Try the Demo

Magento Blog


Silver Industry Partner Announcement:  AheadWorks Co.

image

Magento is pleased to add aheadWorks Co., a market leading vendor of extensions, themes and custom development services for the Magento platform, as a Silver Industry Partner.

aheadWorks develops attractive themes and feature-rich extensions for Magento Enterprise, Community and Go platforms that help merchants handle a wide range of business tasks, enhance the functionality of their online store and ultimately better satisfy their clients’ needs.

Magento merchants can choose from a palette of themes and templates that can give their online shop an attractive look and feel, and create a wonderful user experience for customers.

It’s a great pleasure to be recognized among professionals who are developing powerful extensions for Magento and aiming to make this popular platform even better. Being a Magento Silver Partner means great responsibility for the products you develop and services you provide. aheadWorks welcomes this responsibility as we guarantee the quality of everything we do -- Matvei Krivoshein CMO, aheadWorks


We invite you to visit Magento Connect to view the many aheadWorks extensions for Magento.

Introducing Magento Enterprise Premium!

image

We have just launched the Magento Enterprise Premium package, the ultimate packaged solution for large-scale eCommerce implementations. This package has been tailored specifically for large-scale eCommerce implementations that need the scale, expertise and support necessary to run a high volume business.


Here are the components we are pleased to offer, as part of this new, premium solution:

  • Multiple Magento Enterprise licenses - 2 production and 1 development license
  • Platinum level SLA Magento Support with live 24x7 phone support
  • Magento Expert Consulting - architectural advisory and comprehensive code review dedicated to your business needs
  • Training course “eCommerce with Magento”

With this new package, merchants get the advantage of the best-in-class features of Magento Enterprise, such as multi-store fronts with a single admin interface, persistent shopping cart, RMA, private sales, marketing and merchandising tools and so much more, all with the added support, consulting, training and scalability to meet the needs of your eCommerce business.

We are very excited to offer this and invite you to learn more about this new, premium offering.
image

-The Magento team

Creating Adapters For RDBMS

image image

Integration with other database technologies has been made easy with support for relational database management systems (RDBMS) in the release of Magento Community 1.6 / Enterprise 1.11. Andrey Tserkus, lead of RDBMS adoption team, shares his passion and perspective on the project


When did Magento decide that supporting multiple RDBMS was necessary?

From the first release of Magento, we intended to make the platform cross-DB compatible. We want developers to be able to run Magento on a variety of different database vendors. The initial architecture was designed with this feature in mind and, for several good reasons, MySQL was chosen as the base RDBMS to be supported.

So why is now the right time to begin supporting multiple RDBMS?

A lot has changed. Magento has experienced tremendous growth since those early days. Magento always focuses on providing a lot of features out-of-the-box with the ability to

image

customize and extend the capabilities of the platform. Along the way we have enjoyed wide adoption of the Magento platform by many types of businesses – from small emerging shops to mature corporations – and with this came the demand to support

different RDBMS.

Why is supporting multiple RDBMS so important to Magento’s recent version release?

The Magento Community 1.6 / Enterprise 1.11 release fulfills the dreams that our system architects had four years ago -- giving our users a platform that is capable of communicating with the database of their choice. With the simplified and refactored DB-abstraction layer, the implementations of Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server support, and the capacity to allow developers to automatically make their customization and extensions cross-DB compatible, we accomplished our goal of providing a cross-database compatible eCommerce platform.


By releasing this guide, we welcome everyone to obtain viable, technical information on the RDBMS changes we have made, so that developers can learn how to get the most from working with Magento in their system.

image

Magento voted “Best Shop System” by t3n community

T3n, Germany's leading print magazine revolving around e-Business, open source and web technologies, recently awarded Magento the coveted “Best Shop System” award at the ConventionCamp internet conference award ceremony in Hanover, Germany. For eight weeks, readers of the magazine voted on the most innovative and pioneering products, projects and services, casting over 60,000 votes, 20,000 nominations within 18 categories. Magento was one of ten finalists in the “Best Shop System” category.

