Magento

We’re pleased to announce the latest Magento releases: Magento Enterprise 1.12 and Community 1.7. The recent enhancements to our powerful eCommerce offerings help merchants provide a more personalized shopping experience for their customers.

Benefits include easier order placement, mobile optimization and multiple wish lists. These enhancements give merchants greater potential to boost consumer engagement, increase conversions and transaction size, and foster brand loyalty.

All merchants, including those running B2B businesses, can take advantage of improved customer segmentation and ordering capabilities. While those operating in Europe can use our new features to stay compliant with EU regulations.

Of course, our latest releases have lots in store for developers too, including a new API, and backup and rollback systems.

Read on to learn about the key features in our new releases and how they can benefit you.

	Mobile HTML5 Quickly and easily create a storefront optimized for mobile devices so customers can shop even when they’re on the go. This mobile interface uses HTML5 technology and supports iPhone, Android and Mobile Opera browsers. It includes out-of-the-box features such as: Device-specific media capabilities for audio and video User-friendly search and results display Clean display of product detail pages Pinch, multi-touch and scaling images Easy swipe between product images Zoom capabilities Cross-sell and up-sell capabilities Drag-and-drop of products to the shopping cart
	Visitor Segmentation Tap into a whole new customer segment – unknown site visitors. Whether they’re new visitors or returning customers who have not logged in, you’ll now be able to identify and target them with special promotions to convert browsers into buyers.
	Expanded Rule-based Product Relations Our rule-based product-relations functionality allows merchants to target specific customer segments with product recommendations. Pinpoint specific customers with up-sells, cross-sells and related products to create a more relevant shopping experience.
	Auto-generation of Coupon Codes Generate a set of unique coupon codes for each promotion you run and export the list of codes for offline distribution, email, newsletters and more. Easily manage and monitor coupon usage and generate detailed reports.
	Multiple Wish Lists Customers can save products to multiple wish lists and copy or move items from list to list. They can make their wish lists public so they’re searchable by anyone. And merchants can review them to learn about their customers’ wants and needs.
	Layered Navigation Pricing Enhancement We’ve introduced a new set of algorithms for price-layered navigation that provides much greater flexibility. Now you can display a range of prices that is based on having a similar number of products within each range, giving you better control of your customers’ search results, and helping your customers find what they’re looking for faster.
	Customer Group Pricing One price doesn’t always fit all. This tool allows you to create different price points for different customer groups, such as wholesalers and retailers. You can determine both base price and tiered price levels.
	Add to Cart by SKU Streamline the ordering process, especially for B2B customers, by enabling them to enter a list of SKUs without having to go into product pages. This simplifies large orders, recurring orders and ordering based on offline catalogs.
	REST APIs Support The new Magento REST API uses three-legged OAuth 1.0a protocol to allow applications to safely access Magento services. What this means for you? You can manage customers, customer addresses, sales orders, inventories and products using HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). Data requests and responses can be in XML or JSON format. This initial version of the REST API supports the following functions: Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete a simple product Retrieve a list of orders and specific order information Update/Retrieve catalog inventory Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete complete customer information
	European Union VAT-ID Validation This feature facilitates the tax collection process for online businesses in the EU and greatly simplifies international B2B transactions by automatically applying the correct tax rules. Taxes can be calculated and charged according to VAT customer groups, based on customer shipping or billing addresses and VAT IDs.
	EU Cookie Restriction Our response to the recent EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive? A new cookie notification feature that simplifies the compliance process. Once enabled, a message at the top of the storefront informs site visitors about the cookie policy and prompts them to accept or decline.
	CMS Page Hierarchy Enhancements Managing your CMS hierarchy tree just got easier. Now you can add CMS pages to the navigation menu without custom development. You can also create, copy or delete different CMS hierarchy trees for each website and store view individually or en masse..
	Backup and Rollback Manage and schedule a variety of backup operations with the option to rollback the changes to reverse any modifications. This feature is particularly useful when testing new modules or customizations, or when upgrading to a new version of Magento. You can review specific customizations and their impact on the new code. (We do not recommend using this feature in your production environment.) Three types of backup are supported: System Backup Database Backup Database and Media Backup
	Payment Bridge 1.1 Updates Magento Secure Payment Bridge, our PA-DSS certified payment application, adds multiple new payment methods. In addition to our existing supported gateways – PayPal, Authorize.net and Payflow Pro – we are introducing support for the following new gateways: Psi Gate RBS Worldpay Database and Media Backup Braintree First Data Card Gate Plus DIBS eWay Direct Ogone Directlink Paybox Payone Sage Pay CCAvenue Supported by services provided by Braintree or Authorize.net, customers can also securely save their credit card information for future transactions in a “My Credit Cards” section in “My Account.” And with support from Kount, you can integrate fraud-screening services with your payment methods (requires separate agreement with Kount).
	CAPTCHA Now you can enable CAPTCHA functionality on your site to help prevent automated software from attempting fake logins. This auto-generated test ensures that the login is being attempted by a person and can be enabled in both the admin and customer login areas.

Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact us and we’ll help you get started.

If you’re already a Magento Enterprise customer, you can immediately access the new 1.12 release in the My Account section. And developers can access the new Community edition by clicking here.

We hope you enjoy these new features and look forward to helping you achieve greater eCommerce success.

We are excited to announce the release of Magento Community Preview Version CE 1.7.0.0-RC1.

Before you begin downloading this preview version of our latest Community software from our download page or via SVN, we need to stress that it’s likely unstable and that we DON’T recommend that you use it in any production environment just yet. (For more info about preview releases and the Community edition release process click here.)

Highlights of improvements and new features include:

• Different base prices for customer groups
• Automatic generation of multiple coupon codes for a single promotion
• Backup and Rollback functionality
• CAPTCHA functionality to reduce spam registrations
• First version of REST APIs with support for:
  
  
  • -Creation, retrieval, update and deletion operations for simple products
  • -Retrieval of a list of orders as well as specific order information
  • -Update and retrieval operations for catalog inventory
  • -Creation, retrieval, update and deletion operations with complete customer information and customer address information
  • -More information on the REST APIs will be published soon
• Updates and enhancements to the existing SOAP and XML-RPC APIs with introduction of new API calls
• VAT ID validation for B2B sales in Europe
• New price range layered navigation algorithm
• HTML5 based theme for mobile devices

And that’s just the beginning. Check out our full list of features and fixed issues on our release notes page. Or take the software for a test drive and see how it works first hand. Diff files are available here. If you find any issues, be sure to report them in the bugtracker.

Testing. Testing. Are you there? Good. Now that we’ve got your attention, we want to tell you about the new Magento Test Automation Framework, or TAF for short.

This software package is ideal for running repeated functional tests against a normally installed Magento application. And if you’re a developer or QA specialist, you’re in for a treat. You can quickly develop all kinds of tests for the current Magento version without having to tediously build an automation infrastructure.

Besides running repeated tests, Magento TAF can also be used to create tests and write test automation scripts. Test automation scripts created within the framework can be used for testing most Magento functionality. And we’re constantly updating the Selenium-based framework to cover even more tests and meet users’ broad needs.

In this latest release of the framework, we’ve introduced a robust set of new tests and capabilities:

	1000 Functional Tests We’ve created a comprehensive Smoke Test Suite that evaluates the full range of functionality of the Magento Community Edition. This suite covers all test cases that are run during Magento nightly builds and tested by our development team. And it’s designed specifically for developers to use and expand upon.
	Error Screenshot Capture Test failure errors happen. And when they do, Magento TAF captures and stores screenshots of any open pages in .png and html formats in the tmp/screenshot folder. If a JavaScript error occurs, the screenshot is captured and stored in the .png format. And Markup errors are captured and stored in the html format. The failed test name contains the class name, test name and a timestamp, this way it’s easy to retrieve the screenshot. And the full path to the screenshot is stored in a log next to the error message so it can be accessed directly.
	Unlimited UI Testing With Magento TAF, you can test as many UI areas as you’d like. This comes in especially handy when testing several store views or stores utilizing different designs. Each store – or store view – can have a unique UI map but operate with the original set of tests. This removes nesting and naming restrictions for UI map folders and allows users to organize them as they wish. The UI areas can be determined in the local.yml file for each url to be used by Magento TAF. Based on user-defined urls, Magento TAF automatically detects which set of UI maps should be used and loads the relevant descriptors for the current page. With this enhancement, the tester doesn’t have to worry about switching between UI areas within the test body. Users can declare separate UI maps for non-Magento side services specific to their store and write tests in the same way they’re written for Magento services.

See the Installation Guide under “Example of config.yml File” for an example of a UI map area declaration. Please note, before your first run, search for the ‘YOUR CREDENTIALS’ string within the data folder and update that value with your account credentials.

Magento TAF’s newest features help take the task out of testing. And, even though it just came down the product pipeline, it’s already been adopted and put to good use by many developers. In fact, we have to give a virtual fist pump to Kristof Ringleff from Fooman and Nick Jones (punkstar) from Meanbee for all their contributions.

