2009 June | Richard Castera

Archive for June, 2009

Magento, PHP, Web Resources | 12 Comments | June 30, 2009

Migrating Magento to another server

Migrating the Magento platform to another server is relatively a simple task. I have detailed the steps below:

From the admin, go to Configuration -> Web -> and change the (Unsecure and Secure) fields to {{base_url}}.
From the admin, go to System -> Tools -> Backups and click on the backup button. This will create a backup of your database.
Make a copy your Magento root.
Move all data over to the new server.
Restore the database on the new host.
If you have a different username, password or database name. You’ll need to update that as well. You can find the file in (‘magento_root/app/etc/local.xml’) and make the required changes.
Navigate to your Magento root, and delete all of the files and folders in, (i.e. /var/www/magento/var) except for the .htaccess file.

Hope this helps someone

PHP | No Comments | June 26, 2009

PHP – getting a list of currently loaded classes

In some cases you may need to investigate which classes are loaded in the current scope. You can do it pretty fine with the get_declared_classes() function. This function will return an array of currently available classes.

<?php
    include_once("class.myClass.php");
    print_r(get_declared_classes());
?>

Magento, PHP, Web Resources | 2 Comments | June 25, 2009

Add Magento search plugin to Firefox Search bar

I’ve been working with Magento for some time now. I found myself searching for help countless times on the Magento website. I thought it would be useful to have a search feature built right into Firefox’s list of search engines to search the Magento site. So I went through Mozilla’s Developer Center and found instructions on the Open Search Syntax. So here you go, you can download it here. Hope you find it helpful!

I also have one for PHP which comes in handy as well. If your interested, you can grab it here.

Javascript, My Thoughts, Web Resources | 8 Comments | June 22, 2009

Javascript – Passing Multiple Parameters through setTimeout

One of the problems that I’ve faced with Javascript is passing multiple parameters through the setTimeout function. I found this little snippet on the internet a few months ago and would like to share it with you. I don’t know who the original author is so I could not give him/her proper credit. Thanks!

var _st = window.setTimeout;
window.setTimeout = function(fRef, mDelay) {
	if(typeof fRef == "function") {
		var argu = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,2);
		var f = (function(){ fRef.apply(null, argu); });
		return _st(f, mDelay);
	}
	return _st(fRef,mDelay);
}

Define your function to call with setTimeout:

function alertMe(message, name) {
    alert(message + name);
}

Now, just call the function.

var message = 'Hello, ';
var name = 'Richard';
setTimeout(alertMe, 2000, message, name);

Hope this helps someone!

Javascript, Web Resources | 7 Comments | June 8, 2009

How to define your own JavaScript class

There are several ways to define a class in Javascript. I will be listing my favorite method below (JSON Method). It’s important to note that there are no real classes in JavaScript. Everything is considered an object. So below is our class definition:

<script type="text/javascript">
var Person = {
    age: "25",
    sex: "Male",
    location: "New York",
    getASL: function () {
        return 'Age: ' + this.age + ', Sex: ' + this.sex + ', Location: ' + this.location;
    }
};
</script>

So you can start using the class like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
Person.age = "29";
alert(Person.getASL());
</script>

Books, Magento, My Thoughts, PHP | 1 Comment | June 2, 2009

Magento Beginner’s Guide – A great book for any Magento Store Owner

Recently I obtained a copy of Magento Beginner’s Guide by William Rice from Packt Publishing. This book is great, I would recommend it to any new or existing Magento store owner. It servers as an excellent reference guide for experienced users and a great beginners guide for new store owners.

Magento is the world’s most evolved e-commerce solution and runs on the Apache/MySQL/PHP platform. From one installation, users can control multiple storefronts, all sharing customer and product information. Magento’s templates and themes enable users to customize the look and feel of their store, even optimizing it for mobile phones. Extensions enable them to connect Magento to a large number of payment gateways and shipping services.

Who this book is written for:
This book is for anyone who wants to create an online store using Magento. If you are a non-technical person and are discouraged by the complexity of this powerful e-commerce application, this book is ideal for you.

What you will learn from this book:

Install and configure Magento and add products to your online catalog
Create categories and attributes to build your catalog of products
Enhance your products with descriptions, images, and inventory information
Create product categories to help your customers navigate your online store
Automatically apply sales tax rules to different shipping addresses and different types of products
Present and sell products in groups and sets
Display products related to the one that is being viewed by a customer
Offer your customer choices for a product’s size, color, or other attribute and give discounts based on quantities
Accept payments using Paypal, credit cards, and checks/money orders and offer a variety of shipping options
Create your own, customized shipping rates and connect to shippers such as UPS, FedEx, and USPS

Thanks to Jude at Packt Publishing for inviting me to write this review.

I also cannot underestimate these useful resources:

Apache, Web Resources | 2 Comments | June 1, 2009

.htaccess – Limit website access by IP

I’ve been asked many times how to limit website access by allowable IP’s. This is fairly simple to accomplish with .htaccess. Simply follow the steps below:

Create a file and name it .htaccess. Paste the code into it. Replace 255.255.255.255 with you IP address. (If you don’t know it, you can get it here: WhatsMyIP)

order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from 255.255.255.255

Once the file is created, put it in the root directory. That’s it!

Richard Castera

Archive for June, 2009

Migrating Magento to another server

PHP – getting a list of currently loaded classes

Add Magento search plugin to Firefox Search bar

Javascript – Passing Multiple Parameters through setTimeout

How to define your own JavaScript class

Magento Beginner’s Guide – A great book for any Magento Store Owner

.htaccess – Limit website access by IP

Social Profiles

Last Tweet

Archives

Categories

My Favorites