Magento – Architecture

Magento – Architecture ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we are going to discuss the architectural style of Magento, for implementing user interfaces. The following diagram shows the architecture of Magento − The Magento architecture comes with Models, Views and Controllers. User Request − The user sends a request to a server in the form of request message where web browsers, search engines, etc. act like clients. View − View represents the data in particular format. It is the user interface which is responsible for displaying the response for user request. It specifies an idea behind the presentation of the model”s data to the user. Views are used to reflect “how your data should look like”. Controller − The controller is responsible for responding to user input and perform interactions on the data model objects. It uses models to process the data and send responses back to the view. Model − The model is responsible for managing the data of the application. It contains logic of the data and represents basic data object in the framework. It responds to request from the view and to the instructions from the controller to update itself. Database − Database contains the information which is requested from the user. When the user requests data, view sends requests to the controller, the controller requests from the model and the model fetches the required information from the database and responds to the user. WSDL − WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language. It is used for describing web services and how to access them. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Discussion

Discuss Magento ”; Previous Next Magento is an open source E-commerce software, created by Varien Inc., which is useful for online business. It has a flexible modular architecture and is scalable with many control options that is helpful for users. Magento uses E-commerce platform which offers organizations ultimate E-commerce solutions and extensive support network. This tutorial will teach you the basics of Magento using which you can create websites with ease. The tutorial is divided into various sections and each of these sections contain related topics with screenshots explaining the Magento admin screens. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Questions and Answers

Magento – Interview Questions ”; Previous Next Dear readers, these Magento Interview Questions have been designed specially to get you acquainted with the nature of questions you may encounter during your interview for the subject of Magento. As per my experience good interviewers hardly plan to ask any particular question during your interview, normally questions start with some basic concept of the subject and later they continue based on further discussion and what you answer − What is Magento? Magento is an open source E-commerce software, created by Varien which is useful for online business and it has the flexible modular architecture. It is scalable and it has many control options that helps the user. Magento uses E-commerce platform which offers companies ultimate E-commerce solutions and extensive support network. Why to use Magento? The uses of Magento are − Magento is open source E-commerce software. It is scalable and offers small companies to build business. It provides the searching and sorting of products in several ways. Easily integrates with many of the third-party sites which are needed to run effective E-commerce website. Using this, customer can order or purchase number of products. There are no limits on number of purchasing products. List the Web-Hosting sites of Magento? The Web-Hosting sites of Magento are − SiteGround BlueHost HostGator Inmotion Arvixe site5 What are disadvantages of Magento? The disadvantages of Magento are − Magento uses larger disk space and memory. It takes much time to build the customized functionality. It is very slow compared to other E-commerce sites. It needs proper hosting environment, if the hosting environment is improper the user can face the problems. Name the web-server that supports Magento? The Web-server that supports Magento are − Apache 2.x Nginx 1.7.x What are Magento products? Products are the items or things that are sold in Magento. Product can be anything that is capable of satisfying customer needs. This includes both physical products and services. Name the product types that are available in Magento? The product types available in Magento are − Simple Products Grouped Products Configurable Products Virtual Products Bundled Products Downloadable Products What is Inventory? Inventory allows setting a product”s stock quantity. For instance, you have a product with 100 units in stock. If you set the stock availability to “Out of Stock” then it will force the item to be out of stock. Name the categories of E-Commerce? The categories of E-Commerce are: Business to Business(B2B) Business to Consumer(B2C) Consumer to Consumer(C2C) Consumer to Business(C2B) What does Rate Percent mean in Manage Tax Rate window? Rate Percent specify the percent of the tax rate. What does Priority field specifies in Manage Tax Rules? Priority field specifies when the tax should be applied to other tax rules. What is the used of Zero Subtotal Checkout panel? The Zero Subtotal Checkout panel is a payment option that displays when order total is zero and not required to enter payment details for the customer. What is the used of 3D Secure Card validation field in Saved CC? It is additional security functionality where customer needs to provide credit card password to complete the purchase order. Which are the methods of PayPal Payment Gateways? The two methods of PayPal Payment Gateways are − Payflow Pro (Includes Express Checkout) Payflow Link (Includes Express Checkout) What is Payflow Pro? The Payflow Pro option is customizable payment gateway which can be used with merchant account to process credit card transactions. What is Payflow Link? Payflow Link option often called as hosted payment gateway that keeps customer on your site by providing fast and easy way to add transaction processing to your site. What is the use of My Cart Link panel? My Cart Link panel specifies whether the number of quantities in the cart should be shown or whether the number of different products should be shown using the Display Cart Summaryfield. What is Google checkout in Magento? Google Checkout is online payment processing service provided by Google. Magento allows integration of online stores with Google checkout. It is like PayPal that simplifies the process of paying for online purchases. What is Magento Manage Order? Order management is important thing which allows business to run smoothly and keeps customers happy, making them more likely to visit your site in the future. What is Magento Google Analytics? Google Analytics is a finest Google service for those who are actively managing websites and adds analytics to Magento store including Ecommerce tracking and conversions of their websites. What is the use of Page Layout in Magento? Layout files are useful in rendering front pages of Magento. What is Magento Content Management System(CMS)? Magento CMS (Content Management System) section is used to manage all web site pages. It is a way of promoting the products by providing valuable information to the customers and increases visibility to search engines. What are Static Blocks? Static block is a piece of content can be used anywhere in the pages. Magento allows creating blocks of content that can be used through the store and can be added to any page or another block. What are Polls? Polls are used to get customer”s opinions and preferences. The poll results appear immediately after response is submitted. How to Optimize the Magento Environment? Following points describe how to optimize the Magento environment It uses complex database, so that it needs to be run on dedicated servers. Magento application could be optimized by using cloud computing. Merge you JavaScript and CSS files which reduces the load time dramatically since its loading only one merged file. Proper MySQL configuration is one of the most important aspects in terms of performance. Always upgrade to the latest Magento version allows to perform better. How to Optimize Magento Configuration? The following points specify how to optimize the magento configuration To speed up Magento performance, don”t run mysql and web server on the same machine. Do not host files on your web server that you do not use. Optimization

