Magento

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we’d like to share an open letter to the heroes of the Magento ecosystem…

Dear Magento Certified Developers,

It’s hard to believe, but only 14 months ago there was no such thing as a “Magento Certified Developer.” Sure, there were lots of great Magento developers out there…but there was no objective way for these developers to validate their skills and no practical way for companies who hire Magento developers to know which of you were truly qualified.

What a difference a year makes!

Today, there are more than 1200 of you: individuals who have earned the “Magento Certified Developer” or “Magento Certified Developer Plus” credential. You work for our top Solution Partners, Industry Partners, and customers. You live in 52 countries around the world. And you bring the highest level of expertise to your projects.

As you know better than anyone, Magento solutions are powerful, flexible, and sophisticated. In the hands of experts, Magento can do pretty much anything, as our customer’s success stories demonstrate. And you have demonstrated your unsurpassed skill – as well as your commitment to quality – by earning our most prestigious credential: Magento Developer Certification.

We’re not the only ones who hold you in high regard: wherever companies are implementing Magento solutions – which is pretty much everywhere – demand is soaring for your services. And we’ve made it easier than ever for these companies to find you.

We’ll close with three quick Valentine’s Day invitations:

• Keep it fresh: Check the Magento U Catalog for courses that will help you expand your skill set.
• Share the love: Tell your developer colleagues about the benefits of certification and encourage them to take the exam.
• Get a hug: While we haven’t yet deployed the MCDVDHS (Magento Certified Developer Valentine’s Day Hug Squad), hugs of appreciation will be available for any certified developer who attends our Imagine eCommerce conference in April. (Register soon—tickets are going fast!)

Once again, our very best Valentine’s Day wishes to all of our Magento Certified Developers. We love your passion, and we honor your commitment to doing great work!

Magento Certified Developers are our heroes! We love to hear their stories—and help them get recognition by sharing their stories on our blog.
In the spotlight today is Tim Wagner, Head of Design and Development for TechDivision GmbH, a Magento Gold Solution Partner based in Bayern, Germany.

Tell us a little about your business, and how you became involved with Magento.
I had my first contact with Magento while working on a project that used Magento as a framework, and not as a shop system. At that time Magento’s potential was already recognizable, although the software was in its early stages. As TechDivision had already decided to offer Magento exclusively to its customers, we were able to hone our Magento skills before most agencies. Over time our projects grew larger and larger because customers were looking specifically for agencies that had a great deal of Magento experience and a number of reference projects.

What are some of the key factors behind your success with Magento?
The extensive experience we gained by starting early with Magento and the number of projects we finished successfully were very important factors behind our current success. Another important factor is the quality of the Magento extensions we have developed for our customers, and our ability to reuse those extensions for new projects. 

Why did you decide to have your developers take the Magento Developer Certification exam?
To earn the Magento certification it is necessary for developers to fully understand the Magento architecture and the underlying technology. For this reason each developer who successfully completes the certification can rightly be called an “expert,” which validates what we do. Another reason is that we need at least four certified developers on staff to retain our Magento Gold Partner status. We have always emphasized providing our employees with career development and training, and because of this we also have certified scrum masters and product owners as well as Google certified employees.

How many Magento Certified Developers do you currently have on staff, and how will having these Magento Certified Developers on staff help your business?
Currently we have ten Magento Certified Plus Developers on staff, which makes us the agency with the most certified developers in Europe. Large customers value the fact that their agency of choice has so many Magento Certified Developers, because this ensures the successful implementation of a Magento shop project, and ensures that Magento expertise won´t get lost even if an employee leaves the project. In this way we’re able to maintain the highest level of customer support.

The certifications are also important for our Magento consulting business and our new Magento Code Review offering, because they reflect our depth of experience and the quality of our development services. 

What types of projects have you worked on? What types of projects most interest you?
For me the most interesting and challenging projects were the re-launches of the Ritter Sport shop and the WMF shop because of its extremely short time-to-market. The size of the WMF project and the fact that you can implement extensive enterprise systems on Magento was very impressive to me.

Beside my work with Magento, the progress of PHP in recent years has fascinated me and I’m excited about how development will evolve in the future, especially for enterprise systems. Really interesting and also a lot of fun for me are the Magento events in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Besides learning a lot of new information we always find that Magento organizes the best parties.

Would you like to share anything else about TechDivision?
Our agency is located in a beautiful area, where other people like to spend their vacations. I spend most of my free time in the local mountains, and on my bike or on a weekend trip to nearby lakes such as Chiemsee, often called the Bavarian Sea, or Lake Garda in Italy. Come for a visit!

