fidzu : Magento

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

09 Mar 2010 1:24pm GMT

Tomorrow’s Webinar: Managing Sales Tax in Magento eCommerce Applications

Managing Sales Tax in Magento eCommerce Applications

Magento™ now offers AvaTax™, a fully integrated on-demand sales tax management solution for your online business. Join us for a free webinar on the advantages and benefits of this industry-leading solution, including the easiest setup, the fastest and most accurate calculations available, and complete automated back-end reporting.

Topics include:

The challenges of sales tax calculation and compliance.
Changes in state sales tax legislation that could affect your e-commerce business.
How your company can achieve full compliance with the AvaTax solution.
Demo of the AvaTax Dashboard for centralized, secure management.

Do you spend your valuable time dealing with sales tax when you could be growing your business? Are you constantly updating rules and trying to make sure you're in compliance with your local tax codes? If you're looking for a better solution, please join us on Tuesday, March 9th at 9am Pacific Time for an inside look at the Magento and AvaTax solution.

Date: Tuesday, March 9th, 9:00 AM PST(GMT -08:00, Los Angeles)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/190005171

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

09 Mar 2010 12:48am GMT

08 Mar 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Expanding Our Partnership with PayPal To Further Drive eCommerce Innovation

I'm excited today to announce an expansion of our strategic partnership with PayPal. As the leader in the global eCommerce payments market with over 81 million active accounts, PayPal is committed to the success of open platforms and a natural partner for Magento. Over the next few months, current Magento merchants will find an expanded and deeper integration with PayPal's products and services, including a seamless and automated merchant on boarding process. Additionally, Magento will collaborate with PayPal on a number of new product initiatives to further drive e-commerce innovation and expand the global reach of our product. More details will be released throughout the year. In the meantime, read the full press release to learn more.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

08 Mar 2010 10:41pm GMT

07 Mar 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Magento Connect reaches 1,999 Extensions, and we’re giving away prizes to find number 2,000!

Magento Connect is growing up. It seems like only yesterday that our extension marketplace went live after a 36-hour coding marathon that left at least one of our developers completely exhausted. Magento Connect has since skyrocketed to nearly 2,000 extensions, and because the community has been an essential part of this growth, we thought it would be fitting to celebrate by launching a contest to find & announce our 2,000th extension. The three winners will be declared in the news section of our official iPhone app (we'll also post the names here on our blog).

Ever since we first launched Magento Connect just under two years ago we've seen developers from around the world bring hundreds of innovative solutions to our over 40,000 merchants. Merchants have responded favorably, especially as they've needed to reach customers through new channels such as mobile and social media (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace), upgrade the designs of their storefronts, and integrate third-party solutions with the Magento platform to stay ahead of the curve.

Our 2,000th extension is just around the corner, and we're launching a contest where three lucky winners will receive each the following prizes:

Official Magento User Guide

All three winners will receive their very own copy of the Official Magento User Guide, which has received excellent reviews and comprises 200+ pages of detailed instructions addressing the platform's innumerable functions.

Official Magento T-Shirt

When Magento Connect first launched, our exhausted developer was wearing more on his shoulders than just the pride of developing an excellent marketplace. Each of the three winners will receive an Official Magento t-shirt, and if you'd like, you can have it signed by our CEO, Roy Rubin.

Sneak Peek: New Magento Connect Design

We've been secretly working away on a new redesign for Magento Connect, and the three lucky winners will have the chance to see it before anyone else (and even provide us with some feedback).

Instructions
First, watch the counter at the bottom of our View All Extensions page, and check the first-listed extension when the counter reaches 2,000. Note that some extensions might be updated around the same time, so you'll need to make sure that the extension you submit is indeed a brand-new extension (hint: it won't have any reviews or downloads).

Second, tweet the name and link of the 2,000th extension to our official Magento Connect twitter account (@magentoconnect). The first three people who tweet the correct 2,000th extension will win all three of the above prizes.

Finally, we'll announce the names of the three winners on the news section of our official Magento iPhone app (available here). If you don't have an iPhone, then don't worry. Shortly after the announcement on our iPhone app we'll also post the names of the three winners here on the Magento Blog. Be sure to check for your name and respond within 48 hours or we'll need to award the prizes to the next person in line.

If you'd like to collaborate on this project or share updates with the community, be sure to use the #Connect2000 hashtag on twitter.

