Drupal – How to install Drush
What is Drush?
It’s a command line shell and scripting interface for Drupal. The Drush Package Manager allows you to download, enable, disable, uninstall, update modules/themes/profiles/translations from the command line in a very simple way (apt-get style) – just type,drush dl views
drush pm-enable views
drush pm-update(more…)
5 ways to test the Usability of your E-commerce Site
Usability testing is a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users. It’s good practice to perform tests in combination with Split testing.
FiveSecondTest.com
Fivesecondtest helps you fine tune your landing pages and calls to action by analyzing the most prominent elements of your design. Here’s how it works:
- Upload a screenshot or mockup, set some questions you want answered and wait for the feedback to roll in!
- Testers have five seconds to view your image and must then answer the questions you have set.
- We collect all of the responses for you, extract the frequent keywords and then present the data with beautiful graphs.
Magento – Add Static Block to CMS Page
Static blocks are a great way to add sections of HTML to your CMS or Catalog pages. I’m going to show you how to add a static block to a CMS page.
It’s a 2 step process and a very simple one. First, create your static block by going to CMS->Static Blocks. You will use the identifier of your static block to reference it on the CMS page. Edit the CMS page you would like this block to appear in, and add this code in the location where you would like it to show up:
{{block type="cms/block" block_id="home-page-promo"}}
MySQL – Using a Column Name Inside the LIKE Keyword
When using the LIKE keyword in a MySQL query, I use it the most typical way, LIKE ‘%STRING%’. One day, I was in need to use a column name instead and could not figure out how to do it! At first, I tried to just replace the string value with the column name like this, LIKE (%t.column%). The end-result was not good as the LIKE keyword expects a string.
So, I thought of trying the CONCAT() function since that returns a string. And it worked!
LIKE CONCAT('%', t.column)
Hope this helps someone!
MySQL – How to Export and Import tables with the Command Line
2 commands I use often throughout the day is importing and exporting large databases into MySQL VIA the command line. Here is how I do it where “USERNAME” is your username, “PASSWORD” is your password and “DATABASE” is your database name.
To Export:
mysqldump -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASE | gzip -c > ~/dump_2010-06-14.sql.gz
To Import:
mysql -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASE < database.sql
Also, you may have a large database that may give you errors while importing. You can use this command to force the import without warnings or errors:
mysql -f -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASE < database.sql
Google Analytics – How to manually Track Clicks on Outbound Links
You can use Google Analytics to track clicks on links that lead away from your site. Because links that lead away from your site are not automatically tracked, you will need to manually tag all outbound links you want to track. To do this, you’ll add some JavaScript customizations to your page and to the links you want to track.
- Set up Event Tracking in your Analytics Tracking code. This is a simple matter of adding the following line to the tracking code for your pages after the page tracking object is set up:
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker('UA-XXXXX-X'); pageTracker._trackPageview(); -
Add a JavaScript method in the head of your document to delay the outbound click by a fraction of a second.
This delay will hardly be noticeable by the user, but it will provide the browser more time load the tracking code. Without this method, it’s possible that a user can click on the outbound link before the tracking code loads, in which case the event will not be recorded. Here’s what the JavaScript code in the section should look like (assuming you will use your own tracking code ID):
<script type="text/javascript"> function recordOutboundLink(link, category, action) { try { var pageTracker=_gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-X"); pageTracker._trackEvent(category, action); setTimeout('document.location = "' + link.href + '"', 100) }catch(err){} } </script> -
Update your outbound links to call the new function without first following the link. For example, to log every click on a particular link to www.example.com, you would use the _trackEvent() method in the link’s tag:
<a href="http://www.example.com" onClick="recordOutboundLink(this, 'Outbound Links', 'example.com');return false;">Trackable Link</a>
The example above uses the category label Outbound Links. This is a useful way to categorize all outbound links in the Event Tracking reports. It sets the specific name of the website as the second parameter in the call. With this structure in place, you could then see Outbound Links as one of the event categories and drill down to see which particular outbound links are the most popular. Be sure to use return false for the onClick handler, because without that statement the browser will follow the link before the recordOutboundLink method has a chance to execute.
For more information on using event tracking, see the Event Tracking Guide on Google Code.
Article Reference URL:
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55527&cbid=-wlhzojb6oodb&src=cb&lev=index
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…)
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