inchoo_HookSystem_Model_Observer
{
/**
* Event Hook: checkout_type_onepage_save_order
* @param $observer Varien_Event_Observer
*/
public function hookToOrderSaveEvent()
'text',
{
'',
/**
'',
* NOTE:
'Extra info',
* Order has already been saved, now we simply add some stuff
'textarea',
* that will be saved to database. We add the stuff to Order
'',
* called "inchoo_custom_info"
'',
*/
Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Eav_Attribute::SCOPE_STORE,
$order = new Mage_Sales_Model_Order();
true,
$incrementId = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session')->getLa
false,
false,
$order->loadByIncrementId($incrementId);
'',
false,
$extraInfo = array(
false,
'shirt_color' => 'Freakin cool blue color',
false,
'developer_is_freak'
=> true,
true,
'coded_by'
=>
'Branko
Ajzele, Web Application Develop
false,
);
false,
$extraInfo = serialize($extraInfo);
Basically you can copy-paste some existing attribute that
suites you the most and just change the array key name.
• Run this code only once (you can place it inside any file,
like index.php or view.phtml or any other that you will
execute) then uncomment or remove this code.
$order->setData('inchoo_custom_info', $extraInfo);
$order->save();
}
}
$setup = new Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup('core_setup');
Since
$AttrCode = 'inchoo_custom_info';
files.
this is a module, we also need to add some config
Here is the content of my app/code/local/Inchoo/
HookSystem/etc/config.xml
$settings = array('position' => 1, 'is_required' => 0);
$setup->addAttribute('11', $AttrCode, $settings);
< ?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
NOTE: In code above, note the line $setup>addAttribute(’11′, $AttrCode, $settings). You probabily
24
September 8th, 2009
<global>
<models>
<hooksystem>
<class>Inchoo_HookSystem_Model</class>
</hooksystem>
</models>
</global>
avoid editing the default one). You can download Admintheme
module here.
Important: Our colour highlighting plugin on this site seems to
lower-case some tag names on xml code, so keep that in mind
if you experience some trouble with sample code.
Huh, we are done! Final result is shown on image.
<frontend>
<events>
<checkout_onepage_controller_success_action>
<observers>
<hooksystem_order_success>
<type>singleton</type>
<class>hooksystem/observer</class>
<method>hookToOrderSaveEvent</method>
</hooksystem_order_success>
</observers>
</checkout_onepage_controller_success_action>
</events>
</frontend>
</config>
And one more config file to add to app/etc/modules/
Inchoo_HookSystem.xml.
<config>
<modules>
<inchoo_hooksystem>
<active>true</active>
<codepool>local</codepool>
</inchoo_hooksystem>
</modules>
</config>
And for the final step, open the app/design/adminhtml/
default/mytheme/template/sales/order/view/tab/
info.phtml file and add the following to it:
Cheers…
Happy 1st birthday Magento
Magento celebrates his 1st birthday today and we wish to
congratulate them for the first successful year. In this year
Magento evolved to fully usable online store application
and reached version 1.1. Over 425,000 downloads makes
it the fastest growing ecommerce platform on the market.
Community presented over 165 extensions via Magento
Connect, but the real number of add ons is much greater.
Inchoo and Surgeworks will keep you posted for about further
development.
Unprintable Content (Video, Flash, etc.)
Internal Server Error
Many of us who started experimenting with this interface and
tried to place various values for Base URL, came to a dead end
where Magento breaks. Usually, we get Internal Server Error
500 with each page load. The problem lies in the fact that we
can no longer open the Magento administration to correct the
error. What needs to be done in such a scenario?
< ?php /** START CUSTOM Coded by Branko Ajzele | [email protected]
*/ ?>
One of our clients wrote me
a message today:
< ?php
I have put www.mydomain.com in a bad spot.
/**
I changed the base URL to {{base_URL}} and
* NOTE:
* 'inchoo_custom_info' assumes you have added new attribute/property
to Sale/Order
now im getting
a 500 entity
server error on both
* Please use serialize and unserialize with 'inchoo_custom_info'
the front end and the admin panel. I have
*/
looked through the database and cannot find
$extraInfo = $_order->getData('inchoo_custom_info');
the right field to change this value back. Can
?>
you point me in the right direction?
< ?php if($extraInfo != null or !empty($extraInfo)): ?>
< ?php $extraInfo = unserialize($extraInfo) ?>
The client went to System> Configuration> Web> Unsecure
<div class="entry-edit">
and placed an invalid value for Base URL field. Beware of this
<div class="entry-edit-head">
<h4 class="icon-head head-products">Extra order info</h4>field. Unfortunately, Magento just updates it without any pre</div>
warnings, but change of this specific value can cause Magento
</div>
to crash.
<div style="height: 30px; padding: 10px; border: #ccc 1px solid; margin-bottom: 20px;">
<pre>
Usually, we get an error that looks like this:
< ?php print_r($extraInfo) ?>
The server encountered an internal error or
</pre>
</div>
misconfiguration and was unable to complete
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
your request.
<div class="clear"></div>
< ?php endif; ?>
Please contact the server administrator,
< ?php /** END CUSTOM Coded by Branko Ajzele | [email protected]
*/ ?>
[email protected]
and inform them of
Feel free to remove all my comments. One thing to keep in
mind here, the url path has the “mytheme” pointing to my
custom theme. Usefull if you do not wish to edit default admin
tempate files. Cooworker and friend of mine, Ivan Weiller,
wrote a nice little plugin for switching the admin themes (to
the time the error occurred, and anything you
might have done that may have caused the
error.
More information about this error may be
available in the server error log.
25
September 8th, 2009
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error
was encountered while trying to use an
ErrorDocument to handle the request.
The client was on right path to find a solution. We need
to open MySQL (usually via php MyAdmin) and find
core_config_data table. Once there, manually update 2 rows:
1. config_id:3
web/unsecure/base_url
www.mydomain.com/
2. config_id:4
web/secure/base_url
www.mydomain.com/
=>
=>
http://
https://
Everything should work now. Hope this will help someone.
How to fully disable (turn off) Magento
module
Although the title might sound silly and so easy, there are lot
of people having difficulties with this. At first turning Magento
module can be easy as going trough System Configuration
> Current Configuration Scope > Advanced > Advanced >
Disable Module Output. However, be very careful, this action
only disables module output as it says. If your module uses,
let’s say some Observer functionality to hook into some part of
the system and does some overriding then those actions won’t
be disabled.
do you have a solution to fully disable a Module just for
a specific Website, Store or View? It’s a Problem I’ve been
having for a while. An just disabling the output doesn’t do the
trick.
Magento site owners: Get serious, focus
on what matters the most
For the last year or so I have been actively involved in
online store development based on Magento ECOMMERCE
platform. Everyone involved in Magento development can tell
you that Magento extensively uses OOP approach. Although
not everyone will agree, I like the way platform has been
architectured in the backend. Layouts and config files enable
you great deal of power without even writing a line of PHP
code. Its not perfect, but what is. I believe most of you heard
the “cliche”: “With great power comes great responsibility”.
Let’s discuss this in regards to Magento.
There is a plain and simple message I wish to shout to current
and future owners of Magento powered online stores: “Get
serious, focus on what matters the most!“.
Now what exactly did I have (and still have) in mind with
statement like this? Unlike WordPress and Drupal (no offense,
I use them, I respect them) not everyone can develop quality
modules (extensions) for Magento. Platform itself requires
developer a decent amount of knowledge from PHP OOP
and other fancy object related concepts. As mentioned in
one of my previous articles, Observers and “overrides” are
among my favorite concepts (approaches) in Magento module
development.
One of the projects I was assigned few weeks ago had a great
amount of products, total of 46 268 to be more precise. Most
of these are simple products with “Visibility”:”Nowhere” and
are used strictly as Associated products in some Configurable
products. Configurable products are for the most part shown
to the user on frontend. All in all, there is a handful of
Configurable products in the system, each holding couple of
thousands Associated product.
There are two issues here. First and most annoying issue I
came across in this “WTF” configuration is the performance.
Complete collapse of any reasonable execution time. Loading
a page that holds this kind of Configurable product takes
from 3-9 minutes, both on frontend and backend. I’m talking
about 3-9 minutes on local machine with maximum resource
settings for PHP and MySQL. Second issue here is obvious
misunderstanding of Magento product types and how to use
them.
I have already done Magento project with the approximately
same total number of products in system. Number of products
itself does not impose that much noticeable performance
drop if the products are used the “smart way”. By “smart
way” I think in terms where you have wast amount
independent Simple products. Magento can handle that quite
well. However, having large amount of relations like those
Configurable Products > Associated Products can kill your
store to “usability equals zero”.
Here is where I draw the line on developers part. If you
are lucky enough to get working on a new Magento related
project from scratch you are obliged to recognize these kind of
issues and react on time. Change the approach to the way how
products need to be presented in the system and so on. It is
unacceptable to create thousands of Associated products just
to make them affect the final price of Configurable product.