Good luck!

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

07 Mar 2010 4:25am GMT

06 Mar 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

KangaROOS: Hopping to Success on Magento

A European fashion e-commerce platform for KangaROOS and Flip*Flop
Magento Partner Strawberries has developed a multilingual webshop to support sales across several European markets on behalf of southern German company Bernd Hummel Holding, licence holder for the KangaROOS brand in 16 European countries. The webshop sells KangaROOS shoes, clothing and accessories.

It was not only the qualities of the KangaROOS brand that were taken into account when developing the concept for the webshops, but also the translation of this concept into other brand formulas. Besides KangaROOS, the shop concept has also been applied to the summer shoe and accessories brand Flip*Flop.

Fully integrated e-commerce platform
Bernd Hummel Holding and Strawberries bore joint responsibility for the concept while the KangaROOS and Flip*Flop shops were under development. Strawberries took care of the design, implementation and management, and the Magento platform was used as an e-commerce solution.

The webshops are fully integrated with the Austrian logistics service provider Dohmen. In addition, the e-commerce platform is integrated with a credit-check module and various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Studivz.

About Strawberries
Strawberries is a full-service internet company based in the heart of Amsterdam. Based on a clear vision, we have been developing and translating web strategies into functional, measurable internet solutions for 12 years. Thirty employees work together with our regular partners to ensure high-quality internet applications that are in keeping with our clients' goals and the wishes of their users.

Strawberries works for clients including V&D, adidas, SEAT, Philips, Dolcis, Manfield, ProSport, Invito, VGZ, Vereniging Eigen Huis and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

06 Mar 2010 5:56am GMT

03 Mar 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Webinar: Managing Sales Tax in Magento eCommerce Applications

Managing Sales Tax in Magento eCommerce Applications

Topics include:

The challenges of sales tax calculation and compliance.
Changes in state sales tax legislation that could affect your e-commerce business
How your company can achieve full compliance with the AvaTax solution.
Demo of the AvaTax Dashboard for centralized, secure management.

Do you spend your valuable time dealing with sales tax when you could be growing your business? Are you constantly updating rules and trying to make sure you're in compliance with your local tax codes? If you're looking for a better solution, please join us on Tuesday, March 9th at 9am Pacific Time for an inside look at the Magento and AvaTax solution.

Date: Tuesday, March 9th, 9:00 AM PST(GMT -08:00, Los Angeles)
Registration: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/190005171

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

03 Mar 2010 11:57pm GMT

Avalara and Magento Join Forces to Provide Industry Leading E-Commerce Sales Tax Solution

Do you spend your valuable time dealing with sales tax when you could be growing your business? Are you constantly updating rules and trying to make sure you're in compliance with your local tax codes? Magento is proud to announce that we've teamed up with Avalara (www.avalara.com), the leading provider of web-based sales tax automation solutions for businesses of all sizes, to enable Magento merchants to easily and affordably manage sales tax calculation, compliance, and exemption certificates. As of today, Magento will offer seamless integration with Avalara's AvaTax™ service.

Through its AvaTax service, Avalara offers the fastest, most accurate, and affordable Web-based tax compliance service available. AvaTax operates as a module, providing a fully integrated and automated sales tax management system that includes functionality to protect against audits, obsolete data, and changing tax laws. With point-and-click ease, sales tax is figured in tenths of a second, with unequaled accuracy, transaction after transaction.

Check out our Press Release page to read the full press releases and get more details.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

03 Mar 2010 12:19am GMT

02 Mar 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Tomorrow: Magento at the 2010 Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference

Will you be attending this week's 2010 Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference in San Francisco? Join us as Magento, along with Enterprise Partners Optaros co-sponsor the National Retail Foundation's 2010 Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference on March 2-4 in San Francisco, CA. Founder Roy Rubin and other members of the Magento team will be on hand throughout the opening reception and show. If you are interested in meeting with any members of the Magento team please contact our Vice President of Sales, to schedule a time to talk.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

02 Mar 2010 12:44am GMT

26 Feb 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Fox Connect on Magento

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

26 Feb 2010 5:00am GMT

Installing Magento Stand-alone on OS X

If you're a Mac head looking to set up Magento standalone on your Mac, whether it's to explore and learn about Magento, to do a little development or present to clients, and have been looking for easy instructions, today's your lucky day! Mark Hopwood, Technical and Operations Director over at Magento Enterprise Partner Pod1 has put together this great tutorial on getting Magento up and running on Mac. Mark's instructions focus on Magento Enterprise Edition but are easily adaptable to Community Edition as well!

