The topic of Magento integration with Joomla! has been discussed extensively on the Magento Forums and the Joomla! community. It appears the first steps of such functionality are beginning to take shape.
In a recent forum thread, Magento community member, bigodines, posted a link to a Magento and Joomla! user integration plugin (via JFusion). If you are a Joomla! junkie and would like to contribute, please give this plugin a try. Feedback is requested by the developer, so feel free to share your findings.
We are excited to see such efforts taking place and would love to see Magento and Joomla! integrated
Magento’s next release will feature an updated image management tool. In this video, we go through the process of uploading multiple images at once. Below is a breakdown of the fields in the page:
Small - Used in category listing / wishlist, etc.
Thumbnail - Used in shopping cart and related items.
Main - Large product image (zoomed in).
Custom Image - Currently not used in the default interface but may be used in customizations and future interfaces.
Exclude - Excludes the image from the slideshow / more views functionality.
Remove - Deletes the image from the collection.
Label - Alt value for the image tag.
Sort Order - The order in which the images are displayed in the slideshow / more views functionality.
The image sizes will be based on values that are set in the template tags and additional image locations may be set through a configuration file (more info on that later). Image resizing will be automated through the use of GD library.
It is important to note that image type and data should be specified for each store view.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we are pleased to announce the availability for download of Magento Preview version 0.8.16100 (our 10th preview release). The major highlights of the release include Google Checkout Level 2 integration, Paypal UK integration, Google sitemap management, and a new store management interface.
Major Highlights
Implemented Google Checkout Level 2 integration
Implemented Paypal UK payment methods integration
Added Google Sitemap management
Added new stores management interface, introduced store view grouping
Added availability to specify database tables prefix while installing Magento
Added handling fee for fixed and Table Rates shipping methods
Added configuration value to enable/disable guest checkout
Current tab is remembered when user clicks on Save And Continue on product edit page
Added ‘Contact Us’ page
Improvements & Bug fixes:
Fixed Mage_Directory install utf8 encoding issues
Fixed bug with non existing attributes for configurable product
Defalit cookie path is store base path now
Fixed JavaScript error after creation of new customer account (frontend)
Fixed JavaScript error on shipping tracking in shipment and invoice (admin)
Changed fieldset-based forms in admin to use tables instead of spans
Added correct language in tag
Removed accents for SEO urls
Changed ini_set/ini_get to set_include_path/get_include_path
Known Issues:
Store management interface might change
Floating action buttons in admin do not work in IE6
Google checkout subscribe to newsletter is not implemented
Store view switcher will not work if ‘#’ symbol is present in the url
Upgrading using the Magento PEAR Channel, it is highly recommend to use upgrade-all and not to upgrade each package individually
Video: Upgrading via PEAR
How easy is the Magento upgrade process? Check out the video below (please note that the Magento PEAR channel is still in development).
Sample Data
The sample data archive file is available in .zip (41 MB), .tar.gz (40 MB), and .tar.bz2 (37MB) formats to download (the files contain exactly the same content inside and are provided in different formats just for your convenience).
Each archive contains a SQL script that should be applied on a clean database with your database management tool (phpMyAdmin or whatever you use), and ‘media’ folder with sample product images that you should copy to your Magento media folder. You should then run the regular installation process as for a complete package. Please make sure that you have exactly the same version of Magento that the sample data is provided for – 0.8.16100.
Please also backup all your data and keep separately any custom changes on the files you did, because they may not be compatible with the sample data provided.
Magento’s next release will include integration with Google Checkout (level 2). In the first video, we go through the process from a customers perspective, completing the purchase using Google Checkout. The second video shows the invoicing process once an order has been received in the Google Checkout merchant account.
Magento is going to win the open source ecommerce war, hands down. I’ve never seen another platform so well architected */AND/* well designed as Magento, its simply amazing; they’ve done everything right! Varien’s technical skill as well as their openness and willingness to embrace the community model show me that they are determined to pump out a top notch ecommerce platform with Magento, and they are well on their way to doing that and running away with the prize.