If you need to come up with solution like this, try developing
a custom module to work around the issue not go with it.
Performance drop is guarantied in cases like above. So if the
client comes with the idea like “I have a lot of products that
kind of fall into the category of Configurable products that can
use this and that as Associated product to stay dynamic in that
and that selection…” you need to stop, think twice how this
will affect store as whole and then propose the solution. No
need to blindly go with clients (owners) suggestions. His prime
wish is to get his store working and selling with least amount
of budget as possible.
Now lets look at the owners (clients). I’ve noticed a lot of
owners have “special” request for Magento store. Lot of them
have products that kind of fit under the category of Grouped,
Bundled and Configurable products. This is great actually,
since all of these come out of the box in Magento. What’s
not so great is that their wishes can sometimes be quite
“unreasonable”. Lets look at the “color switcher” functionality
lot of people ask to be implemented. This kind of functionality
is mostly done by JavaScript where one hides select box that
Magento would normally show under product options, and so
on.
26
September 8th, 2009
We realize there are already dozens of sites related to snippets
and code sharing, but none for Magento development. Site is
built on Drupal CMS. There are still lot of “styling” left to do at
the present time, but the site is usable. Branko hopes that you
will not find the site too ugly since he designed it We all love
the simplicity of it that makes the code snippets highly usable.
What makes these code snippets special is that little drop
down field next to each snippet entry where you mark down
the version of Magento for which snippet has been tested for.
The search functionality is planned soon.
Sure it looks great, its looks cool but the real question is “How
much will it improve your selling?”. I realize the usability can
be as much as important as functionality. By now, there are
even some color switcher modules you can buy. However,
most of magento modules require additional work to be
properly implemented in order to fit the owners wishes. Due
to the complexity of Magento platform, sometimes even the
smaller changes require lot of time and effort on developer
part. This would all be great and shinny if everything would
work after the upgrading Magento store when the new version
appears. All this leaves entire development process focused on
the “little things”. I say, why not style the theme to the end
with the default Magento page setup. Why change the output
of product view page? Why not leave it default, just fully style it
to match your design. This kinf of approach would be far more
safer in terms of upgrades and in terms of bringing the project
to the end in as much as possible short timing.
Hopefully this project will become handy in those situations
where you find yourself with broken Magento code for some
reason. The next step for you is to register and share a
feedback. Help the community by adding your own examples
of code.
Here is one Snippi example:
What I’m trying to say, Magento comes extremely feature
rich out of the box. Development time is not free, and to my
opinion it should be focused on either building fresh, new
features for the store or at other parts of the system like
Promotions, Catalog price rules, Shopping cart price rules,
Customer groups. The latter one seem to be relatively ignored
in the big picture.
Adding features like “color switcher” could be left for latter
phase of development, the one after the site goes live. The one
you are sure your store is working the way it should, its stable,
nicely styled, optimized for best performance, and quite well
structured so its relatively bullet prof on updates. Then you
can start adding modules, fancy usability tweaks and so on.
Hello everybody. We are very happy to announce that Snippi
hit the net. This is a personal project of Branko Ajzele, one of
our developers, that went live few days ago. He was developing
it for some time now and I hope it will be usable for all of you
Magento developers who are trying to find a solution for your
specific needs. Snippi is a Magento related website for sharing
Magento code snippets. You can see it live on http://snippi.net
Finding a solution for specific need can be a nightmare in
Magento since you are faced with the process of heavy digging
through Magento forum and Magento related blogs. Very soon
you will notice that many people had the same issue as you do,
but no concrete answer. You’ll probably find chunks of code
that can help, but you’ll have to put it all together. Snippi’s goal
is to help you in this process.
Advanced Search sidebar box
I was playing a bit with that advanced search form in Magento,
so i thought it would be nice touch to add it to left or right
column of the store.
Since that multiple selects were causing problems and i also
had to get rid of breadcrumb, i created block which extends
Mage_CatalogSearch_Block_Advanced_Form functionality,
added a little javascript and packed it all to small example
module:
Unpack the rar, copy files at its appropriate place following
directory structure, disable/enable cache to rebuild configs,
layouts, blocks, and you’re on.
27
September 8th, 2009
google charts so it’s trying to connect to that, but everything
else will work fine.
Display Promotion
There are two unused product list blocks in Magento which
can be very useful if you push a few buttons, edit few layouts ..
1. Promotion
Block located in app\code\core\Mage\Catalog\Block
\Product\List\Promotion.php
This is basically built in featured product functionality. It
reacts to “promotion” attribute which needs to be created, so
let’s click
Catalog->Attributes->Manage
Attributes->Create
New
Attribute
CoffeeFreak – Blank Magento extension
for building main admin menu with
sidebar and tabs
Attribute Code: promotion
Scope: Global
Catalog Input Type for Store Owner: Yes/No
My previous article, CoolDash – Blank Magento extension for
building admin system configuration area, was about blank
start-up extension for building System > Configuration admin
area. I used a lot of “funny” attribute names so that “get
around” gets some speed. This extension is somewhat similar
to previous one, except its meant to be a blank start-up
extension for building items under main admin menu with
sidebar and tabs.
Keep in mind that, once again, extension name is something I
popped out of my head while I was making myself a coffee:).
Below are two screenshots for you to see final result.
In short, this extension demonstrates the use of controllers
(router definition under config file) and widgets in Magento.
Download Inchoo_CoffeeFreak extension for Magento.
Hope you find it useful.
Offline Magento problems
I was working recently on a local server without internet
connection (nothing can stop us !!
) and i noticed that
Magento administration is extremely slow. Some parts of
administration took up to 10 seconds to load.
On every page view in admin Magento was trying to resolve
widgets.magentocommerce.com address and connect to it few
times which caused time delay. His notification system was
trying to grab new message.
Label: Promotion (second tab)
Other params can be left alone, but it’s up to you of course. I
also labeled it Promotion just for this article.
Now we need to add created attribute to attribute set, so
navigate to
Catalog->Attributes->Manage Attribute Sets
select attribute set you’re using and drag promotion to General
group for example.
The solution was to disable Mage_AdminNotification module
and since i was offline i didn’t really need it. You can do it in
System -> Advanced -> Disable modules output
Some other admin parts which are using online resources will
still be slower, like Dashboard for example because it is using
28
September 8th, 2009
<block
type="catalog/product_list_random"
name="product_random"
template="catalog/product/
list.phtml"/>
since it also extends product_list block, however, since it is
random product listing, that toolbar has no purpose here, so
create phtml that will suit your shop needs, based on catalog/
product/list.phtml. For example, i’m using similar Random
block to display random products in sidebar.
So long, take care, i’m off …
CoolDash – Blank Magento extension for
building admin system configuration
area
Now when you’re editing your products, there is new
“Promotion” option under General tab.
In order to speed things up with building admin sections
under System > Configuration area in Magento I wrote a
little blank extension. Hopefully its a step or two beyond
“Hello world” level. I named the extension “CoolDash”,
short from CoolDashboard. Name holds no special meaning,
just something I popped out of my head. First thing you
might notice when you open config.xmls and system.xml
is the attribute naming. I intentionally used names like
“somecooldashmodel2″. I found it extremely difficult, error
prone and annoying to get around in scenarios where different
areas of config files use same names for attributes with
different meaning, like “customer”, “catalog” and so on.
Hopefully my “funny” naming scheme in config files will give
you a better overview on where everything goes. Below are few
screenshots to see the result.
How to override Magento model classes?
Products on which you select Yes will be shown on promotion
block which can be displayed through layouts with
<block
type="catalog/product_list_promotion"
name="product_promotion"
template="catalog/product/
list.phtml"/>
or as cms content with
{{block
type='catalog/product_list_promotion'
template='catalog/product/list.phtml'}}
This attribute should really be included in default attribute set
or in Magento sample data.
2. Random
Block located in app\code\core\Mage\Catalog\Block
\Product\List\Random.php
This block loads random product collection from current
store.
Many times we need to implement new functionality of
existing Magento core classes, but we don’t want to modify
core classes.
For controllers, that’s quite easy. Usually we can copy
controller from core and put it in the same place in local
directory, modify class and that’s it.
Of course, there are better ways to do that (make module),
but I’m not going to write about that right now since it is not
subject of this post.
I only mentioned that because we can’t do same thing for
models even if we want to, so how to override Magento models
without modifying core files?
Fortunately, that’s very easy =)
Let’s make one extension of that kind!
Extension we are going to make will be useless, only difference
between this extension and original class will be class name
var_dump =)
What we are going to do now is to take a random model class
from Magento core.
Let it be Mage_Wishlist_Model_Item located in app/code/
core/Mage/Wishlist/Model/Item.php
The fastest way to display it would also be something like
29
September 8th, 2009
What we want to do is to add new functionality to that class,
so let’s make new module.
• It’s free. – This one is a no-brainer, you don’t need to
invest any money in it.
Call it Inchoo_Wishlist.