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

26 Feb 2010 4:11am GMT

25 Feb 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Magento at the 2010 Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference

Join us as Magento along with Enterprise Partners Optaros co-sponsor the National Retail Foundation's 2010 Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference on March 2-4 in San Francisco, CA. Founder Roy Rubin and other members of the Magento team will be on hand throughout the opening reception and show. If you are interested in meeting with any members of the Magento team please contact our Vice President of Sales, to schedule a time to talk.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

25 Feb 2010 2:36am GMT

24 Feb 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Magento Chicago Meetup - March 10, 2010 at TechNexus

Join members of the Magento Team and Lyons Consulting Group as we team up for the first ever Magento Chicago Meetup. The Meetup will take place at the TechNexus and is for Chicago area Magento users, partners, developers and business owners to meet and share insights, challenges, best practices and success stories. If you're in the Chicago area and interested in Magento, this is the place to be! Sign up now!

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

24 Feb 2010 4:31am GMT

20 Feb 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Magento CE Version 1.4.0.1 Stable - Now Available

Magento CE version 1.4.0.1 Stable is now available for download and upgrade.

Please Note: We do NOT recommend upgrading a production installation of Magento directly. Please backup database and all files before upgrading. Please make sure to check file permissions before trying to upgrade through your Magento Connect Manager.

This release mainly fixes an upgrade issue that was experienced while upgrading through Magento Connect Manager and a cache issue in specific environments.

We highly recommend disabling Magento cache before upgrading.

To see a full list of features and fixed issues please visit our release notes page. Diff files are available here.

Since version 1.4.0.0 for security reasons the trace in the Magento error report page is disabled by default. The "Error log number" does not give any information about the error. To enable the trace copy the errors/local.xml.sample to errors/local.xml and follow the instructions described in that file.

Please report all issues with this release in the bug tracker.

Important Note 1: If the Magento Compilation Module is enabled it must be disabled before attempting to upgrade. After upgrading is done, click on "Run Compilation Process" to process and enable it again.

Important Note 2: If you are running Magento in a cluster environment and are using a shared cache (e.g. Memcached) you will now need to also make sure to configure Magento to use Database as the "slow" backend cache.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

20 Feb 2010 7:23am GMT

18 Feb 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Now Available: Best Practices for Magento Development in the Magento Webinar Archive

The recording of the highly attended kick off of the new Magento Developer Solutions series of webinars is now available on the Magento Webinar Archive. Please send any follow-up questions to . Be sure to check out recordings of our other great webinars as well, all on the Magento Webinar Archive.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

18 Feb 2010 2:02am GMT

17 Feb 2010

Magento - Open Source eCommerce

Magento Connect Features: ‘AITOC’

As some of you might have noticed, we've been featuring Magento Connect developers here on the Magento Blog.

Today's featured developer is AITOC, a company that has been developing Magento extensions for the past year. In that time, AITOC has learned a lot about our extension marketplace, and with nearly 40 active extensions on Magento Connect, they have some great insights & best practices for developers looking to take their business to the next level.

The company is in a similar position to many others in our community, where ideas for new extensions come out of actual client work. The work is packaged for Magento Connect and gradually improved upon with user feedback. It's a very successful model that results in top-selling products that solve real-world needs.

The following interview is with Vlad Babarykin, AITOC's CEO.

Thanks Vlad for setting some time aside to speak with us. First, AITOC is an interesting name. How did you come up with it?
AITOC used to stand for Advanced IT Offshore Consulting. The company started in 2001 as an outsourcing company. Our business has changed since then, but we liked the distinct sound of the name so we kept it.

How would you describe your business model?
We build up our technological and managerial expertise around three competences:

• Web development: As of today AITOC has successfully carried out over one hundred web-development projects of various complexities across a wide range of industries.

• Customization of ready made products and web solutions: To increase the value that AITOC can deliver, we apply our web-development to customizing existing solutions. Having performed hundreds of customizations and integrations, AITOC has gained significant expertise with phpFox and Magento. We eventually began to support this experience with extensions that we customized for these solutions.