We are thrilled that we were chosen by so many people as their preferred eCommerce platform. Germany has one of the most developed eCommerce markets in Europe and is home to a very large and growing Magento community.

image


"At Magento, we have a clear mission: empower the eCommerce ecosystem for success,” said Phil Robinson, Magento Vice President of Business Development, at the award ceremony. “We look forward to continue providing innovative solutions to this flourishing industry.”

Continued Growth and Momentum: Exciting News About the Magento Sales Leadership Team

To support the breakneck pace of our growth, we’re building out the Magento Sales Leadership team. I’m excited to share two pieces of news about our growing team.

Jary Carter is moving into a new role as Head of Worldwide Sales and Channel. In this new role, Jary will be responsible for Magento sales around the world. He’ll oversee the sales and channel organizations, including our Customer Success Group.

Since joining Magento as Head of North American Sales and Channel in September of 2010, Jary has been instrumental in building and rolling out a new sales model, hiring a high-performance sales team, and helping to drive revenue growth. We’re excited about the contributions that Jary will make to Magento and X.commerce as a global sales leader.

I’m also excited to introduce a new sales leader to the Magento team: Ben Pressley. Ben joined us last week as Head of North American Sales. Ben has extensive sales and leadership experience in open source software, and has held several positions with Novell’s Linux business. He received his undergraduate degree in organizational behavior from the University of Colorado and holds a Masters of Information Systems from the University of Utah.

Please join me in welcoming Ben, and in wishing Ben and Jary the best of luck in their new roles!

Magento Supports Facebook Open Graph 2.0!

The advantage of Facebook as a marketing tool for your online store just became a lot more powerful. Magento has introduced support for the new “Want” and “Own” Facebook buttons, driving social based traffic for all Magento online stores. The social buttons can be easily installed on product and catalog pages and are provided as a Magento core extension for Magento Community and Enterprise.

image Customers can now express themselves better than ever by adding items they “Want” on their Facebook pages for everyone to see and buy for them). Wish lists and Facebook profiles can now be closely linked.
 
image With the “Own” button marketing goes organic as consumers showcase items they are proud to own. Your customers become an extension of your marketing efforts as they are now able to answer questions, write reviews and provide recommendations on the products they own.

imageimage

Magento is the first eCommerce platform to offer integration for the “Want” and “Own” buttons with the Facebook Open Graph 2.0 extension. Give your products and your business the latest Facebook connection.


image

This feature is available for Magento Enterprise and Community only.

Magento U Training Courses Now Available On-Demand

image

We launched Magento U at our Imagine eCommerce Conference this past February to support the growing need for trained Magento developers, designers and systems administrators. Since that time we’ve run dozens of classes throughout the United States and Europe, training hundreds of students.

As demand for the Magento platform continues to escalate, the need for developers who are trained on the best practices for developing on Magento continues to grow around the world. In fact, demand has been so strong that it has outpaced our ability to provide enough courses in all requested locations.

That’s why I am excited to tell you that we now offer Magento U courses on-demand. These online versions of our classroom courses will make it easier for students anywhere in the world to access this training direct from Magento.

Learn Magento From Anywhere, Anytime

Magento U On-Demand courses let you enjoy the benefits of Magento’s expert instruction from anywhere at any time. Now, you can work Magento U training into your schedule, without having to travel to the classroom.

Two On-Demand Courses, More Coming Soon

We have taken our very successful “Fundamentals of Magento Development” course and are making it available in this new format so that it is more readily accessible to developers worldwide.

Additionally, we are also launching a new 3-part serial course titled “Managing Your Magento Store.” This series of courses – available only On-Demand, focuses on the Magento admin panel in the following three areas: Catalog Management, Product Marketing and Operations. Part 1 in the series – Catalog Management – is available now, Parts 2 & 3 will be available shortly.

Free for a Limited Time

To celebrate the launch of Magento U On-Demand Training, we’re making all of our online courses available for free for a short introductory period. Now you can benefit from the expert instruction and learn Magento best practices entirely for free!

To learn more about Magento U On-Demand courses and to register for your free courses, please visit our Magento U course catalog.

