Magento Tutorials

Category Navigation Listings in Magento

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:10:16 +0000

I wrote an article a while about illustrating how to show categories in a tree format. The code could be altered to display categories, categories and the current category's subcategory or categories and all sub-categories. While this code works fine, I have recently stumbled on a much better, neater way to accomplish this. This method requires less database interaction and therefore should render faster on the frontend. Listing Categories in Magento 1.4.1.1 & Above Firstly, you need to make sure the block that you're working is of the type catalog/navigation. If you're editing catalog/navigation/left.phtml then you should be okay. In my previous example...

Add Custom Tabs to the Magento Product Admin

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:02:02 +0000

In Magento eCommerce, it is possible to add new attributes to product models and edit the values for these attributes on the Product edit page. This is fine if we only want to add standard data (attributes) to a product, but what if we wanted to do something a little different? This article explains how to build a simple custom Magento extension that will add a new tab to the product edit page and provide a facility for processing that data when the user hits the Save button. Creating the Magento Extension The first step is to create the extension's setup file, which...

Create a Drop-Down of Countries

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:21:05 +0000

When I first needed to access a collection of countries in Magento I assumed it would work like all other data collections but was shocked to find that this wasn't the case. Rather than store country data in the database, Magento stores country data in an XML file and loads it in on each request. Fortunately though, there are some simple functions that we can use to access country names and codes in Magento. Get An Array of Country Names/Codes in Magento loadData() ->toOptionArray(false); echo '

';
	print_r( $countryList);
	exit('

'); ?> The above code will print out an array containing every country code and country name known...

Direct SQL Queries In Magento

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:13:39 +0000

Magento's use of data models provide a great way to access and modify data. Using aptly named methods and clever abstraction, Varien hide away the complex SQL needed to perform data operations. While this makes learning models easier, it often impacts the speed of the operation and therefore the responsiveness of your site. This is especially true when saving models that use the EAV architecture. More often that not, this cannot be avoided, however there are some situations where executing direct SQL queries would be simpler and much quicker. An example of this is updating product prices globally in Magento...

Create A Custom Theme in Magento

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:53:31 +0000

Since Magento 1.3.2.4, there are have been significant improvements to the Magento template system. While these improvements make creating templates much more efficient, developers are struggling to understand the changes and therefore, to create new themes. Rather than explaining these changes one by one, I will go through each step to creating a theme and discuss each point as it arises. In this article I will be showing you how to create your own custom theme for Magento 1.4. Rather than creating a totally bespoke theme, we will create a theme based on the default theme. However, by doing this, you...

Display Categories and SubCategories in Magento

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:40:59 +0000

A newer, better version of this post has been written. Category Navigation Listings in Magento eCommerce The majority of Magento websites out there list their top level categories as well as the current categories sub-categories. This feature is commonly requested on forums so I decided to write a small post about it. Rather than just write out the code, I will show you a few variations so that you can get the right one for you. All of the following code samples can be copy and pasted into ANY template file and will function correctly. Display Top Level Categories Only

Magento Database Structure: EAV

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:24:49 +0000

The Entity, Attribute and Value (EAV) database architecture is at first, extremely difficult to grasp. Combine this with the lack of documentation on EAV and you find that most people don't truly appreciate just how good EAV is and more importantly, how well suited it is to Magento. In this article I will attempt to shed some light on EAV in the hopes of helping you understand how it works, why it works and how this knowledge can benefit you as a Magento developer. To better understand this article, I recommend opening up a development Magento database using a tool...

Magento: Update Product Prices Globaly

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:00:01 +0000

There are many ways to mass update product attributes in Magento, each well suited to a different purpose. Magento's built-in mass product attribute updater is great if you want to modify a selection of products or the new attribute value is the same for all products you want to edit. Alternatively, if you wish to alter the attributes in more dynamic ways, updating them programmatic ally via PHP is probably a better way. The downside to both of these methods is speed, with each product update taking a few seconds to complete. While this time can be dramatically reduced by...

Magento Forms: Prototype Javascript Validation

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:38:24 +0000

While Javascript form validation shouldn't be your only form of defense with regards to user input, it definitely improves the usability and efficiency of a site. It can also give your site a web 2.0 feel - which users seem to love. Javascript Validation in Magento By default Magento uses a file called form.js (js/varien/form.js) to provide abstract Javascript functions for forms. The most useful application of this class - in my opinion - is the form validation. To achieve this validation, form.js uses the Validation class which is part of the Prototype Javascript library. It works by checking form inputs for...

Magento Cron Jobs

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:32:29 +0000

What is Cron? To quote Wikipedia, 'cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like operating systems.' It functions similarly to Windows Task Scheduler in that it allows you to specify actions to be ran after a certain interval. This can be useful for running daily backups or deleting your logs at the end of every month. Where is Cron Used in Magento? By default, cron is used in Magento for various things such as keeping your catalog indexes up to date and refreshing catalog price rules. Cron jobs can also be set up for custom modules, which we will cover shortly. Does Magento Need...