Developers: find out how you can join the growing ranks of Magento Certified Developers:

We’ve added two new courses to the Magento Checkout Series to help you distinguish yourself from the competition and take your training to the next level. These new courses represent the second and third installations in a six-part series designed to teach experienced Magento developers how to customize Magento Checkout.

Magento Checkout – Part II: Onepage Checkout*
Course Description: A strong understanding of the architecture underlying Onepage Checkout is critical to learning how to create extensions and customize checkout. The foundational knowledge you’ll gain in this on-demand course will prepare you for learning how to customize other areas of Magento Checkout, including Shipping, Taxes and Payment methods.

Dates: This course can be completed online anytime.

Magento Checkout – Part III: Shipping**
Course Description: Magento developers will gain a deeper understanding of the architecture underlying Magento Shipping methods and the role of the Shipping Address object in this instructor-led, online course. Students will then learn how to more easily and efficiently create custom shipping methods and calculations, customize the shipping-related user interface, and more.

Dates: March 4 – 7, 8am – 12pm PST.

Additional courses in the six-part Magento Checkout Series will cover Payment, Order Placement, and Taxes and Discounts. Stay tuned for course descriptions and dates!

*Requires developers first complete Part I: Shopping Cart & Price Calculations (next class starts February 4!)
** Requires developers first complete Requires Part I: Shopping Cart & Price Calculations and Part II: Onepage Checkout

Magento U expanded its reach in 2012, offering classes in Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, and Sydney. We also launched our Online Instructor-Led training program so that students from all over the world could benefit from live instruction, group interaction, and all Magento U has to offer.

Here is what our instructors had to say about Magento U classes in 2012: 

“In 2012 instructing Magento U trainings has been a big treat and adventure. Seeing so many motivated, bright, and fun developers working on Magento projects makes me proud to be part of it. I’m very excited about what will happen in 2013 and the years to come!” - Vinai Kopp

“For 2013 I’m looking forward to new & advanced course offerings, and of course to meet more and more developers as we help increase the level of knowledge in the developer community. After training literally hundreds of developers in person, 2012 has continued to prove to me how much I enjoy what I do and how much I enjoy helping others become better Magento developers.” – Ben Marks

“It has been exciting to watch Magento U grow from our first summer series in 2010… and I’m very excited to be a part of Magento U as we face the new challenges of commerce in 2013.” – Karen Kilroy

“My favorite part of MagentoU is when my students ask questions that are unexpected, difficult or unusual. It allows me to take the course beyond the script which enhances it for everyone. The unexpected adds a little spice. And being from Texas, spicy is good.” – Kevin Schroder

Thanks to all of our students and instructors for making Magento U a great place to learn and grow. We have classes in new locations planned for 2013, and are continuing to expand the Magento U curriculum!

Download the Magento U 2013 Course Catalog

We asked Vinai Kopp, one of our expert Magento U course instructors, to share his experiences teaching the five-day Fundamentals of Magento Development Fundamentals of Magento Development course in Amsterdam. Here’s his story:

I had the opportunity to teach Magento U’s Fundamentals of Magento Development in Amsterdam. The course started on Monday morning at 8:30 a.m., with everybody a bit excited and uncertain about what to expect over the next five days. After a round of introductions it became apparent that the developers with whom we were to spend our week were a really nice group.

We started the class by covering some basic ground to make sure we were all on the same page. Then we dove right into learning about the Magento configuration sub-system, how it’s built, and how developers should use it for maximum effect.

From there, we started learning about Magento developer tools, Factory Methods, and Class Rewrites and Event Observers. We covered not just how to use them, but how each works. This included reviewing core code—something every Magento developer should be comfortable doing. Each theoretical lesson was followed by practical exercises to integrate what we had learned so that it would become part of our regular skill set. The students asked a lot of excellent questions, and spirits where high.

We spent the second day covering the main steps of the Magento request flow, which included creating and rewriting Action Controllers. During one of the breaks a student started implementing a custom router, which was a topic we had just covered in class. It was personally gratifying to me to see a student apply what he had just learned in class to a real-world task. It showed that the material we were covering was valuable, and that the time students were investing in learning the material was well spent.

On Day Three, we focused on the design sub-system, covering Design Fall-Back, best practices for implementing themes, and modifying XML layouts. The practical exercises soon had everybody feeling at home with these elements of Magento. Then we started learning about the Magento ORM and working with the database, which took us into Day Four.

