Magento Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

If you navigate to System -> Magento Connect -> Maganeto Connect Manager and find no packages listed similar to that shown in the following screenshot, it means that you've not initialised PEAR yet.  This can happen if you used the full distribution bundle to install Magento.  If you used the 'Downloader' option then PEAR will have been initialised and used to download and install the necessary packages. To resolve the issue all you have to do is initialise PEAR by running the following commands via SSH on your web server: [code] <pre>./pear mage-setup ./pear install magento-core/Mage_All_Latest [/code] If...

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Here's a quick Magento developer tip for you.  At some point in your career as a Magento developer you'll need to get data from the database or put data in to the database.  Here' how it's done. READ Queries [code lang="php"] // Prepare the SQL $sql = "SELECT * FROM mytable"; // Execute the SQL and return the results in to $getData $getData = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_read')->fetchAll($sql); // Parse the results for($i=0; $i < count($getData); $i++){ /* your code */ } [/code] WRITE/UPDATE Queries [code lang="php"] // $write is an instance of Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract $write...

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If you want to add a search box to your template/theme, add the following to the appropriate file: [code lang="php"] <?php echo $this->getChildHtml(‘topSearch’) ?> [/code] For example if you wanted to add the search box to your header file, you'd add the above code to /app/design/frontend/default/your_theme/template/page/html/header.phtml.  You can then modify your style.css file to style the search box. It's as simple as that!

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Magento Commerce developers and designers will find this tip very useful.   By enabling "Template Path Hints" and "Block Name Hints" you can see exactly which file a particular area of the page is created from.  Template Path Hints and Block Name Hints are extremely useful and can save you lots of time. Once enabled you'll see something like the following on your front end: The following video tutorial will show you how to enable and disable this feature within your Magento Commerce Admin area. To enable Template Path Hints: * Login to your Admin panel * Navigate...

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It is sometimes necessary to redirect an old CMS page or URL to a new one.  Redirects are useful not only to prevent 404 Errors from existing inbound links, but also help to prevent loosing link juice (for search engine ranking).  Using the integrated "URL Rewrite Management" facility within Magento 1.4 we can create custom 301 (Permanent) or 302 (Temporary) redirect rules. As the names imply, a 301 Permanent, also known as "301 Moved Permanently", indicates that the resource has moved permanently and people should update their information for this URL.  A 302 Temporary, also known as "302...

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Sometimes you'll encounter error reports, blank pages, or areas of a page which aren't being rendered.   All of which are caused by errors.  Hopefully you'll get an error report page such as: [code] There has been an error processing your request Exception printing is disabled by default for security reasons Error log record number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX [/code] This points you at the error report that was generated.  Magento 1.4.0.1 additional security enhancements which is why you see "Exception printing is disabled by default for security reasons".  Instead you need to go and look...

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Here's a quick tip to reduce the frequency that your Magento Store will check for Notifications from Varien/Magento. If you log in to the Magento Admin backend you'll sometimes see new notifications along the top similar to this one: Notifications will occur when Varien release a new update to Magento.  It's actually an RSS feed which is why you'll see a message saying "Magento CE Version 1.4.0.1 Stable is now available" even through you've just installed or updated to 1.4.0.1.   To remove the notification simply click on the "Read Details" link or navigate to System -> Notifications...

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This tip is a general tip for anyone who manages, or needs to access, servers over the internet. You should always use secure methods for logging in to any area of your site and web server.  This is especially important for admin areas where additional privileges are granted. If your web hosting solution gives you access to CPanel for managing your account, you might already be aware that there are several ways to login.  For CPanel you can use: http://yourdomain/cpanel (insecure) http://yourdomain:2082 (insecure) https://yourwebserver.yourhostingdomain:2083 (secure) You should...

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Static blocks are a great way to divide up different types of data blocks to make updating content easier.  They are incredibly flexible, allowing you to create something as simple as a text category description, product highlights, or promotions.  Here's an example of a static block from the Magento Demo Store: There are just two simple steps to adding a static block to a cms page.  First, create your static block. You will use the identifier to call it on the cms page.  To create a static block go to CMS -> Static Blocks, then select Add New Block. Once your static block...

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A lot of people ask how they display products on the home page or any CMS page.  This is typically to display 'Featured Products', 'Special Offers', or 'Most Popular' for example.  Simply create the relevant category using the Admin -> Catalog -> Categories interface, and add the products you want to display to the category.  Remember that a product can be associated to multiple categories. The easiest and most universal solution is to add the following code on the page where you want the products to appear. [code lang="php"]{{block type="catalog/product_list" template="catalog/product/list.phtml"...

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