Explore Magento

This blog helped me substantially getting my first module up and running.

The biggest help was primarily because you had two different examples of functionality on how a custom module works. Between the two examples, I was able to determine how they work for myself (http://www.exploremagento.com/magento/override-a-magento-core-block-class.php and http://www.exploremagento.com/magento/simple-custom-module.php).

Two things that have bothered me are when creating a custom module and could make handy tutorials:

1) Why do custom parameters (ie parameters you place inside of the XML like ‘my_param1=”value 1″ another_param=”value 2″‘ only work with the _toHTML() function. I can’t for example get them to work with the _prepareLayout() function. What are th e limitations of custom parameters? Where can they be used? A tutorial on the specifics of parameters would be great.

2) When working with Product Attributes and custom blocks, it took me forever to work out how to interact with a drop-down box. All examples on the Magento forums work primarily with a yes/no box. This post will probably explain a little better: http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/19825/.

It’d be great to see a tutorial on how to interact (pull data out of) with all types of Product Attributes (text field, textarea, date, yes/no, multiple select, drop-down, price, gallery and media image) inside of a custom module.

Finally, I really like the look of the new blog the only things I don’t like are the code views (there’s issues with how the comments are displayed). Also the width of the article column is too narrow.

It’d be a lot better if it were either wider or using a variable layout so we can see more code.

Cheers!

I’ve got a customizable t-shirt with 5 colours. I’d love it if I could have thumbnails of the 5 different colours, and when I click on them it changes the main product image to the full-size shirt in that colour. PLUS, when I click add to cart it now adds the cart of that colour.

Hopefully that’s not too specific, as I imagine it’d work for a lot of different products.

It’s really great to see a site concentrating on Magento. I really can’t wait to delve further into it.

hi there,
I’m very glad you ask
I want to start now to modify the appearance of my store: it would be very usefull for me if you could give us some clues about how to work in order to change colors, block disposition, etc…
I’ve read the designer’s guide of Magento’s wiki, but it is quite theorical, I’d apreciate something more practical.
I hope to read abou it soon
cheers

Pixelaté, I totally agree. Hopefully we can at least find a better code view plugin for WordPress.

Kyle / osDave – Thanks for your feedback – they are good ideas. Kyle: I actually have something in mind that will help you out (although it is not specifically your solution).
Dave – That is a superb idea for a few articles here!

Maybe it’ll be really handy if we could list ways to switch on/off certain functionality from the default theme

breadcrumbs
review product
compare product
product grid display
etc

I am not suggesting that this should be a priority over other requests.

Thanks for doing this!

warm regards
dimi

Dimi – Good ideas –

On that note, here is a thread that details turning off the Compare Feature (via editing code) as well as Wishlist and Email to a friend (which has a “switch” in the backend – see my post in that thread for the wishlist/email).

http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/16806/

Hi, nice site you have here. I would personaly like to see tutorials on custom changes to item images and item displays. Like how to include lightbox2 or replace the list/grid with a slider feature. It’s a common feature that I have seen, but have no idea how to setup.

Also, if possible, some before and after screen shots on what’s been done. Thanks!

How about displaying the categories in the left column on the home page? The best I’ve been able to find is:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/20632/

But I was hoping there’s a better way.

Scratch that, I actually found a much simpler method of doing it:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/14901/#t52327

I would really like to see a tutorial, article or set of best practices on SEO/SEM w/ Magento. It’s very confusing to determine how to optimize your store with Magento for SEO.

Hi, very interesting Blog about my favourite shop-software Magento. I´m also very interested in Magento and SEO like Will. Maybe you can post some informations about that topic.

I like to tell that, it is very useful if you provide information about the more programming guide for magento.

Like the magic methods , the control flow of magento etc…

That ll be more useful for all including beginners and all of us.

Thanks

Hiya,

First of all, Thanks for some great posts/tutorials. For the starter of magento, a must read to get some of the basics down

But as for a request, i got one. This request is based on a request i got from a few of my clients wanting to change the checkout procedure. The onepage checkout is very rigid, and doesn’t allow for much customisation.

Maybe it’s an idea to create a tutorial on how-to change the onepage checkout to ones liking (i.e. from vertical to horizontal, removing a few steps if only one option exists, removing some input fields that aren’t nessecary etc.)

Wether or not you’re gonna pick up this idea is up to you, but please keep on writing these helpfull tutorials

Greetings from holland

A custom search tutorial would be nice

I have learned alot about magento web development from your site and wanted to say thanks for the tutorials. As far as future learning, I am really interested in using jquery with magento. Also, learning how to create custom queries and pulling specific data out of magento to display on custom pages. My ultimate feat would be to learn how to create a popular feature known as “quick view.”

It can be seen on big name retailers websites like http://www.ae.com or http://www.moosejaw.com. On a category page, mouseover a product image and you will see a link “quick view” and it will popup a modal box with the product view page loaded into it.

Another feature I would like to learn to implement into magento is the main top navigation system on the aforementioned websites.

I hope this helps to find future articles to write about. Thanks for asking and keep up the great work.

I’d be interested in any tutorials you might post regarding the best methods for bulk importing of products, including attributes, as well as images.

I’ve just started to explore Magento and am still evaluating using it for a large client.

As many of the other posters, I’d like to see tutorials and especially a “map” with all the URLs/code to change the default pics and functions.

And I’d be glad to pay for a membership to a support site, although not as much as Magento charges for support, see http://trado.info/forum/220

I decided to post at my site whatever useful items I find while trying to get started with Magento. Seeing the many unanswered posts at the Magento forum is discouraging, the same questions over and over. It’s hard to get myself motivated to even work on it.

Hopefully someone will take advantage of this business opportunity.

Fantastic site – I thionk the tutorials are great, I run a similar site, and mainly tend to focus on troubleshooting peoples problems, and posting instant solutions to typical forum questions.

You offer great technical advice though, congrats!

Take care
Sam
Magento

Just the front end stuff really, how to skin the damn thing I’ve not found one single decent piece of advice on where to start or what to do.

The Magento one is half a job and leaves you scratching your head. I’ve skinned templates for Interwoven projects that were less complex than this.

would be great to see some tutorials on importing/exporting configurable products along with its attributes/custom options/multiple images….

Hi there

great blog

my suggestion would be a tutorial that reads mysql table data… for example.. your custome module tutorial, combined with a tutorial on how to read database table would be fantastic

cheers,

Can you please write a sample code for fetching some values from the database and showing it in the screen. I dont know how to fire the query using magento.

Thanks & Regards
Stephen

why don’t you up more posts? I look forward to seeing more
Regards

How about a tutorial on tweaking the layered navigation?