Magento WordPress Integration

Magento Blog Extension

WordPress Integration for Magento eCommerce is a free Magento extension that works with all versions of Magento Community and Magento Enterprise. The aim behind the extension has always been to create an easy to install extension (no core file modifications) that mimics the functionality of WordPress while being fully integrated into Magento and the Magento theme.

WordPress Integration Features

This list isn't complete but contains many of the popular features of WordPress Integration.

• Free to use and easy to install via Magento Connect. This extension requires no core file modification like other Magento/ WordPress Integration extensions.
• Full integration of all WordPress entities (posts, pages, categories, archives, tags, links etc)
• You can install WordPress and Magento in the same database or in separate databases; it's entirely upto you.
• Integrate an existing WordPress blog and keep the same URL's, meaning your SEO will not be negatively affected.
• Save yourself time and money by using your Magento theme for your WordPress blog.
• Associate Magento products with WordPress posts and use custom shortcodes in WordPress to display Magento products alongside your WordPress blog posts.
• Automatically login to the WordPress Admin from the Magento Admi with one click.
• Automatically create blog RSS feeds and Google XML sitemaps
• Add custom META and page title information using WordPress SEO (Yoast SEO) or All in One SEO

Integrating Magento and a WordPress Blog

Before installing WordPress Integration, it is vital that if you are using the Magento Compiler, you disable this. After the installation is complete, you can go back to the Compiler and re-compile to carry on using this.

The best way to install WordPress Integration is to install it using Magento Connect and your Magento Downloader. You can find the Magento Downloader key for the extension here.

If you do not have access to your Magento Downloader, you can download the extension using the link above. Once you have the .tgz file, extract the files and merge with them with your Magento site using FTP/SFTP. You can ignore the file named package.xml as this isn't required for the extension.

After installation, if you are logged into your Magento Admin you will need to log out and log back in again. It is also recommended that you fully refresh the Magento cache.

Install WordPress

If you don't already have WordPress installed, you can find detailed installation instructions here. It is recommended that you install WordPress in a sub-directory of Magento that does not match the sub-directory that you want your blog to be accessible from. For example, if you want your blog to be viewable on http://www.yourmagento.com/blog, do not install WordPress in a sub-directory named blog. For this reason it is recommended that you install WordPress in a sub-directory named wp.

If you have already installed WordPress in the directory that you want WordPress to be accessible from you will need to move the installation. You can find instructions on how to do that here.

Configuration

Configuring Magento to connect to your WordPress database is quite straight forward and takes only a few minutes. First login to the Magento Admin and select WordPress > Settings > Setup from the top navigation and fill out the form inside the Database and Integration sections.

Connecting to the WordPress Database

In the section labelled 'Database', fill out the information for your WordPress database. If you are unsure of any of this information, you can find it in the wp-config.php file, which is in the root of your WordPress installation. You will need to access this file using FTP.

Configuring the Integration

There are currently 2 levels of integration offered by the extension: full integration and semi integration. When set to full integration, Magento will display your WordPress blog using the Magento theme and will completely take over responsibility for the frontend of your WordPress blog. When set to semi-integration, Magento will have access to your WordPress database but will do nothing with the data. You will then be free to make use of the data as you wish and display it where you need on your Magento store.

If you choose full integration (most people do), you will see an extra field appear: blog route. In the blog route field, enter the sub-directory that you want your WordPress blog to be visible on. Assuming you want your blog to be visible on http://www.yourmagento.com/blog, you would enter 'blog in this field. What ever you enter in this field (only alphanumeric characters and hyphens allowed) will be appended to your Magento URL and will be used as your blog home page URL.

After setting your blog route you will need to update your Home URL in WordPress. This informs WordPress that you will be displaying the frontend of your blog via another application and that WordPress shouldn't try to display it as well. This is a vital step as without it, your blog would be available in 2 different locations. To do this, login to your WordPress Admin and select Settings > General. Find the field labelled 'Site Address (URL)' and enter your Magento URL and your blog route.

The final field in the Integration section is the Path to WordPress field. In here, enter a relative path to your WordPress installation. If you installed WordPress in a sub-directory of Magento, enter the name of that sub-directory here.

Confirming It's Worked

You should now have an integrated WordPress blog in your Magento eCommerce store. If you do, check out the Magento Extensions available to help enhance your blog.

If things didn't go so well you can always get in touch and we can do our best to help. We also offer a WordPress Integration Setup Service that will ensure the extension is setup correctly and also include free blog optimisation and the installation of multiple supported plugins.