To download the Magento TAF, go to the Magento Test Automation Framework section at the bottom of this page:

If you’d like to read the complete repository, installation and configuration guidelines, check them out at:

2011: New Records, New Opportunities

Just a month ago, we celebrated the end of our greatest year yet, a year in which we celebrated countless milestones, highlights of which include:

• Our first global conference, Imagine eCommerce, which sold out and earned 100% favorability ratings from attendees
• The launch of Magento Go, our hosted solution for small and micro merchants
• The 3 millionth download of the free, groundbreaking Magento Community software
• The hiring of our 300th employee
• Our acquisition by eBay, Inc. and the creation of X.commerce
• The launch of Magento U and Magento Developer Certification
• The introduction of Magento Enterprise v1.11, our most powerful and sophisticated offering to date
• The growth of our Solution Partner Network to 330 partners
• Surpassing the 5,000 extension milestone on Magento Connect
• The launch of the New Magento Connect, including extensions for Magento Go

2012: Momentum and Acceleration

In true Magento style, we’re planning for even greater growth in 2012. And the year is already off to an incredible start:

• This week, our 400th employee joined the organization, another remarkable milestone in Magento’s growth
• The momentum behind Magento Enterprise continues to accelerate, as thousands more world-class merchants discover the unique benefits of our platform and ecosystem
• Tickets and sponsorships for the 2nd Imagine conference (Las Vegas, April 23rd – 25th) are selling at a breakneck pace (in fact, we expect to be sold out very soon, well ahead of the event)
• And we’re seeing tremendous demand for our recently-introduced Magento Enterprise Premium offering, which combines multi-year, multi-server licenses with a package of premium services to create the optimal solution for large-scale implementations

Product Line-Up: Focusing on Growth

Magento has always been focused on growth – specifically, the growth of our customers’ businesses and the growth of the ecosystem that supports their success. By focusing on what’s most important to our customers, we’ve helped transform the eCommerce landscape in just a few short years.

We are committed to continuous evaluation and innovation of our product portfolio to ensure our customers remain competitive and win in their markets. Following an extensive review of our current solutions and projected customer needs, we are making an important change: we are phasing out the Magento Professional Edition.

While Magento Professional was embraced by a significant number of merchants, we have seen much greater demand for our Enterprise. and new Enterprise Premium offerings. This tells us that more of our mid-large size customers want the benefits offered by these comprehensive solutions.

Phasing out Magento Professional will allow us to focus our efforts and investments on enhancing our Magento Enterprise and Enterprise Premium solutions, as well as on our Community project and our hosted solution, Magento Go.

There will be no immediate impact to current customers on Magento Professional. We will be working with our Professional customers individually to provide various options for continuing their eCommerce success with Magento.

What’s Next?

The Magento milestones keep coming, and the next several months will be filled with exciting news and announcements from our company and our ecosystem.

Many of these announcements will be made at the Imagine Conference. But plenty of additional news will be announced both before and after Imagine. Highlights include:

• The launch of our Magento Certified Developer online directory, the easiest way to locate the world’s most qualified Magento developers
• New releases across our product line
• Integrations with exciting products from the X.commerce ecosystem
• More growth, more customer success, more partnerships

We’re looking forward to working with our customers and partners on making 2012 a truly memorable year. Our thanks to the entire Magento community for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

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.


-The Magento team

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

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.

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.

	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.
	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.

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.

This feature is available for Magento Enterprise and Community only.

The Magento Mobile native app continues to bridge the gap between what your customers experience when they visit your physical, online and mobile stores. A new release of Magento Mobile includes a number of features that both consumers and merchants will find beneficial.

Magento Mobile will be more deeply integrated with your inventory management system. An “out-of-stock” notice can be presented with the product listing and merchants are able to segment inventory to make items available on their online store vs. the mobile store (native app).

With the latest release of Magento Mobile, items in a wish list that are added to the shopping cart are automatically removed from the wish list – keeping everything up-to-date.

Magento mobile stores now support payment with gift cards and store credit.

Customers are able to view complete details of an order. Once customers purchase an item they can write a product review or rate a product, directly from their smart phone.

PCI compliance just got easier with support for Magento Payment Bridge on Magento Mobile.

Merchants and developers will love the fact that Magento Mobile supports the ability to preview the behavior of their app and how it will operate with their online store, before they push it live.

This latest release of Magento Mobile makes the complete mobile shopping experience much more satisfying. Customers will enjoy shopping on their mobile device with improved product rendering and ordering capabilities. With the ability to rate and review products users will encourage other mobile shoppers to buy.