Magento extensions and modern e-commerce
For an online retailer, choosing an e-commerce software platform is one of the most important decisions. Depending on the size of the business, the key requirements could vary from robustness and scalability critical for large retailers to the need for simplicity and flexibility for small store owners. Perhaps it is the ability to effortlessly meet the diverse needs of disparate audiences that has made Magento one of the fastest growing e-commerce applications globally. Already, the Magento e-commerce suite has carried out over US$25 billion in transactions via the 30,000+ merchants who rely on this platform, including some from the Internet Retailer Top 500 list. No wonder then that the platform continues to receive international acclaim, most recently from well known research organization Forrester Research which highlighted Magento as ‘unique’ among various e-commerce technology providers.
One of the key contributors to Magento’s rising popularity as the platform of choice is its ‘flexibility’ and the control that it puts in the hands of the online merchant. Unlike some of the other ‘closed’ or even open source e-commerce platforms, Magento does not place restrictions on business flows and processes. With over 1700 Magento extensions already available (and counting..), technology complements the business rather than business being shaped by the limits posed by technology.
Possibilities galore with Magento extensions
As the e-commerce and online marketing landscape evolves at frenetic pace, resulting in newer business models and novel marketing opportunities, online store owners need their technology to be as dynamic or risk being left behind. This is where the continuously expanding range of Magento extensions becomes invaluable.
Developers continue to enrich the application with powerful add-ons to fulfill even the not-so-obvious requirements of store owners. Presenting irrefutable proof of the value of the open source paradigm in e-commerce, these extensions help automate and optimize different business processes.
Characteristics of truly valuable Magento extensions
While new add-ons for the different Magento modules become available very regularly, some fundamental and seemingly obvious characteristics differentiate the really valuable extensions from the just OK ones. If you are looking for extensions for your business, run this simple 4-factor test.
- Usefulness: An extension has to either help contribute to greater sales (revenues), build long-term customer engagement or improve operational efficiencies and effectiveness. Does the extension offer the features and functionality that will help you address your unique business needs or problems?
- Cost-effectiveness: Is the price you pay for the add-on worth the value you expect to generate from using the extension?
- Customizability: Can you customize your extension easily both in terms of front-end design as well as functionality to suit your specific needs?
- User-friendliness: Is the extension easy to configure and use so that a store owner can focus on the business side of things? It should ultimately help save time, not add more work.
Epitomizing the above characteristics is the portfolio of extensions from aheadWorks, one of the largest Magento extensions development companies. The company’s range of free and paid-for add-ons, covers every aspect of the e-commerce process – back-end store administration, user experience, marketing and other operational aspects of the business.
Below, we briefly touch upon some of the most well-received Magento add-ons developed by the company:
(more…)Why I’ve been Missing in Action
Hello all, I’ve had a lot going on since my last post. I started a new job, moved to a bigger place, spending more time with my kids and working on several exciting projects involving Magento and Drupal the best open source platforms on the internet. I should hopefully be launching one of them at the end of the month.
During my absence, I’ve learned a lot which I will be sharing with you on this blog.
I’ve also taken the time to reply to all 63 pending comments and answered them as best as I could. So for those of you that have been waiting patiently, I’m sorry 
. Another thing that you’ll notice that’s different, is a redesign to the blog. I think it’s a much cleaner look. Well, enough ranting… This week will follow with a pretty exciting post. Stay tunned!
Best,
Richard
Disallow hotlinking while allowing requests from robots.txt and favicons
We all hate Leechers. Here’s how to stop them in their tracks from stealing your images and your bandwidth!
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(^/robots\.txt|\.ico)$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com(/)?.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|bmp|pdf)$ [F,L]
How to create a sandbox PayPal Payflow account
I’ve been working with PayPal PayFlow Pro a lot lately. But before I got the hang of it, I couldn’t figure out how to create a sandbox account for Payflow.
As it goes, it’s different than setting up a standard sandbox account. To set up a Payflow account for testing, you would walk through the sign up process as if you were signing up for a live Payflow account. Once you get to the section in the sign up process where it is asking for the billing information, just cancel out of the process. This creates a test account for you at this point, which you can access by signing into PayPal Manager with the login and password that you created. The partner will be PayPal.
Magento – The best Magento Extensions
Here are some of the best Magento extensions that I’ve come across.
- Magento Live Chat
This free module will provide LiveChat support in Magento.
- Fontis WYSIWYG Editor
This extension gives you the option to enable a JavaScript WYSIWYG editor to specified admin pages. Currently available editors are: TinyMCE and FCKeditor.
- Lazzymonks Twitter
Displays Twitter updates in the menu and allows updates from within the admin panel.
- Events Calendar
With this extension, you can display an events calendar on your website. Events are stored in the database. You can also display the upcoming list of events quickly by calling a block in your template.
- Blog
Full featured blog extension for Magento.
- Raffle
This module gives you basic functionality to run your own raffles.
- Customer Groups Configurable Catalog
This extension enables you to hide categories and products from customers depending on the customer group.
- Exploded Menu
Replaces the standard single column drop down with a multi-column dropdown featuring 2nd and 3rd level menu items.
- Velite Magento Superstage
Functionality, intuitive interaction and product presentation with really high detailed images are the main features.
- Magento EasyLightbox
This small extension will help to install Lightbox widget. Installation and configuration will take approximately 5 minutes. No files are replaced and no codding experience needed to install!
- Magento Exploded Menu
Replaces the standard Magento menu with a multi-column drop down menu system.
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! 
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.
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