• It’s fast. – You don’t need to wait for it to be finished, you
just download it and use it.
Create app/code/local/Inchoo/Wishlist/model/ directory
and copy app/code/core/Mage/Wishlist/Model/Item.php
there.
Now, rename class Mage_Wishlist_Model_Item
Inchoo_Wishlist_Model_Item.
to
Add this line:
var_dump(get_class($this)); exit();
in loadByProductWishlist method
Now, let’s create Inchoo_Wishlist.xml in app/etc/modules/
Put this code there:
<config>
<modules>
<inchoo_wishlist>
<active>true</active>
<codepool>local</codepool>
</inchoo_wishlist>
</modules>
</config>
Now, make app/code/local/Inchoo/Wishlist/etc/Config.xml
file and put this code there:
<config>
<modules>
<inchoo_wishlist>
<version>0.1</version>
</inchoo_wishlist>
</modules>
<global>
<models>
<wishlist>
<rewrite>
<item>Inchoo_Wishlist_Model_Item</item>
</rewrite>
</wishlist>
</models>
</global>
</config>
You are done! Try to add something to wishlist! =)
Play with other models as well!
Cheers ^_^
Free Magento Themes vs Custom
Magento Design
This blog post describes pros and cons of having a free
Magento theme versus having a custom Magento design from
a marketing perspective.
Free Magento Themes:
There are some pretty obvious advantages of using a free
Magento theme:
• It works. – Most of the free Magento themes work just
fine with Magento out of the box.
However, truth be told, I believe the cons of having a free
Magento theme give you enough reason to go for custom
design:
• It’s unprofessional. – A visitor (your potential buyer)
might realize you’re using a free theme. This will make
him wonder, can he really trust your website? Is it a real
company standing behind this online store? Can I really
give my credit card to these guys? They probably aren’t a
serious company if they don’t have money for the design
that fits their company’s identity.
• There might be no support. – If something goes wrong,
there might be no one to help you. Magento can change
a lot at upgrade and some themes might start showing
errors.
• There might be no support for new features. –
Magento is constantly developing ecommerce platform
and new features will always be presented. Some of
the free templates might not keep up with Magento’s
development and you’ll end up without the ability to use
some of the cool new features that rolled out, wile your
competitors with custom design will have this advantage.
• The free theme probably isn’t really optimized for best
conversion rate. – Some free themes are done with
conversion rates in mind, however, the conversion rate
optimization usually depends on your niche and targeted
audience. A design and layout that works for a certain
company might not be so good in converting visitors into
sales in your niche.
Custom designed Magento themes:
I will not list disadvantages of custom designed Magento
themes since their disadvantages are already listed as
advantages of free themes. Here are some really important
pros for getting yourself a custom designed Magento theme:
• Unique design that fits your company’s identity. –
This is extremely important if you’re into any serious
business. Building a strong corporate identity is crucial
for establishing a recognized brand. Your online store
will not only make you profit with the sales you make, but
it will also help build a brand image with your targeted
audience.
• Someone you can count on. – If you choose a reliable
company to create a Magento theme for your store, you
know they will be there once the Magento upgrade comes
to fix any potential problems. They will be there to help
you change things around once the change is required
and they will be there to consult you and share their
experience and best practices.
30
September 8th, 2009
• Unique features. – Your online store is specific, you are
a member of some niche. Most niches will require some
additional functions that Magento doesn’t support by
default to make the best out of your online store. If you
choose to work with experienced development company,
they will be able to provide you with development
solutions for your problems. This is something you can’t
get with free or premium Magento themes.
$shippingPrice = '0.00';
}
$method->setPrice($shippingPrice);
$method->setCost($shippingPrice);
$result->append($method);
}
return $result;
}
Creating Custom Shipping Method in
Magento - The Tutorial | Inchoo
In this article I will demonstrate how to write custom shipping
method in Magento commerce.
First we need to write our shipping method, it’s a class in folder
app/code/core/Mage/Shipping/Model/Carrier/.
I called it Inchoocustom.php and it’s based on Flat rate
shipping method but you can developed your own class.
< ?php
class Mage_Shipping_Model_Carrier_Inchoocustom
extends Mage_Shipping_Model_Carrier_Abstract
implements Mage_Shipping_Model_Carrier_Interface
{
protected $_code = 'inchoocustom';
public function getAllowedMethods()
{
return array('inchoocustom'=>$this->getConfigData('n
}
}
Pay attention on following lines:
$method->setCarrier('inchoocustom');
$method->setCarrierTitle($this->getConfigData('title'));
$method->setMethod('inchoocustom');
$method->setMethodTitle($this->getConfigData('name'));
They determine how we will set up our method. Keyword is
‘inchoocustom’.
In folder app/code/core/Mage/Shipping/etc/ we need to edit
system.xml and config.xml in order to enable our new
shipping method.
system.xml:
public function collectRates(Mage_Shipping_Model_Rate_Request $request)
<inchoocustom translate="label">
{
<label>Inchoo Custom Shipping Method</la
if (!$this->getConfigFlag('active')) {
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
return false;
<sort_order>2</sort_order>
}
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
$freeBoxes = 0;
<show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
if ($request->getAllItems()) {
<fields>
foreach ($request->getAllItems() as $item) {
<active translate="label">
if ($item->getFreeShipping() && !$item->getProduct()->isVirtual()) { <label>Enabled</label>
$freeBoxes+=$item->getQty();
<frontend_type>select</frontend_
}
<source_model>adminhtml/system_c
}
}
<show_in_default>1</show_in_defa
$this->setFreeBoxes($freeBoxes);
<show_in_website>1</show_in_webs
$result = Mage::getModel('shipping/rate_result');
</active>
if ($this->getConfigData('type') == 'O') { // per order
<name translate="label">
$shippingPrice = $this->getConfigData('price');
<label>Method name</label>
} elseif ($this->getConfigData('type') == 'I') { // per item
<frontend_type>text</frontend_ty
$shippingPrice = ($request->getPackageQty() * $this->getConfigData('price'))
- ($this->getFreeBoxes() * $
} else {
$shippingPrice = false;
}
</name>
<price translate="label">
<label>Price</label>
if ($shippingPrice !== false) {
<frontend_type>text</frontend_ty
$method = Mage::getModel('shipping/rate_result_method');
$method->setCarrier('inchoocustom');
$method->setCarrierTitle($this->getConfigData('title'));
</price>
$method->setMethod('inchoocustom');
<handling_type translate="label">
$method->setMethodTitle($this->getConfigData('name'));
<label>Calculate Handling Fee</l
<frontend_type>select</frontend_
if ($request->getFreeShipping() === true || $request->getPackageQty() == $this->getFreeBoxes())
{
<source_model>shipping/source_ha
$shippingPrice = $this->getFinalPriceWithHandlingFee($shippingPrice);
31
September 8th, 2009
</specificerrmsg>
</fields>
</inchoocustom>
</handling_type>
config.xml:
<handling_fee translate="label">
<inchoocustom>
<label>Handling Fee</label>
<active>0</active>
<sallowspecific>0</sallowspecific>
<model>shipping/carrier_inchoocustom</model>
<name>Inchoo Custom Shipping Method</name>
<price>5.00</price>
<title>Inchoo Custom Shipping Method</title>
</handling_fee>
<type>I</type>
<sort_order translate="label">
<specificerrmsg>This shipping method is curr
<label>Sort order</label>
<handling_type>F</handling_type>
</inchoocustom>
</sort_order><sort_order>100</sort_order>
Now we need to enable our new shipping method in admin
panel (System->Configuration->Shipping Methods)
And we have our custom shipping method.
<title translate="label">
<label>Title</label>
Enjoy coding.
</title>
<type translate="label">
<label>Type</label>
<frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
Latest version of Magento, as of time of this writing, is 1.3.2.3.
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_shipping_flatrate</source_model>
Latest, as well as previous versions come with “half-packed”
support for TinyMCE editor. There are however few bugs and
few steps that need to be handled in order to enable wysiwyg
editing in CMS pages. Personally I am not that big of a fan
</type>
of wysiwyg editors, mostly because I am developer and like to
<sallowspecific translate="label">
<label>Ship to applicable countries</label>
know what I write down.
However, most of the store owners are not developers or even
not that much technically savvy people (not that this is a
<frontend_class>shipping-applicable-country</frontend_class>
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_shipping_allspecificcountries</source_model>
bad thing) and they could use wysiwyg editors when adding,
modifying content.
Here I will walk you trough few simple steps that will make
</sallowspecific>
you enable wysiwyg editing by using TinyMCE. You can see
<specificcountry translate="label">
the screenshots of final result below.
<label>Ship to Specific countries</label>
<frontend_type>multiselect</frontend_type>
Step 1: Download and unpack TinyMCE to root /js folder.
Two things to keep in mind here. Download regular version
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_country</source_model>
(not jQuery version) of TinyMCE. This is due to the fact that
Magento uses Prototype, so we need to avoid conflicts. Second,
watch out for unpack location. Your tiny_mce.js file should be
</specificcountry>
accessible on js/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js path.
