Magento

We’re currently working on a Drupal / Magento integration which is at the early stages.  Here are the 3 main areas we’re covering at this stage:

1. Sharing a session between Drupal and Magento (Done)

2. Passing the Magento product structure back through to Drupal to create a common menu structure (50% there)

3. Utilising the member / user database of one to enable the other (to do, but based on the Magento PHP Architect book which has a chapter on doing this).

It’s all to make Magento sit within Drupal, not the other way around and we’re pretty much ignoring the Magento templates as so much can be done with the Magento API.

Don’t ask me about Drupal module specifics at the moment as we’re not ready to publish anything, but it would be good to hear from people who (a) have got further than we have and actually have Drupal and Magento running together, particularly where users are concerned or (b) would benefit from implementing this themselves.

This isn’t likely to be published as a Magento module as it will be a way of pulling Magento data into Drupal, but when we get it to work (not an if, but when) we’ll publish it here and also through the Drupal community.

All the best

Dan

schmelzgeist - 24 July 2008 05:21 AM

I would prefer Digitalus, since it is based on Zend Framework

+1

You missed an option in your Poll

NONE OF THE ABOVE.

I would much rather the Magento team work on making the best possible shopping system than waste time integrating with a CMS.

schmelzgeist - 24 July 2008 01:21 PM

I would prefer Digitalus, since it is based on Zend Framework

+1

While I agree that development of Magento’s ecommerce features should take priority over CMS integration, I disagree strongly such a long-term goal would be a “waste of time”.

Customers, the people who pay us for our hard work, want to build communities, as well as sell products. To not be able to seamlessly integrate with a CMS would force Magento into the vast pool of standalone shopping cart platforms. CMS integration would make it stand out above all others, which in turn would lead to larger development resources and a better application with a long future.

Webmasters should only have to update templates, js, and CSS in one place, using one theming system. With more sites including articles, galleries, video, podcasts, store, blogs, forums - all in one place - the need for streamlined, efficient maintenance from a central application has never been greater. Joomla and Drupal have a lot of potential as solutions, as they are not just CMSes, they are APIs.

Editors (the users who have to update content on the site after you, the developer, have handed them the keys) should only have to update site content, store information, etc, through one UI.

Users should be given the most straightforward web experience possible, with the fewest clicks between homepage and purchase, and only one user account.

CMS integration is extremely valuable.

If I can offer my client a POS cash register (e.g. Quickbooks POS), eCommerce (Magento) and CMS/Blog/News/Press Release/Community (Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, phpBB, etc) and have them all “work together” I will have a happier customer than one who has to update inventory separately on the web, use a different login for updating press releases than the one for logging into the online store, etc.

I am sure there are customers who “just need a store that does what it’s supposed to” and that should definitely be top priority at all times. CMS integration should not be too far down the list, though. The customers I deal with want it all and they want it now, apologies to Queen.