Introducing the New Magento Connect

 

We've taken the world's most popular eCommerce application marketplace and made it better.


Overview: What's "new" about the New Magento Connect?


Extensions Now Available for
Magento Go

 

Redesigned Navigation
and Search

 

Enhanced Extension
Listings


How the New Magento Connect will help the various groups within our community:

     

0

Magento Go Merchants

Tap into the full power of Magento with extensions

For the first time, merchants using Magento Go - the Software as a Service solution for small and emerging businesses - can access extensions that enhance their stores.

Merchants like you choose Magento go because you want the versatility and flexibility of the Magento platform without the need to host your own site or work with code. In other words, you want the flexibility, simplicity, and confidence provided by Magento in the cloud.

The New Magento Connect delivers on these key benefits:

  • Flexibility: Magento extensions enable merchants to cuztomize and enhance every area of your store - front and back end, integrations with other web services, marketing tools, themes and more.
  • Simplicity: The New Magento Connect enables merchants to purchase and activate many of these extensions with just a few clicks.
  • Confidence: "Trusted Extensions" let you know that Magento has reviewed the extension and found that it meets or exceeds specifications for security and performance, and that the extension comes from a trusted developer who has agreed to provide regular updates and technical support for the extension.

0

Magento Enterprise, Professional and Community Users

Now it's easier to find, evaluate and deploy the extensions you need.

We've redesigned Magento Connect with your needs (and input) in mind. Now it's easier to find, evaluate, purchase and deploy the best extensions to meet your needs.

  • Improved Browsing and Search: We've improved the site organization and search functionality, so you can find exactly what you're looking for more efficiently than ever.
  • Enhanced Listings: Extension listings are more detailed, with room for screencast videos, reviews and more, so you can be sure if an extension is right for your store before you buy.
  • Coming Soon - Trusted Extensions: While Trusted Extensions are initially available only for Magento Go, we'll be working with developers to qualify the best extensions for "Trusted" status across our other solutions in the months ahead.

0

Magento Developers

New functionality and features to help you boost extension sales.

With Magento Connect's new functionality and improved features, you'll have more ways to connect with merchants and build your sales of your extensions.

  • Offer extensions to Magento Go merchants: The New Magento Connect enables you to offer extensions to the rapidly-growing merchant base using Magento Go, the cloud-based eCommerce solution from Magento.
  • Market your extensions more effectively: Magento Connect's new marketing tools make it easier to set yourself apart from the competition, with enhanced listings and more opportunity to feature your extensions across different pages of the site.
  • Submit your extension for "Magento Trusted Extension" status: Have your extensions reviewed and offer added confidence to potential customers.
  • Build once, deploy many: Create your extension and make it available across all of Magento's solutions.

0

Developers Who Aren't Working With Magento... Yet

It's time to "connect" with the growth of Magento.

We've made it easier to become part of the Magento revolution.

You've heard stories about developers around the world who have built successful businesses by creating and selling extensions for Magento; now it's easier for you to create your own success story.

More than a 1,000 Magento stores come online every day. These include eCommerce newcomers signing up with Magento Go, world-class retailers moving their stores to Magento Enterprise, and every type and size of merchant in between. What they all have in common is the desire to create a store that meets their specific marketing, merchandising and operational needs.

These merchants turn to Magento Connect to find extensions they need. Over 4800 extensions are available, and these extensions have been downloaded more than 4 million times from Magento Connect, generating $100 million in annual revenue for developers.

Magento Connect is the most visited page on the Magento website; it's also the largest eCommerce application marketplace in the world.

With Magento, you can develop extensions that customize, extend, or replace core functionality within the merchant store on premise and in the cloud. You can create enhancements for the front-end or back-end of a store. You can create integrations with other web services... and much, much more.

And once you've created the extension, you can market it to a growing universe of merchants via the New Magento Connect.


As you see, no matter where you sit within the Magento ecosystem, the new Magento Connect with help you "connect" with the resources you need to succeed. Come visit our marketplace today!

Visit Magento Connect

RSS: All Blog Posts

Get New Posts by Email


Delivered by FeedBurner