<showmethod translate="label">
Step 2: Open the app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/
<label>Show method if not applicable</label>
Cms/Page/Edit/Tab/Main.php file. Locate the
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_yesno</source_model>
$fieldset->addField('content', 'editor', array(
'name'
=> 'content',
'label'
=> Mage::helper('cms')->__('Content'),
'title'
</showmethod>
'style'
=> 'height:36em;',
<specificerrmsg translate="label">
'wysiwyg'
=> false,
<label>Displayed Error Message</label>
'required' => true,
<frontend_type>textarea</frontend_type>
));
and change it to
$fieldset->addField('content', 'editor', array(
How to make TinyMCE work with Magento
CMS pages
32
September 8th, 2009
'name'
=> 'content',
'label'
'title'
'style'
=> 'height:36em;',
'wysiwyg'
=> true,
'theme' => 'advanced',
'required' => true,
));
As you can see, here we changed on existing attribute
(’wysiwyg’) value and added new attribute ‘theme’.
Step 3: Open the /lib/Varien/Data/Form/Element/
Editor.php file and locate the method getElementHtml().
Here we change
file. If you are using store that does not have url rewrites
this is something that needs to be done because your
javascript file would not be found if you go trough link
like “http://store.local/index.php/js/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js”.
Then you would get TinyMCE shown on CMS page but it would
be disabled.
As you can see, there were only three minor changes needed
(download, modify, modify) to get the TinyMCE editor
working.
Hope this helps. Cheers.
Magento Developer Toolbar prototype |
Inchoo
$html = '
<textarea name="'.$this->getName().'" title="'.$this->getTitle().'" id="'.$this->getHtmlId().'" class="textarea '.$th
//< ![CDATA[
/* tinyMCE.init({
I was playing with some of the Magento controller functions
mode : "exact",
theme : "'.$this->getTheme().'",
today, when I saw my coworker Vedran Subotic struggling
elements : "' . $element . '",
with turning the Path hints in On and Off every few minutes.
theme_advanced_toolbar_location : "top",
Idea cross my mind, and here is the result Inchoo’s Magento
theme_advanced_toolbar_align : "left",
Developer Toolbar prototype.
theme_advanced_path_location : "bottom",
extended_valid_elements : "a[name|href|target|title|onclick],img[class|src|border=0|alt|title|hspace|vspace|width|hei
< ?php
theme_advanced_resize_horizontal : "false",
theme_advanced_resizing : "false",
class Inchoo_Hints_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Control
apply_source_formatting : "true",
{
convert_urls : "false",
force_br_newlines : "true",
public function init()
doctype : \'< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.
{
});*/
//]]>
}
</script>';
public function indexAction()
{
$hints = $this->getRequest()->getParam('hints');
$_storeBaseUrl = str_replace('index.php', '', Mage::getBaseUrl());
to
//Just to test retrieved url
//echo '$_storeBaseUrl: '.$_storeBaseUrl;
$_db = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('c
//]]>
</script>';
public function cleanCacheAction()
{
$_url = Mage::getUrl('');
if($hints)
{
$html = '
if($hints ==
'on')
<textarea name="'.$this->getName().'" title="'.$this->getTitle().'"
id="'.$this->getHtmlId().'"
class="textarea '.$th
{
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="'.$_storeBaseUrl.'/js/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js"></script>
$_db->query("UPDATE core_config_data SET value = '".$_SERVER
$_db->query("UPDATE core_config_data SET value = 1 WHERE pat
//< ![CDATA[
Event.observe(window, "load", function() {
}
tinyMCE.init({
mode : "exact",
if($hints == 'off')
theme : "'.$this->getTheme().'",
{
elements : "' . $element . '",
$_db->query("UPDATE core_config_data SET value = '' WHERE pa
theme_advanced_toolbar_location : "top",
theme_advanced_toolbar_align : "left",
theme_advanced_path_location : "bottom",
}
extended_valid_elements : "a[name|href|target|title|onclick],img[class|src|border=0|alt|title|hspace|vspace|width|hei
}
theme_advanced_resize_horizontal : "false",
theme_advanced_resizing : "false",
apply_source_formatting : "true",
convert_urls : "false",
if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'])) $_url = $_SERVER['HTTP_R
force_br_newlines : "true",
doctype : \'< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.
$this->getResponse()->setRedirect($_url);
});
}
});
As you might noticed, I used $_storeBaseUrl in this other
chunk of code to get the valid path to my TinyMCE javascript
if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'])) $_url = $_SERVER['HTTP_R
33
September 8th, 2009
the WordPress and Magento. Probably everyone in web
development has heard about WordPress. Personaly I like
them, from Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress… But there is that
little something that makes WordPress far more loving in the
}
eyes of the client. Not to start a flame here, lets get back to
public function cleanPhotoCacheAction()
the topic. Due to the lack of the proper content management
{
in Magento those who use WordPress can easily manage the
(home page in this case) content trough WordPress and make
it accessible in Magento CMS page (that you can set to home
if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'])) $_url = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
page in Magento).
Mage::app()->cleanCache();
try {
Mage::getModel('catalog/product_image')->clearCache();
}
catch (Exception $e) { }
}
}
< ?php //START INCHOO DEVELOPER TOOLBAR ?>
When would you like to do so?
Imagine you have Magento installed in root of your site
and WordPress under some folder like /articles. By default
WordPress is accessed via http://mysite.domain/articles and
Magento is accessed trough http://mysite.domain. Our goal
is to have WordPress Page (that we will title “home“) to be
accessible on http://mysite.domain.
Here are the necessary steps involved:
< ?php
$_inchoo_db = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');
• Create a WordPress page named “home” (under url like
$hints_are_on = $_inchoo_db->fetchOne("SELECT value FROM core_config_data
WHERE path = 'dev/debug/template_hints'");
http://mysite.domain/articles/wp-content)
?>
• Create a file named cmswp_home.phtml under app/
<div style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Arial,
Verdana; background: #004400; border-bottom:solid
design/frontend/default/
<div>
yourtheme_or_default_theme/template/inchoo/
<span style="font-weight: bold; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px;">INCHOO TOOLBAR</span>
folder
< ?php if($hints_are_on): ?>
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #bbbbbb;" href="<?php
echo $this->getUrl('inchoohints/index/index/hints/off')
• Create
a Magento CMS page (if it already does
< ?php else: ?>
not
exist)
name it anyway you want and then
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #bbbbbb;" href="<?php echo $this->getUrl('inchoohints/index/index/hints/on')
add {{block type=”core/template” template=”inchoo/
< ?php endif; ?>
cmswp_home.phtml”}} to its content
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #bbbbbb;" href="<?php echo $this->getUrl('inchoohints/index/cleanCache') ?>">
• Set
the$this->getUrl('inchoohints/index/cleanPhotoCache')
newly created Magento CMS page as home
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #bbbbbb;" href="<?php
echo
page for Magento under Magento Admin System >
</div>
</div>
Configuration > Web > Default Pages > CMS Home Page
< ?php //END INCHOO DEVELOPER TOOLBAR ?>
<config>
<modules>
<inchoo_hints>
<version>1.0.0</version>
</inchoo_hints>
</modules>
<frontend>
<routers>
<ihints>
<use>standard</use>
<args>
<module>Inchoo_Hints</module>
<frontname>inchoohints</frontname>
</args>
</ihints>
</routers>
</frontend>
</config>
How to use WordPress home page in
Magento home page (CMS page)
Simple : ) -Ok, lets get down to business. This one is really,
really simple, but powerful. In all it greatness Magento
lacks the good content management solution (CMS features).
Lot of people are heading down the road of integrating
Below is the code you need to copy paste into the
cmswp_home.phtml file mentioned in above steps.
< ?php
/**
* Pulls the content of post named 'home' from WordPress 'wp_
* @author Branko Ajzele
* @license GPL
*/
//Fetch database connection
$_conn = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection(
//Set query that retrieves the home page content
//THIS GOES IF YOU HAVE WORDPRESS AND MAGENTO IN SAME DATABS
$_findHomePage = "SELECT post_content FROM wp_posts WHERE po
//Set default value of home page to null, then do a safe che
$_homePageContent = null;
try {
/*
//IF YOU HAVE WORDPRESS AND MAGENTO INSTALLED EACH IN ITS OW
$conf = array(
'host' => 'localhost',
'username' => 'wordpress_db_username',
'password' => 'wordpress_db_password',
'dbname' => 'wordpress_db_name'
);
34
September 8th, 2009
$_resource = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource');
visitors are able to subscribe to your newsletter via Magento
//Create new connection to new server and new databse
Newsletter subscription form in sidebar.
