htaccess – How to redirect all http (port 80) requests to https (port 443)

Sometimes you may need to redirect http requests on port 80 to (https) on port 443. This can easily be accomplished with .htaccess.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
RewriteRule ^/(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [NC,R,L]

Magento – How to run a SQL query against the database

In order to run a SQL query against the Magento database, you first need a resource model then a database connection.

$db = Mage::getResourceSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');
$result = $db->query('SELECT 'entity_id' FROM 'catalog_product_entity');

if(!$result) {
    return FALSE;
}

$rows = $result->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

if(!$rows) {
    return FALSE;
}

print_r($rows);

Magento – Database Repair Tool

The Magento Database Repair Tool compares 2 databases (reference and target), and updates the target database so it has the same structure as the reference database by doing the following:

  • Adds missing tables, or repairs them to have the same engine type and char-set.
  • Adds missing fields or repairs them.
  • Removes inconsistent data from tables that have broken foreign key references.
  • Adds missing foreign keys and indexes.

You can download it here. For a full list of features and instructions, you can refer to this wiki post.

Magento – Add additional fields to the Contact Form

If you need to add additional fields to Magento’s default contact form, read on! First open the form.phtml file located in your /magento_root/app/design/frontend/YOUR_INTERFACE/YOUR_THEME/template/contacts/form.phtml. So, we are going to add a subject field to this contact form so that customers tell us the subject of their email. Open the file for editing in your favorite editor.

Find this section in the file below (this should be around line 39):

<div class="input-box">
    <label for="name"><?php echo Mage::helper('contacts')->__('Name') ?> <span class="required">*</span></label><br />
    <input name="name" id="name" title="<?php echo Mage::helper('contacts')->__('Name') ?>" value="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($this->helper('contacts')->getUserName()) ?>" class="required-entry input-text" type="text"/>
</div>

We are going to add another field above this one for the subject of the email. Copy and paste this code above the block of code (name field) referenced above.

<div class="input-box">
    <label for="subject"><?php echo Mage::helper('contacts')->__('Subject') ?> <span class="required">*</span></label><br />
    <input name="subject" id="subject" title="<?php echo Mage::helper('contacts')->__('Subject') ?>" value="" class="required-entry input-text" type="text"/>
</div>

As far as Magento is concerned, it doesn’t care what fields we add to this form. It is written in such a way that it accepts all of the field posted for processing and send that out to the transactional e-mail form that you create. Now, go to System->Transactional E-mails in the Magento Admin section. Click “Add New Template” and from the “Template” dropdown box select “Contact Form” then “Load Template”. Under template content you will see:

Name: {{var data.name}}
E-mail: {{var data.email}}
Telephone: {{var data.telephone}}

Comment: {{var data.comment}}

Add your new field before Name: {{var data.name}} so that now it should looks like this:

Subject: {{var data.subject}}
Name: {{var data.name}}
E-mail: {{var data.email}}
Telephone: {{var data.telephone}}

Comment: {{var data.comment}}

Enter a new name under “Template Name” to save your new Template and click on “Save Template”. Now we need to tell Magento to use this new template for the Contact form. Go to System->Configuration and select “Contacts”. Under “Email Options”, select your new template under the “Email Template” dropdown box. Click on “Save Config”.

That’s it! ;)

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.