Magento – Useful Resources

Magento – Useful Resources ”; Previous Next The following resources contain additional information on Magento. Please use them to get more in-depth knowledge on this topic. Magento Online Training 60 Lectures 2.5 hours Tutorialspoint More Detail Magento 2 Certified Developer Exam : Full course 8 Lectures 1 hours LTS HUB More Detail Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Database Performance

Magento – Database Performance ”; Previous Next One of the most time consuming process of the Magento store is its interaction with the database. Optimizing Magento Database is an important task to maintain the Magento site. Magento saves a lot of database because of tracking. The E-commerce system must have a tracking module which shows information when something goes wrong with their order. Following are some tips to improve the performance of database − Unused data must be cleaned up regularly for better performance. Optimize database queries. Configure setting and limits of the database server (e.g. memory setting, query cache, sort buffer optimization). You can optimize Magento database log cleaning as shown in the following steps − Step 1 − Login to your Magento Admin Panel. Step 2 − Go to System menu and click on the Configuration option. Step 3 − On the left side of the navigation bar, go to Advanced section and click on the System option. Step 4 − Expand the Log Cleaning panel, change “Enable Log Cleaning” to Yes option and click the Save Config button. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Setup Page Title

Magento – Setup Page Title ”; Previous Next Magento allows changing the default title of your website. The following steps describe how to change the title of Magento store. Step 1 − Login to your Magento Admin Panel. Step 2 − Go to the System menu, click on the Configuration option and select the Design option under the General section. Step 3 − Expand the HTML Head panel and you can edit the title in Default Title field. After done with the settings, click on the Save Config button. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Site Optimization

Magento – Site Optimization ”; Previous Next Magento is a content management system that is commonly known to be performance intensive. Optimizing the speed of your Magento allows customers to have the best user experience while shopping in your E-commerce store. Environment Optimization Based on the additional configurations of the server environment, the hosting site providers speed up your store. Following are the tips to optimize Magento environment. It uses complex database, so that it needs to be run on dedicated servers. Magento application can be optimized by using cloud computing. Merge your JavaScript and CSS files, which reduces the load time dramatically since it is loading only one merged file. Proper MySQL configuration is one of the most important aspects in terms of performance. Always upgrade to the latest Magento version as it offers better performance. Use a web application accelerator which can speed up your Magento store by 80%. Configuration Optimization Magento has built-in tools that helps to optimize its performance. These must be properly configured and matched with your site”s unique requirements. Following are the tips to optimize Magento configuration. To speed up Magento performance, don”t run MySQL and web server on the same machine. Do not host files on your web server that you do not use. Optimize of session storage. Enable Magento flat catalog. (Magento uses a complex and resource-intensive Entity Attribute Value [or EAV] based catalog). After initial catalog establishment, enabling the flat catalog can dramatically improve database query time. Identify and disable unused Magento modules. Code Optimization Code influences the speed of your site. The testing tools help to gain insight into the specific process. Few tips for Code Optimization are − Remove unused or unnecessary code processes. Optimize Magento performance, by compressing and aggregating JavaScript and CSS files. Compress all site images to optimal web image sizes. Identify bottlenecks (processes that causes the entire process to slow down or stop) both in front-end and back-end. Frontend Optimization These modules are used to improve the performance of Magento shopping experience and you can also reuse the modules. This speeds up the performance of the Magento front-end. The following points illustrate how to optimize Magento front-end performance − Use the latest version of PHP, so that you can perform front-end operation much better and faster. The newest released version may cause errors, so carefully read the release notes and check out the new version. Use clean database to improve the performance of Magento. The database logs needs to be cleared regularly. The database stores the automatically created logs to keep track of record session and interaction. Magento caching should be enabled. This helps to load your website faster and reduces the direct requests to the server for files. Turn off unused modules so it reduces the amount of resources added to each page. This can be one of the Magento admin panel. The XML files are used to speed up the front-end performance of Magento. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Setup CMS