$_conn = $_resource->createConnection('place_some_free_random_resource_name_here', 'pdo_mysql', $conf);
*/
Besides newsletter subscribers, all of your store’s registered
$_homePageContent = $_conn->fetchOne($_findHomePage);
}
catch (Exception $ex) {
//SEND EXCEPTION INFO TO ADMIN?
users will also appear in your Magento’s newsletter e-mail
database. This database also contains information on different
store views, allowing you to easily send multiple variations
of your newsletter to different store view subscribers. This
feature is extremely useful when dealing with multiple
language web shops.
How to send a Magento Newsletter?
/*
* USE $emailSmtpConf, $transport and $mail->send($transport); in case you need to specify SMTP manualy
$emailSmtpConf = array(
Newsletter Template:
'auth' => 'login',
The process of sending out Magento Newsletter starts
'ssl' => 'tls',
'username' => '[email protected]',
with creation of Newsletter Template. Once you create this
'password' => 'some_pass_here'
template, the template will remain there even after you send
);
your newsletter to subscribers, allowing you to change it and
use $emailSmtpConf);
it multiple times. You can create multiple newsletter
$transport = new Zend_Mail_Transport_Smtp('smtp.gmail.com',
*/
templates with different styling and test them to see which one
attracts the most response from subscribers.
$_sendTo_email = '[email protected]';
$_sendFrom_email = '[email protected]';
//Notify each item author about purchase
$mail = new Zend_Mail();
$mail->addTo($_sendTo_email, 'Branko Ajzele');
$mail->setFrom($_sendFrom_email, 'Branko Ajzele');
$mail->setSubject('Invalid HOME PAGE on site detected');
Simply click on “Add new template” button on the right and
$mail->setBodyHtml('
<h1>Invalid HOME PAGE on site detected</h1>
start creating your first newsletter template. You will see a
<p>There seem to be some issues with home page on your site.
look
at fields
it.</p>
screenPlease
with 5 take
fields.aAll
of the
are required. You will also
<p>Could be that WordPress page has been disabled and this made the query for page return null.</p>
notice
that
the
largest
field
(”Template
content” field) already
');
has
some
sort
of
code
inside.
Do
not
remove
this code. This
try {
//Try to send email
code will generate the unsubscribe link for your newsletter.
//$mail->send($transport);
Make sure that whatever you do this code remains on the
$mail->send();
bottom.
}
catch (Exception $ex) {
When creating newsletter template for Magento, note that
//echo $ex->getMessage();
you can actually use HTML in it. This means that if you’re
}
}
?>
not a tech savvy person, you can simply use some WYSIWYG
editor and copy / paste the code it creates into your newsletter
template once you’re done. In addition, if you wish to have
WYSWYG editor inside your magento, check out our article on
how to use TinyMCE with Magento.
< ?php if($_homePageContent): ?>
< ?php echo $_homePageContent ?>
Newsletter Queue:
< ?php else: ?>
If you open this tab in the newsletter top menu, you will
<h1>Home page unavailable</h1>
that for
therethe
areinconvenience.</p>
no newsletters in queue. In order to
<p>Seems like home page is unavailable at the moment. We notice
apologize
< ?php endif; ?>
queue a newsletter you need to open “Newsletter Template”
That’s it.
If you wish to have more control over what is outputted take a
look $_findHomePage variable and the query behind it.
Hope you find this useful.
Cheers.
screen once again and in the action box next to your template
choose “Queue Newsletter”. This action will bring up the “Edit
Newsletter” screen. Notice that you can choose which store
view subscribers are going to receive the newsletter. To select
multiple store views, hold Ctrl key and left click on store views
you wish to use. (this will only be necessary if you’re using
more then one store view).
Magento Newsletter
If you’re using Magento you probably noticed by now that
you have integrated newsletter system with it. By default,
35
September 8th, 2009
You also need to set a Queue date start. Notices that the date
and time you set are in fact server date and time, not your date
and time. If you wish to send your newsletter immediately, you
need to set it to your current server date and time or set it into
past.
Newsletter Subscribers Export:
If you wish to use some other service for sending your
newsletter you can easily export your Magento newsletter
subscribers via admin panel. Access the “Newsletter
Subscribers” screen via top menu. On the top right you will see
select box with options to export your newsletter subscribers
in form of CSV or XML. Export it in a form that best fits the
import options of your other newsletter solution.
Can’t send Magento newsletter? Here are some common
problems:
• Your server time is different then your local time and
you’ve actually queued the newsletter to be sent a few
hours in future and that’s why it’s not sent right now.
• Magento sent only small part of emails? Don’t worry, it
will send them out. Magento has integrated limit on the
number of emails it can send at once. Eventually, all of
your emails will be sent.
• You might need to activate your cron job as it’s
often a case cron job is causing you problem. This
means you will need to visit this address insertyour-magento-store.com/cron.php manually with your
internet browser.
Remove SID from Magento URLs
with .htaccess | Inchoo
and we don’t want SIDs to appear to those visitors. Most
important: We don’t want that search engines index the URLs
with SIDs.
NaviGate by MerchantPlus in Magento
Some merchants use NaviGate payment gateway from
MerchatPlus because of the lesser costs than its big brother
Authorize.net. Interesting this about this payment gateway is
its compatibility with Authorize.net. So, if you need to enable it
in Magento, you will not have to find someone who will have to
write the module from scratch. You just need to use standard
Authorize.net module, but with some modifications.
So, to use Navigate, you have to enable Authorize.net module.
NaviGate is compatible with Authorize.net’s AIM Integration
method. This means that any shopping cart or online store
software that can connect to Authorize.net via this method can
connect to NaviGate by following this steps:
1. In the Magento Administration
Configuration> Payment Methods.
panel,
go
to
2. Open the Authorize.net module and update the title
as you see fit. Enter your NaviGate username and
transaction key, which you generate under “Profile &
Settings” in the NaviGate interface.
3. Change
the
Gateway
URL
to:
https://
gateway.merchantplus.com/cgi-bin/PAWebClient.cgi
4. Enable Credit Card Verification, if you want to use the
CVV code.
5. Then, go to your source code and open the file: /app/
code/core/Mage/Paygate/Model and find the string
“setCardCodeResponseCode” . Change the line to: >setCardCodeResponseCode($r[38]);
Many people wonder why sometimes the SID part appears in
their Magento URLs. This is when your URL has additional
SID query usually at the end. Take a look at the image. The
curiosity is that it does not appear always. What is the most
common scenario it happens? You didn’t access the site with
the same domain variant you entered as your “Base URL” in
your System> Configuration> Web interface.
Save the file and you should be good!
When you decide to launch the site, you have to decide
whether you will market http://www.domain.com/ URL or
http://domain.com/. This is an important decision and you
shouldn’t change your mind quite often. Search engines
usually treat those two URLs as a different sites and therefore
the Page Rank potential can be split between those two URLs.
So, think about whether you will use www or not and stick by
this decision.
Magento Flash Widgets Extension – AMF
Point
To assist your integration, MerchantPlus created the following
developer tools (you will not need them in our case):
For more information on the connection
Authorize.net’s AIM documentation.
API,
see
If you read our previous article where we made it clear we were
working on something interesting for Magento store owners,
you could see this coming.
Once you decided, go to your System> Configuration> Web
interface and enter the desired form to “Base URL” field. When
you access the site you will notice that there are no “SID”s
when the URL matches the value from “Base URL” field and
they appear when it does not.
Now, we want the ability that the site redirects to proper URL
once accessed. Someone can place a wrong link to some forum
or blog. We don’t want those links to lead to improper URL
36
September 8th, 2009
amfPoint is a Magento Extension that enables you to serve
interactive flash widgets containing your products wherever
and whenever you need them on your Magento store.
Google Analytics eCommerce data from
Magento | Inchoo
Some of you who work with Magento for a long time might
think that this topic is so clear that it doesn’t need to have an
article. We get many inquiries to finalize the work somebody
already started. One of the things we notice is that some
developers tend to embed the Google Analytics code directly
in the Magento theme files. Yes, it works and you will see the
standard traffic data in the Google Analytics interface, but it
is not a way to go.
In most of the cases, those developers edit
footer.phtml in app/design/frontend/default/[your_theme]/
template/page/html folder. As I said, the Google Analytics will
track visitors data properly, but the main issue is that the
eCommerce data will not be collected. To enable eCommerce
data to be visible, first step is that you let Google Analytics to
know that the profile is actually an E-Commerce site.
Although Google Analytics will tell you to embed the javascript
code on your website, you don’t have to do that. You just need
to see what is the Web Property ID of the profile. One you know
it, go to the Magento administration to the interface: System>
Configuration> Google API> Google Analytics. Enable it and
insert that Web Property ID. Viola.
You will get to this interface by
1. Logging to Google Analytics
2. Select an account for this site
3. On the list of Account profiles, do not go to the reports,
click on Edit instead
4. On the first box “Main Website Profile Information”,
there is another Edit link to the right. Click on it.
