We’ve recently spotted a couple of great Magento install tutorials.
The first is by a Magento Community member, srikat. The article goes through an installation for Dreamhost (although it can be applied to any hosting provider) and includes a ~5 minute screencast. Highly recommended.
We’d like to open up the discussion and hear your thoughts about RSS feeds. What would you like Magento to offer the Customer and the Store Owner (Admin)?
Although we can’t promise we’ll develop it all, we’d love to get creative ideas from the community. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
We are pleased to announce the availability for download of Magento Preview version 0.6.13700. The major highlights of the release include the first implementation of a Magento DataFlow module (import/export tool), UPS and DHL shipping integration support, and catalog rewrite rules (for search engine optimization).
Major Highlights:
Added DHL shipping method integration
Added UPS XML shipping integration
Added admin dashboard preview
Added batch export/import tool preview
Added catalog URL rewrites
Added configurable option to show breadcrumbs on CMS pages
Impovements and Bugfixes:
Improved collections performance
Optimized core/email_template_filter
Fixed backups creating bug
Fixed CMS noroute, added 404 http status for not found page
Added handling of ajax session expiration in frontend and in admin
Added custom layout update xml field to CMS pages
Fixed minor issues in tablerate export
Added multiline form field type
Moved subscription logic to Mage_Newsletter
Disallowed deleting of default customer groups
Fixed checking $_SERVER variables when not run from webserver
Added storing original loaded data in models
Fixed EAV cache
Made admin secure loading when set up
Fixed Vietnamese locale name
Fixed few wishlist issues (shared wishlist display, wishlist links translation, add all to cart, product URLs in shared wishlist email)
Fixed admin permissions grid issues
Mysqli, pdo_mysql failsafe free result before statement fix
Added possibility to show root category list of products in Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List
Fixed admin search, catalog search and newsletter queue bugs in admin
Fixed loading some translation files
Moved SKU to catalog/product entity table, fixed finding unique value in static attribute
Fixed bug with cache tags in core/app
Fixed utf-8 charset name
Fixed per store attribute labels
Fixed mcrypt key length
Fixed Javascript bug in installation wizard
Fixed secure URL validation during installation
Few logical bugfixes for EAV collection and core resource setup
Fixed search problem with ? in query
Fixed problem with retrieving regions list in admin
Changed default template for credit card info block to show only 4 last digits
Fixed absolute/relative URLs bug
Known Issues:
System fields values are not translated when exporting data
Multistore and multiple values support in batch export/import tool is missing, right now we have only per store import/export
Interactive file upload will be improved in the next releases
We are awaiting for a community feedback on testing DHL shipping method integration
There is no xml validation for batch export/import advanced profile
Admin dashboard doesn’t show zero value entries
Store filter exports all customers that belong to the website the store is in
Open text ftp account password in xml
Notes:
Right after the installation or upgrade go to the Admin -> System -> Cache Management, check the ‘Refresh Catalog Rewrites’ checkbox and click on ‘Save cache settings’ button in order to get new URL rewrites updated
GUI for managing URL rewrites will be released in future releases
If you (or your company) are interested in learning more about partnership opportunities with Varien / Magento, please sign up at http://www.magentocommerce.com/partners.
We are looking for systems integrators, development firms, design / creative agencies, advertising agencies, hosting providers, and IT firms worldwide to join us and help lead the quest to revitalize the open source eCommerce industry.
We expect to make a formal announcement regarding the partnership opportunities within 90 days.
A frequent question that comes up on the forum and through the many emails we receive is:
Can Magento do X, Y and Z?
The short answer to that is yes - Magento can do it all (no restrictions what-so-ever as we like say). If there is a feature you can’t find, Magento’s flexible architecture and open source code allows you to customize the system to your needs.
A better question would be (as I suspect this is the real question), can Magento do X, Y, Z out-of-the-box? For the answer to that, check out the features page
It's been a busy week for the Magento core development team and today we are announcing Magento DataFlow, a flexible and powerful data exchange engine.
How does it work?
Magento DataFlow is a framework for creating components that are used in data exchange processes. The system consists of 4 types of components; adapters, parsers, mappers, and validators. All components can be sequenced to transfer and transform data bidirectionally from one medium to another (eg. from database to local file, from FTP server to database, from SOAP/REST/XML-RPC to database, from Google Spreadsheet to database). If you are non-technical, please feel free to skip to the What Can Be Done section below.
Adapters are anything that can plug into an external resource and fetch requested and filtered data. This may include:
Local files
FTP, SFTP servers
Database table
Web Services
HTTP interface
Custom resources (specialized db interface, cache repository, etc.)
Shell Pipes
Parsers are components that transform data from one format to another. Examples include:
CSV text to 2D array
Excel XML text to 2D array
Grid array to product model collection
Database table to 2D array
Mappers are components that alter data from one value to another. They're useful for tasks such as mapping one field to another or manipulating data values.
Validators determine that certain conditions are met. The conditions can be applied to processed data or environment variables. (Currently there are no validators implemented in Magento and this is reserved for future use).
What can be done?
As a first implementation, Magento's next release will preview a product import/export interface that facilitates adding and/or editing batched product data via a file (MS-EXCEL, CSV and Tab-Separated values), and a customer batch export interface. Others uses for Magento DataFlow may include:
Batch export of any type of data in any implemented format and the ability to import back after changes.
Data export for pricing aggregators (eg. Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, Bizrate, etc.), including the ability to automatically FTP files.
Data import and integration with 3rd party ERP / inventory management / accounting applications (eg. SAP, Great Plains, MAS 90/2000, Oracle, Netsuite, Quickbooks, Peachtree, etc.)
Integration with 3rd party CRM solutions (eg. SugarCRM, SalesLogix, Salesforce.com, ACT, etc.)
Integration with order management applications and EDI interfaces
Fetching or publishing RSS/Atom feeds (eg. new products, special prices, product availability, order status, etc.)
It is important to note that Magento DataFlow is a framework and the specific implementations listed above should serve only as examples of the endless possibilities that can be developed. We hope the Magento Community will embrace this concept and utilize to contribute different implementations.
I am a real fan of Open Source software, and there are some great projects around, however up till now the e-commerce category has missed out. Nearly all of the open-source e-commerce systems I have checked out are just big piles of spaghetti code, that not only make development and maintenance of online shops a headache, I consider them to be grave security risks.
Magento has actually been designed - that has got to count for something! While with other projects I wince when I look under the hood, with Magento I am being pleasantly surprised by each new aspect I look at. In fact, I think there is a lot I can learn from this well implemented system. It is now only a preview release, and it is already light-years ahead.