Magento – Setup CMS ”; Previous Next Magento CMS (Content Management System) section is used to manage all website pages. It is a way of promoting the products by providing valuable information to the customers and increases search engine visibility. It can be used to create rich content for your web store. The CMS section contains following topics − Pages You can create or setup new pages in Magento. You can include text, images, blocks of content etc. For more information on setting up new pages, you can refer this link Setting up New Pages. Static Blocks Static block is a piece of content that can be used anywhere in the pages. Magento allows creating blocks of content that can be used through the store and can be added to any page or another block. To create static blocks, follow these steps − Step 1 − Go to CMS menu and click on the Static Blocks option. Step 2 − You can create a new block by clicking on the Add New Block button. Step 3 − Next, it will open a window for creating new block as shown in the following screen. The page contains the following fields − Block Title − It adds the title for the block. Identifier − It assigns identifier to block which uses lower case characters, underscores, etc. Status − Set this field as “Enabled” to make block visible. Content − It includes content of the block and uses editor to format text, creates links, tables, images, etc. After filling the all fields, click the Save Block button. Widgets Widget allows displaying a wide range of content and placing it at block references in the store. They can be inserted into pages, blocks or they can have blocks inserted into the widget. You can create the widget by using following steps − Step 1 − Go to CMS menu and click on the Widgets option. Step 2 − To create new widget, click the Add New Widget Instance button. Step 3 − Under the settings section, select the Type of the widget and Design Package/Theme and click the Continue button. Step 4 − Next, it displays the Frontend Properties and Layout Updates sections. In the Frontend Properties section, fill the following details − Widget Instance Title − It specifies the title for the widget. It is only for internal use and won”t be visible to the customers. Sort Order − It is used to specify the order of the block when listed with others. In the Layout Updates section, click the Add Layout Update button and set the Display On field to type of category where you want the widget to appear. It can be set with the other options as shown in the following screen. In the Block Reference list, select the section of your page layout where you want the widget to appear and set the template with Link Block Template or Inline Template. Step 5 − Click Save and Continue Edit button to save your changes and continue editing. Next, it will open Widget Options panel with the following options. Anchor Custom Text − It adds custom text for the widget. Anchor Custom Title − It adds custom title for the widget. CMS Page − It allows selecting the CMS page with the widget. After done with the settings, click on the Save button. Polls Polls are used to get customer”s opinions and preferences. The poll results appear immediately after response is submitted. You can create the poll by using the following steps − Step 1 − Go to CMS menu and click on the Polls option. Step 2 − Next, it will open a Poll Manager window where you can add new poll as shown in the following image. Step 3 − In the Poll Information section, enter the Poll Question and you can set the Status to “Open” or “Closed”. Step 4 − In the Poll Answers section, do the following − In the Answer Title field, enter the answer as you want it to appear in the poll for which you had entered the poll question and to weight an answer, enter a number in the Votes Count field. When complete, click the Save Poll button. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Setup Translation

Magento – Setup Translation ”; Previous Next You can translate Magento default frontend through csv file as specified below − Look into your (root)/app/locale/en_US folder. There you have .csv”s that do the translating. The Mage_Catalog.csv contains the translations for all the files that use the /app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/classes and /app/design/frontend/default/default/locale/en_US/translate.csv template files. Here, you”ll also find Mage_Adminhtml.csv, which handles most of the admin translations. If Magento translation fails, you should check the settings for store in admin panel, to see if there is something wrong with your locale. On the Magento Admin Panel, go to System menu and click on the Configuration option. Select the Configuration Scope of the store view in the upper left corner. On the General configuration page, expand the Locale Options section. Under Locale Options, set Locale to the new language for the store view and click the Save Config button. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Magento – Profiling

Magento – Profiling ”; Previous Next The feature called Profiler which plays an important role in Magento development and can be used for debugging. It specifies blocks of code which makes loading of the page slow. Magento profiler reports the time taken by block of code to execute, number of times the block of the code was executed and memory used by it while rendering a Magento web page. To enable the Profiler, follow these steps − Step 1 − Login to your Magento Admin Panel. Step 2 − Go to System menu and click on the Configuration option. Step 3 − On the left side of the navigation bar, go to Advanced section and click on the Developer option. Step 4 − Expand the Debug panel and enable the profiler by setting it to Yes and click on the Save Config button. Step 5 − At this point the profiler is enabled, but you need to tell the profiler to what profile. So go to root index.php file of your Magento installation and look for the line #Varien_Profiler::enable(); and uncomment it, i.e. remove the hash sign. Step 6 − Now go to any of your pages, you should see the output in the footer area of the page like shown in the following screen. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;