5. One there, you will see the interface similar to the one
on this image. Let Google Analytics know this is an
eCommerce website
Forums say that older versions of Magento before 1.2 do not
properly track eCommerce data. In case you have older version
of Magento and have this issue, do not install some special
plugins. Upgrade Magento instead.
Magento CMS syntax – part1
Every Magento user noticed that there is special
{{magentocode}} syntax available in cms pages and blocks.
We traced a bit to find out which params are available and
what exactly they do.
As strange as this may sound, processor class that gets called is
Mage_Core_Model_Email_Template_Filter located at app/
code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Email/Template/Filter.php .
There are also some interesting directives in superclass
Varien_Filter_Template, but if i’m not mistaken, none of
them can be used.
There are six replacement codes that can be used and each
triggers its equivalent Directive function:
skinDirective
37
September 8th, 2009
mediaDirective
Example: {{store url=’customer/account’ _query_a=’8′}}
htmlescapeDirective
Synonym: Mage::getUrl($params['url'], $params);
storeDirective
Params:
blockDirective
url = magento routers url
layoutDirective
direct_url = normal url, appended to baseurl
I’ll start with easier and most commonly used and continue
with advanced ones in part two of this article.
1. skinDirective
_query_PARAMNAME = adds query param, for example
_query_a=’8′ adds a=8 to url
Description: Used to retrieve path of skin folder and its files,
theme fallback respected
Example: {{skin url=’images/image.jpg’ _theme=’blank’}}
_fragment = adds fragment, for example #comments
Synonym:
$params)
custom = if using magento route url param, every custom
param added will be appended like /a/8/b/10
Mage::getDesign()->getSkinUrl($params['url'],
_escape = escapes “,’,<,>
Params:
I probably missed something in this last one, but it’s very late
and i’m tired of poking through Magento
url = empty or relative file path
To be continued ..
_theme = alternative theme, fallbacks if file not exist
Magento FLIR
_package = alternative package
_area = alternative area(frontend,adminhtml)
_type, _default etc. = nothing useful, somebody please correct
me if i’m wrong
2. mediaDirective
Description: Used to retrieve path of root/media folder and its
files
Example: {{media url=’image.jpg’}}
Synonym: Mage::getBaseUrl(’media’) . $params['url']
Params:
1. Download FLIR from FLIR homepage. I was using latest 1.2
stable for this article because of simplicity, but if you try you’ll
find out that 2.0 beta also works great but requires little more
configuration.
2. Unpack FLIR content (cache,fonts,etc.) inside skin/
frontend/default/default/facelift
I think it makes perfect sense to put it into skin folder.
3. Open app/design/frontend/yourpackage/yourtheme/
template/page/html/head.phtml and append
url = empty or relative file path
<script language=”javascript” src=”<?php
>getSkinUrl(’facelift/flir.js’) ?>”></script>
3. htmlescapeDirective
Description: Used to escape special html chars
Example:
{{htmlescape
href=”www.inchoo.net”>inchoo</a><b>inchoo</
b><i>inchoo</i>’ allowed_tags=’b'}}
Facelift Image Replacement (or FLIR, pronounced fleer)
is an image replacement script that dynamically generates
image representations of text on your web page in fonts that
otherwise might not be visible to your visitors. Let’s see how
it behaves in Magento.
var=’<a
Synonym: Mage::helper(’core’)->htmlEscape($params['var'],
$params['allowed_tags'])
Params:
var = string to escape
allowed_tags = comma-separated list of allowed tags
4. storeDirective
echo
$this-
<script type=”text/javascript”>
document.observe(”dom:loaded”, function() {
FLIR.init({ path: ‘<?php echo $this->getSkinUrl(’facelift/’) ?
>’ }, new FLIRStyle({ mode: ‘wrap’ }) );
FLIR.auto();
});
</script>
If your php error reporting isn’t disabled add
error_reporting(0); somewhere on top of config-flir.php. This
Description: Used to build magento routes and custom urls
38
September 8th, 2009
is main config file from which you can define options and
custom fonts, so examine it.
Refresh your Magento store and you should see the result.
flir.js can also be alternatively included from layout files inside
head block
<reference name=”head”>
<action
method=”addItem”><type>skin_js</
type><name>facelift/flir.js</name></action>
</reference>
There is nice Quick Start Guide and Documentation available
from FLIR homepage, so i won’t go in details on some
advanced FLIR settings, but here are few examples:
//pass selectors as comma separated list
FLIR.auto(’h5,h4′);
//pass an array of selectors
FLIR.auto( [ 'h4', 'h5' ] );
//replace manually with custom options
FLIR.replace( ‘div.box h4′ , new FLIRStyle({ mode: ‘wrap’ ,
css: {’font-family’:'arial’} }) );
It was made with default Magento theme. Enjoy.
//prototype way
$$(’div.box h4′).each( function(el) { FLIR.replace(el); } );
Cya.
Magento product image switcher
I just wrote small javascript animation example for product
images and thought someone may find it useful. It’s a fast way
to replace default zoom functionality for the ones that don’t
like it.
I’m actually trying to merge something like this with default
zoom, but i’m not finished yet. Anyway, i left all javascript and
styling in media.phtml file, so just download the file
and replace it with your own at
app/design/frontend/default/yourtheme/template/catalog/
product/view/media.phtml
amfPoint - Make your Products Rock in
Magento | Inchoo
Something is happening. People from small town in Croatia
called Osijek are concerned about Branko Ajzele. They say that
he is spending too much time in front of the computer writing
some code. We tried to call him many times from the office
but got no reply. After a discussion we drew straws to decide
who will go to his place to check his condition. When I came to
his place and knocked, at first there was an absolute silence.
I knocked again…
After two attempts, Branko opened the door. First thing I
noticed was a Magento circle on his forehead and a red eyes.
Branko didn’t sleep for a very long time.
“Branko, are you ok?“, I asked.
“Yes, Why? What’s going on? What date it is?”
You could feel the smell of burning plastic in the air. It was
obvious that computer was turned on for a long time. I glanced
in the room and I could see the monitor with Magento colored
light and some animations on it.
“What are you working on man?”
He just stared for a couple of seconds which seemed like an
eternity and than he finally spoke…
… To be Continued …
39
September 8th, 2009
Programatically create Magento blocks
and inject them into layout
How to escape from EAV in Magento? |
Inchoo
Imagine a scenario where you wish to simply create a view file
like custom-note.phtml and show this view file on some new
url inside the Magento store. One way to do this is to create a
CMS page and call that block from within CMS page. But what
if you wish to create and append this block to other areas of
Magento layout that are inaccessible from CMS page interface
form admin? What if I want to add new div element under the
breadcrumbs and append new block under it?
One of the differences between Magento eCommerce platform
and lets say WordPress, when looked from developer point of
view, is “avoid raw queries” approach. For a web application,
Magento is massive system. His database, although not so
massive but surely breathtaking with around 220 tables forces
you to use “eye candy” EAV model to do even simple things.
magento philosophy is to create block class under the /Block
folder of your module, to create xml layout file under the
theme /layouts folder (or to modify existing layout file) and so
on. Anyway you turn it around you either need to have Block
file or add/modify at least the entry to the layout files.
All this is OK if you are working on your own store so you have
full control over the code. However, what if you are developing
a module that will be used on different Magento stores. My
prime concern when building a module is to keep the number
of necessary module files to a minimum.
In code below, you will see how easy it is to call your Core/
Template block to show on any area of Magento layout.
Extracted
from
app/code/local/ActiveCodeline/
CustomOutputs/controllers/IndexController.php file.
For instance, if I were to tell you that I want you to retrieve
5 simple products from database that have price in the range
of 200-600USD you would most likely spent 1-4 hours trying
to work out the query. In the end you would be lucky if you
even get the query that wont break on next Magento upgrade.
Let me just remind you on some of the things you need to be
careful in example above.
Your query would have to take in consideration the at least
the following states: is my product visibility such that it can
be seen in Catalog and search result, is my product enabled or
disabled, is is out of stock, which website and store view has
it been assigned, is it assigned to only one category and that
category is disabled by some chance, does it have special price
assigned, does it have promotion rules assigned, does it have
content (descriptions) for multilingual site assigned.
All of those and more are questions that one has to take
into consideration when doing raw database queries. It makes
no sense to create query that fetches product and all its
{
appropriate info (price, quantity, description…) if that product
//Get current layout state
is disabled or assigned to category that is disabled. For
$this->loadLayout();
instance, if you need “featured” product functionality and
you manually create raw query that extracts one “featured”
$block = $this->getLayout()->createBlock(
product to lets say home page. There you create nice block
'Mage_Core_Block_Template',
'my_block_name_here',
holding all the necessary info of the product with a link for lets
array('template' => 'activecodeline/developer.phtml')
say “Add to cart” or “View product”. Clicking one of those two
);
link would give you most likely 404 if the product is disable
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('content')->append($block); or any other condition that enables the product to be shown
is disabled.