• Product development: Through our customization experience we learned a great deal about what Magento users really needed. We narrowed those needs down to a few essential ones and developed ready-made solutions that deliver great value to our customers at a price that is much lower than custom development. We also offer high-quality and professional support.

What is your company's proudest accomplishment?
In the past year, when the global financial crisis was tough on the IT outsourcing industry, we've managed to maintain the company, avoid layoffs, enter new markets and produce many new successful products.

How long have you been in business and how long have you been developing extensions for Magento?
The company was founded in 2001, and we've been developing Magento extensions for almost a year now.

How did you discover Magento and why did you decide to make this platform an important part of your business?
To foster further company growth, we were searching for a fast-growing market that would enable us to develop more small products. After we considered and analyzed many options, Magento emerged as the perfect choice.

How does the Magento Connect marketplace benefit you?
Magento Connect is the ultimate marketplace that gathers a large audience and provides the opportunity to deliver information about our products to our potential customers.

Also, we've built up our knowledge base about customer needs by interacting with the Magento community and collecting information from product reviews, groups and forums. All of this feedback & data helps us improve our current extensions and generate ideas for new ones.

How many extensions do you have in the Connect marketplace?
We have 37 extensions in our portfolio. Eleven of them were originally developed by AdjustWare, but in the late 2009 we acquired AdjustWare and all of their extensions. After revising the code to make the new extensions comply with our standards and compatible with our other products, we re-released AdjustWare's extensions as a part of our portfolio.

What are your top-selling extensions?
Many of our extensions are quite popular, but as of today, our top-selling extensions are Shop by Brands, Advanced Permissions and Magento Booster.

What are some of the lessons you've had to learn to be successful in the Connect marketplace?
• One lesson is that the time we invest in extension development doesn't often determine the extension's success. Rather, the problems that the extension solves has greater impact. It is more important to be focused on solving problems rather than writing and testing lots of code.
• We also learned that offering free community extensions helps to raise awareness of the company.
• Product name and packaging matter.

What advice would you give to a new developer who wants to start building extensions for Magento Connect?
• Thorough knowledge about the needs of Magento users is essential to selecting the ideas for new extensions that will sell.
• Test your extensions to minimize the number of support requests. New extensions receive a lot of support requests, so be sure to take care of minor problems up front.
• Generate your own ideas for new extensions, don't copy existing ones. There are plenty of unresolved problems, and you'll occupy a better competitive position by being the first one to offer a solution.

How many developers do you have on staff now?
We have 31 developers focusing on developing extensions and customizations.

Are you planning to hire this year?
Yes, we are hiring now. However, we really plan to grow the company by optimizing our processes to make it more efficient.

What has been your greatest business challenge over the last year?
The biggest challenge over the last year was to grow the company's revenue despite of the global financial crisis. I'm glad that we succeeded at this.

What else would you like the community to know about your business and your extensions?
AITOC is one of the few companies that considers Magento-extension development a big part of their primary business. Small-product development is a part of our strategy, now that we've shifted from outsourcing to product development. We've also built up a large knowledge base about Magento and its users' needs, which we continually draw from to develop new extensions.

The fact that extensions are big part of our primary business also incentives us to provide high-quality timely support to our customers.

We also make sure that our extensions come well equipped with video tutorials, live demos, and user manuals. Whenever applicable, we feature real Magento stores using our extensions in our videos. You can see some of these in action on our YouTube channel.

We also offer bulk and accrual discounts to our clients and conduct the only ongoing lottery for Magento users.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE

RT @royrubin05 Open Position at Magento: VP/GM: eCommerce SaaS Business Group http://is.gd/9ZHRo (please RT)

17 Feb 2010 8:49am GMT

From the Support Team: Pre-Production System Configuration Checklist

This post is part of a weekly series by the Magento Enterprise Edition subscription support team covering tips, tricks and hints to some of the most common, and uncommon, issues as submitted by support customers.

+++++++

In previous posts, we showed you how to setup multiple Magento websites, how to change your favicon logo, and how to configure your transactional email logos, all of which are about personalizing your web store. If you're all done with the tweaking and configuring, then it's time to take your shop live! Here's an Admin System Configuration checklist which you can use once your site is staged, in preparation for going live. We'll go through the back end, section by section and let you know which pieces are relevant and important.

1: System -> Configure -> General

General -> Website Restrictions

Ensure that the website is not restricted to customers.