We covered the basics of ORM, including setup resources, classes, and scripts, and then Magento EAV models. Besides covering EAV theory, we focused on real-world concerns, such as what it’s good at, where to watch out, and how to use it in daily situations. Attribute backend, source, and front-end models were covered at depth.

We spent the final day of the course working with the Magento admin panel, starting with the ACL, system configuration, grid and form widgets, and finally, third-party extensions.

A question that was asked several times was whether completing the Fundamentals of Magento Development course gave you enough knowledge and experience to pass the Magento Certified Developer exam. My opinion is that the course can give you valuable training to become a better Magento developer, which in turn can help you get the experience you need to earn your certification.

The best thing to do after the 5 days is to practice and gain more experience, though that part will be much easier and quicker than without the training. A thing I say in almost every training is:  “The first three times you do something are the hardest, but you get to do the first one or two times during the training where you can get help if you need it.”

After many years of web-development, Vinai Kopp started developing Magento modules as part of the community since March 2008. He joined Magento Inc. in October 2011 as a manager of developer education. He also serves as a Magento certification board member and is a known speaker as a technical subject matter expert on Magento. Vinai has co-authored of the German Magento Developer Handbook published by O’reilly. He enjoys getting to know developers and projects. In his spare time he likes travelling, spending time with his wife and his two children, and running.

We asked you to tell us why you want to become a Magento Certified Developer, and you amazed us with your enthusiastic responses. Hence, we have decided to increase the number of winners from three to ten! Following are the randomly selected winners from the large pool of eligible tweets (handles are partially hidden). Drumroll please…

@JamazXXX

@scottXXX

‏@chrismaiXXX

@navaneethXXX

@sjoerdmaesXXX

@WhyeSoSerXXX

@tlsXXX

@thoglXXX

‏@Aleksandr_XXX

‏@kuldip_XXX

Congratulations to all the winners! We will send your certification exam voucher numbers directly to you via twitter.

Once you receive your voucher, to redeem it:
1.) Visit the Magento Certification exam page on Prometric.com
2.) Select the “Start Here” button to locate your test center and schedule your exam.
3.) Upon checkout, use the exam voucher you were provided.

Exams must be scheduled and taken at your nearest Prometric testing center before the end of the 2012 calendar year.

Become a Magento Certified developer and join the elite community of Magento's best developers!

We started the Magento Developer Certification program to give merchants a tangible way to identify a developer's skill set when they are hiring, and give developers a way to validate their expertise and differentiate themselves from the competition. Now we want to hear from you.

Tell us why you want to become a Magento Certified Developer in 140 characters or less, and enter to win one of three exam vouchers!

Participation is easy:

1. Tweet your response by December 06, 2012, 11:59 p.m. PST
2. Include @ Magento and the hashtag #mdc in your tweet

The Magento U Team will select three winners at random from the eligible tweets, and contact winners by December 10, 2012. Please note that the winning developers must use their exam vouchers by December 31, 2012.*

Magento Solution Partners have always been serious about being the best Magento developers in the world, but when Magento U introduced the certification program as a way for Magento developers to gain advanced levels of Magento competency and differentiate themselves from the competition, we didn’t anticipate the race for the most certified developers that would follow. The volume of certifications achieved is a real measure of our partners’ aptitude for our platform and the pride they take in their Magento knowledge.

We would like to take this opportunity to recognize the partners who are leading the field…

	Gorilla Headquartered in Chicago, Gold Partner Gorilla combines user-experience design, frontend and backend development, digital strategy, and post-launch managed services to create relevant, functional shopping experiences.
	NetStarter As a Sydney based eCommerce and Digital Marketing Agency, NetStarter is a Magento Gold Partners working with leading brands and retailers on their eCommerce solutions.
	CorraTech Headquartered in New York and Los Angeles, Gold Partner CorraTech's Project Management Office boasts professional PMP-certified project managers; our creative team has extensive large-agency experience with award-winning portfolios.
	Lyonscg Headquartered in Chicago, Gold Partner Lyonscg has years of experience in eCommerce creative design, platform customization, strategy, training, backend integration, hosting and support.
	Zeon Headquartered Wisconson and Michigan, Gold Partner Zeon proudly boasts a team of seasoned executives, passionate about technology. Since 2003, we have been successfully delivering enterprise scale, effective web-stores.

Magento Solution Partners are design and eCommerce experts, but more importantly, they are Magento specialists. If you are launching your first online store or updating an existing site, look no further than our one of our solutions partners to help you achieve eCommerce excellence.