//Release layout stream... lol... sounds fancy
$this->renderLayout();
}
Most IMPORTANT thing to keep in mind here is the “error
handling”. If you assign a “invalid” block to ->append(), you
will not (most likely) see an error but “nothing happend”
situation.
So basically, raw SQL queries in Magento are a “no no” for
most of the time. Too much work and you never know what
they will change in future upgrades. Which brings me to this
new trend of theirs which I like to call “Escape from EAV”.
Anyhow… hope the attached module (extension) will save you
some headaches. I know it took me few hours of tracing and
testing to get the grip of it.
Download ActiveCodeline_CustomOutputs extension.
Cheers.
40
September 8th, 2009
custom script I wrote. After that i noticed the data in flat tables
got rebuild as well. This of course took several hours. Magento
EAV model seems OK on paper, but with store that hold’s large
number of products it simply does not work, at least not in way
in which their collection objects are built. Changes introduced
in form of flat tables in versions 1.3 should, to some extent,
improve work with stores that have large numbers of products.
However this improvement seems to come in form of “copy all
data from scattered tables to single flat table”.
Solutions like these are nightmare when it comes to upgrading
the store that already has large number of products in. System
is expected to handle part of the job transparently but it failed,
leaving the client with corrupted database.
So, a word of advice for upgrading an existing Magento store:
NEVER do it on live site. Let professional developer transfer
live site and database to his dev machine, or make a copy on
some sub folder on live site. Magento’s extreme out of the
box feature rich capabilities, open source philosophy and good
marketing have made it extremely popular but be careful, free
is such a a loose term.
I am really anxious to see the future path of EAV vs Flat model
in Magento.
EAV, also know as Entity Attribute Value was suppose to
bee (or is) the next big thing in OOP. Anyhow, Magento and
his way of EAV have two huge downfalls called LACK OF
DOCUMENTATION and WHAT WILL THEY CHANGE IN
NEXT UPGRADE. The other day I was working on a Magento
shop that had 22 000 products. Almost all of them were simple
products, just about 600 were grouped. The store was initially
installed on Magento 1.2 version. Site was pretty much 95%
complete from both graphic and development perspective.
Anyhow, Magento version 1.3.1 was released and on client
demand we decide to to upgrade. Important thing to keep
in mind is that in version 1.3 Magento introduce “change in
philosophy” concerning the EAV model.
Altough EAV sounds great (and really is great for most of
the time), it can really slow things down with all those
JOINS executed on database. So the Magento team decided
to do a little flat tabling. Basically we now have massive data
duplication in MySQL where data is taken from various tables
and copied int one, the flat table. Flat tables were introduced
for both Products and categories, in regards to various website
and store views.
Basically Magento has the power to “on the fly” create tables
and do the “magical” copying of data from various tables to
the flat tables. I assume they were looking for a faster way to
“assemble” Product objects in Magento which in turn should
boost the speed of collection object i grew so found about. I can
live with duplicated data in database, I mean I am not the one
writing them down. But let me get back to real world scenario.
As I mentioned, store I have been working on had more
than 20 000 products. Due to limitations of both MySQL
and PHP failed to do Rebuilt that you can find in System
> Configuration > Cache management. This failure caused
corrupted data in database. This manifested with “empty”
attributes (attributes not showing up in Layered navigation). I
resolved the issue by “re saving” all of the 20 000 product with
Updating options of configurable product
that is already in the cart
< ?php
if($this->getProduct()->isConfigurable()){
$_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($this->g
Mage::getBlockSingleton('catalog/product_view_type_configura
$_configurable = Mage::getBlockSingleton('catalog/product_vi
$_cdata = json_decode($_configurable->getJsonConfig());
$_current = array();
foreach((array)$this->getOptionList() as $_option) {
$_current[$_option['label']]=$_option['value'];
}
foreach($_cdata->attributes as $attribute) {
?>
<strong>< ?php echo $attribute->label; ?></strong>
<select style="width:150px;" name="cart[<?php echo $_item->g
< ?php
foreach($attribute->options as $option) {
?>
<option <?php echo ($_current[$attribute->label]==$option->l
< ?php
}
?>
</select>
< ?php
}
} else {
// THIS IS PLACE WHERE EXISTING CODE from [*] goes
}
?>
Now you are done with template and you can style it as you
wish as soon as you do few additional steps.
< ?php
class YOUR_FIRM_MODULE_NAME_Model_Card
{
public function update($e)
41
September 8th, 2009
{
$_this = $e->cart;
$data = $e->info;
$emailTemplateVariables['myvar1'] = 'Branko';
$emailTemplateVariables['myvar2'] = 'Ajzele';
$emailTemplateVariables['myvar3'] = 'ActiveCodeline';
foreach ($data as $itemId => $itemInfo) {
$item = $_this->getQuote()->getItemById($itemId);
/**
* The best part
* Opens the activecodeline_custom_email1.html, throws in th
if (!$item) continue;
* and returns the 'parsed' content that you can use as body
if (!isset($itemInfo['option']) or empty($itemInfo['option']))
continue;
*/
$processedTemplate = $emailTemplate->getProcessedTemplate($e
foreach ($item->getOptions() as $option){
if($option->getCode()=='info_buyRequest'){
$unserialized = unserialize($option->getValue());
$unserialized['super_attribute'] = $itemInfo['option'];
$option->setValue(serialize($itemInfo['option']));
}elseif ($option->getCode()=='attributes'){
$option->setValue(serialize($itemInfo['option']));
}
}
$item->save();
}
}
}
?>
P.S. Yes, I know… before clicking on update cart, we should
have some JavaScript price changer, but this is all I have at
this moment since I needed this on card that is autosubmited
on dropdown change.
Magento custom emails
Ever wanted to “just send the email” using the built in email
features in Magento? Ever hit the wall trying to do something
with Magento? OK, I know the answer to the other one, just
had to ask
. Anyhow, sending the emails with Magento
turned out to be a process of “just” a few hours of tracing
Magento code.
I cant wait for smart comments like, “few hours, huh its
so easy…”. Yea, thats the beauty of Magento… few hours of
bashing your head against the wall while you are sipping the
4th cup of coffee until the solution hits you. Interesting do, just
when you get the hang of it, Magento gets you this “have you
tried this” attitude .
What am I talking about? Scenario: I want to create email
template named activecodeline_custom_email1.html, I want
to pass few variables to it during runtime, I want to send emails
programmaticaly. I dont want to create 56 lines of xml file just
to call one template.
/*
* Or you can send the email directly,
* note getProcessedTemplate is called inside send()
*/
$emailTemplate->send('[email protected]','John Doe', $email
...
And here we go again, nothing without xml files
-In order
for above piece of code to work, you need to add an entry to
your config.xml file like shown below.
...
<global>
<template>
<email>
<custom_email_template1 module="SampleModule1">
<label>ActiveCodeline custom email module</label>
<file>activecodeline_custom_email1.html</file>
<type>html</type>
</custom_email_template1>
</email>
</template>
</global>
...
And lets not forget the email template itself, app/locale/
en_US/template/email/
activecodeline_custom_email1.html.

<div>
<h1>ActiveCodeline custom email example by Branko Ajzele</h1
<p>Hi there {{var myvar1}} {{var myvar2}} from {{var myvar3}
</div>
Hope this was helpful. Cheers.
Getting started with building Admin
module in Magento
Due to the “complexity” of Magento’s xml files, developers can
waste great amount of time on “unnecessary” things.
When I say “complexity” I say it with purpose. XML files are
not so complex by them selves, but due to extreme lack of
Here is how.
documentation and changes Magento pumps in every new
...
“major” release, people are lost among things that should
/*
really be sideways. Anyway, in this little article I will show you
* Loads the html file named 'custom_email_template1.html' from
how to create basic, startup structure for your module to get it
* app/locale/en_US/template/email/activecodeline_custom_email1.html
shown under Magento Admin main top menu.
*/
$emailTemplate = Mage::getModel('core/email_template')
->loadDefault('custom_email_template1');
As you can see on the picture below, I am creating a menu item
with title “ActiveCodeline_SampleModule1″.
//Create an array of variables to assign to template
$emailTemplateVariables = array();
42
September 8th, 2009
My module is called “SampleModule1″ and it consists of just
a few files. As you go over the provided config.xml file you
will see that I used “BigLettersSmallLetters” style. I do this
intentionally because this “naming convention” is another
great pitfall for developers when it comes to constructing
xml files. I know I too still struggle with “what must be the
lowercase” question.
Here is my example of config.xml file
</config>
My “admin” controller is extremely simple, just an
indexAction() method. However it does tell a lot. Below is a
code of indexAction() method.
...
{
// "Fetch" display
$this->loadLayout();
<config>
<modules>
<activecodeline_samplemodule1>
<version>0.1.0</version>
</activecodeline_samplemodule1>
</modules>
// "Inject" into display
// THe below example will not actualy show anything sinc
$this->_addContent($this->getLayout()->createBlock('core
// echo "Hello developer...";
// "Output" display
$this->renderLayout();
<global>
}
<helpers>
...