Web -> Unsecure URL

Web -> Secure URL

A 100% Signed and Trusted Certificate should be installed in the server when using secure base URL.

Web -> Default Pages

The "Home Page" CMS can be redesigned according to your desired look in the Admin panel, under CMS -> Pages -> Manage Content -> Home page

Design -> Package

If you are running Magento Enterprise Edition you have so many more features, each with its own template and layout files in the default Enterprise theme. Thus, it is necessary to use the "enterprise" package or to synchronize your package with the enterprise package to ensure that all features have their corresponding templates and layout.

Design -> Themes
You can use your own templates, skin and layouts by specifying their name. The default field should contain a default theme which Magento will use in case the personalized theme you are using is missing template files.

Design -> HTML Head
Update the information according to your business information.

Design -> Header
Update the Header details to reflect your business logo, description, etc.

The default Enterprise logo is located at /skin/frontend/enterprise/default/images/logo.gif. To change this logo, you can either upload a new image named logo.gif or update the Logo Image Src value.

Design -> Footer
Update the Footer details to contain your business information.

Store eMail Addresses
These email addresses will be used in sending and receiving email notifications (i.e. new order, invoice, shipment, credit memo, product price alerts, newsletters, etc.). So, make sure to update these fields with valid business email addresses.

2: System > Configuration > Sales

Invoice and Packing Slip Design
Ensure that this is configured with your own business information.

Tax
Ensure that the Tax configuration settings are properly configured according to your business tax rules. Importing tax rates into Magento can easily be done under Sales -> Tax -> Import / Export Tax Rates.

Shipping Settings

Ensure that the origin section contains the shipping origin of your business.

Shipping Methods
Enable the carrier and appropriate shipping methods that your company uses.

If you're giving free shipping to some of these carriers, you can check out a previous article on different ways of offering free shipping. Also, you can limit free shipping to certain countries.

Google API
Magento is integrated with Google API to allow your business to use the robust features of google such as Google Analytics, Google Base, Google Checkout, Google Website Optimizer. If you wish to use these features, you need to have Google Analytics, Base, & Merchant accounts.

PayPal
Same as Google API, Magento is integrated with PayPal to allow your business to use PayPal payment methods. If you're going to use this payment method, ensure that before going live, you aren't using Sandbox Mode, which is the test mode for testing this payment method.

Payment Methods
Enable the payment method(s) that your company uses and ensure that these payment methods are properly configured (i.e. order status, accepted currency, allowed countries, etc.)

3: System -> Advanced

System > Cron (Scheduled Tasks) - all the times are in minutes

Ensure that Cron jobs are set to run at the desired time. These cron jobs are critical in ensuring that catalog price rules stick with the product prices, newsletters/customer alerts are sent, Google sitemaps are generated, automatic updating of currency rates, and scheduled database logs are cleaned.

For more information about setting up cron jobs, you may refer to this page on the wiki.

System -> Log Cleaning

Log cleaning must be enabled to ensure that your database log tables are cleaned. The Save Log days should be set to keep logs according your needs and server capacity.

4: System -> Transactional Emails

The default email templates can be updated to reflect your branding more accurately by adding a new template and loading a default email template.

Under the System -> Configuration section, the following sections below use transactional email templates and email senders:

General Section
Contacts -> Email Options

Catalog Section
Catalog -> Product Alerts
Email to a Friend

Customers Section
Newsletter -> Subscription Options
Customer Configuration -> Create New Account Options
Customer Configuration -> Password Options
Customer Configuration -> Store Credit Options
Wishlist -> Share Options
Invitations -> Customer Invitation Email Template
Reward Points -> Email Notification Settings

Sales Section
Sales Emails -> Order
Sales Emails -> Order Comments
Sales Emails -> Invoice
Sales Emails -> Invoice Comments
Sales Emails -> Shipment
Sales Emails -> Shipment Comments
Sales Emails -> Credit Memo
Sales Emails -> Credit Memo Comments
Checkout -> Payment Failed Emails
Gift Cards -> Gift Card Email Setting
Gift Cards -> Email sent from Gift Card Account management

Advanced Section
Admin -> Admin User Emails
System -> Log Cleaning

…and last, but definitely not least, once you've gone through this checklist, make sure to test everything before going live.

FROM THE MAGENTO TWITTER FEED

NOW AVAILABLE