<samplemodule1>
<class>ActiveCodeline_SampleModule1_Helper</class>
And below are all the files required for this “Admin
</samplemodule1>
module” to work.
</helpers>
</global>
Note this is only example, DO NOT USE on live site.
example
Cheers…
<admin>
<routers>
<samplemodule1>
<use>admin</use>
<args>
<module>ActiveCodeline_SampleModule1</module>
<frontname>samplemodule1</frontname>
</args>
</samplemodule1>
I have been working on a project, in my own time, that involves
</routers>
</admin>
Flex – Magento communication. I decided to test Adobe’s
How to create Magento AMF server
extension
AMF format. In this article I will show you how easy is to create
<adminhtml>
AMF server as an extension in Magento.
<menu>
<menu1 translate="title" module="SampleModule1">
So, where to we start?
<title>ActiveCodeline SampleModule1</title>
The idea is to have special Url which will act as AMF endpoint.
<children>
Since Magento is built on top of Zend, this is extremely easy
<menuitem1 module="SampleModule1">
to do.
<title>Menu item 1</title>
<action>samplemodule1/example</action>
For your module to act as a basic AMF server you need
</menuitem1>
only 3 files. MyCompany_MyModule.xml that goes under
</children>
the /app/etc/modules/ folder. Then IndexController.php that
</menu1>
goes under the /app/code/local/MyCompany/MyModule/
</menu>
controllers/IndexController.php. And last but not least
<acl>
<resources>
the config.xml file that goes under the /app/code/local/
<admin>
MyCompany/MyModule/etc/ folder.
<children>
<menu1 translate="title" module="SampleModule1">
I will not go into the details and show you the full
<title>ActiveCodeline SampleModule1</title>
content of each of those files. Important thing is to focus
on IndexController.php and config.xml files. Inside your
<children>
IndexController.php file you will actualy hold the code for your
<menuitem1>
AMF server (Zend_Amf).
<title>Menu item 1</title>
</menuitem1>
Here is an example of indexAction from my
</children>
IndexController.php file:
</menu1>
</children>
</admin>
...
</resources>
</acl>
{
</adminhtml>
//Create AMF server instance
43
September 8th, 2009
$server = new Zend_Amf_Server();
//setProduction(false): return exception info
$server->setProduction(false);
$server->setClass($class, $class);
develop a feature for Magento than for some other system out
there.
Magento block caching
Recently we were working on speeding up parts of client
page loading caused
by complicated configurable products. To solve the problem
we were experimenting with extending core Magento caching
capabilities.
//$server->setClassMap("SomeTypedObjectVO", "MyCompany_MyModule_Model_SomeTypedObjectVO");
site which had usual problem of slow
$server->setClassMap($className, $class);
//Run the AMF server
echo $server->handle();
//Just in case so that Magento does not pass anything beyond
thishas
point
Magento
built in predifined system of block output
die;
caching. Its block abstract has Zend_Cache caching
}
capabilities that can be modified for your own needs. I’m
...
The above example is the simplest form of Zend AMF server i
can think of, but it should be enough to get your AMF server
responsive to AMF requests.
showing here an example of caching whole product view block,
however this is just a specific example of how things works,
problems are different and requires different approach and
solution.
And to make all of this accessible via Url, we need to add
entry to congig.xml file. Below is the partial example of my
config.xml file.
I will start with some external reading and example itself.
There is great article on Magento Wiki about this topic, along
with category cache example on Magento forums.
...
<frontend>
<routers>
<mymodule>
<use>standard</use>
<args>
<module>MyCompany_MyModule</module>
<frontname>myamfserver</frontname>
</args>
</mymodule>
</routers>
</frontend>
...
Above piece of code sets access to AMF server on Url like
http://server/store/index.php/myamfserver.
Thats it.
Top 5 annoying things in Magento
If you ask me, there are two important things that make
Magento so attractive. First, its free and open source. Until
month ago Magento was fully free, now they have Community
and Enterprise editions. But make no mistake, when it comes
to out of the box feature list, Community edition will most
likely beat any open source cart out there. Rich “out of the box”
features are the second thing that make it so attractive.
• Large number of files in system which makes it
fully impractical to do installations and backup by
transferring files over FTP
There are more to add to the list, but these are the ones that
caught my attention for most of the time. We do every day
Magento development, and believe me its quite hard to explain
your client that sometimes it takes you 2-4 times more to
With my Inchoo_BlockCaching.rar example module things
should be little easier to understand.
Magento block caching depends of three things:
cache_lifetime => cache lifetime in seconds
cache_tags => cache type identifiers primarly used for
deleting right cache at the right time
cache_key => cache identyfier
You can simply inject this data into construtor of any Magento
block
protected function _construct()
{
$this->addData(array(
'cache_lifetime' => 3600,
'cache_tags'
=> array(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product::CACHE_
'cache_key'
=> $this->getProduct()->getId(),
));
}
or if you need some conditional approach like i did in this
example define equivalent functions
public function getCacheKey(){}
public function getCacheLifetime(){}
public function getCacheTags(){}
because constructor approach isn’t enough in most scenarios.
There is a general misassumption about cache_lifetime. If
you set it to false, Zend cache will get default value of 7200
seconds!! If you want infinite never expired cache set it
to 9999999999, which is Zend_Cache maximum value, or
something else big enough.
I believe that best way to activate this is to rewrite specific
block with our own with caching enabled, like shown in
example. You should always try to avoid modifying core files,
even copying modified Mage classes to local, because things
get really messy on updates.
44
September 8th, 2009
Generated cached files can be found in usual subfolders of /
var/cache folder. Two files are generated, first metadata file
which contains serialized cache data and second one which is
cached html output itself.
In my example:
mage—internal-metadatas—PRODUCT_INFO_STORE
+ID_PRODUCT+ID
mage—PRODUCT_INFO_STORE+ID_PRODUCT+ID
Note that “Blocks HTML output” option needs to be enabled
in Cache Management for this to work.
Many things in Magento can be cached in similar way and
there are predefined mechanism waiting for you to use them.
It’s possible that we’ll see more of this implemented in future
Magento versions.
Removing Product Comparison in
Magento
As many things in Magento, removing product comparison is
not available thru the admin interface. Thus, leaving us with
the only option of getting down and dirty with theme files
editing.
This guide is pretty straightforward and is based on the
Magento ver. 1.3.1.1
Before beginning of this procedure please Go
to: System-> Cache Management and disable
cache. You can turn it on after you’re done.
Step 1 – reports.xml
Open: app/design/frontend/deafult/Your Theme name/
layout/reports.xml and delete the following lines:
<remove name="name_of_the_ol_block"/>
That’s it. You should now be free of product comparison for
ever and ever
Magento duplicated content | Inchoo
Magento has several issues with duplicated content. Of course,
you don’t actually have two versions of the same content
in your database, however, in the eyes of search engines,
two different URLs serving same content are counted as
duplicated content and will cause you lots of problems. The
most obvious problem is that your page rank is leaking on
different versions of virtually the same landing page. You also
might end up with having several versions of the same content
indexed which is bad in so many ways.
First duplicated content problem in Magento occurs when
you are listing a product in multiple categories. Magento will
create several URLs that actually contain the same content
such as:
The easiest way to avoid this problem is to simply turn
of the category based URLs in Magento admin panel. This
way you will always serve exactly the same URL no matter
which direction user took to find your product and it will be
example.com/product_name.html.
However, you might actually want to have category based
URLs for both usability and SEO reasons. Don’t worry, there
is a solution for you here, it just involves a little more work to
do. What you need to do is put a rel cannonical on the URLs
with category base pointing back to the original product URL.
This probably sounds like some sort of voodoo but if you reed
about rel canonical it will be piece of cake.
This issue is also easily fixed by use of rel canonical. Simply
put a rel cannonical on all of the products with SID in URL,
pointing back toname="right.reports.product.viewed"
the product’s original URL.
<block type="reports/product_viewed" before="right.permanent.callout"
template="r
<block type="reports/product_compared" before="right.permanent.callout" name="right.reports.product.compared" templat
Step 2 – catalog.xml
Open app/design/frontend/deafult/Your Theme
layout/catalog.xml and delete the following line:
name/
<block type="core/template" before="cart_sidebar" name="catalog.compare.sidebar" template="catalog/product/compare/si
Save the files and refresh the page you we’re checking. Product
comparison should not be there but if you click on any of the
products you ‘ll see that the “Add to compare” text link is still
there.
The way to remove it:
Step 3 – addto.phtml
Open up app/design/frontend/default/Your Theme name/
template/catalog/product/view/addto.phtml and delete the
following line:
< ?php if($_compareUrl=$this->helper('catalog/product_compare')->getAddUrl($_product) ): ?>
<li><span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="<?php echo $_compareUrl ?>">< ?php echo $this->__('Add to Compare') ?></a></
< ?php endif; ?>
Oh, of course theif you don’t want to actually delete the code
can always use the following:
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