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Posts Tagged ‘Magento’

CANCELED – eCommerce Demystified with Magento PANMA Event 10/26

October 20, 2010 by Bart Mroz
Image representing Magento as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

Are you thinking about adding eCommerce to your web site or are you a designer/developer who has clients who are looking for a solution? You won’t want to miss the next PANMA educational event where you’ll learn about the hottest ecommerce platform that is designed for growth.

You’ll learn:

Robert Brodie from SUMO Heavy Industries will present the technical and design aspects of Magento. He’ll also demo several site examples and explain how Magento enhanced the site.

Julian Barkat from MJM Commerce will present on how Magento can integrate with your marketing efforts and teams.

Pizza & light refreshments will be provided by PANMA.

Register at http://bit.ly/bAzB5l

An Open Letter to The Magento Community

October 1, 2010 by Bob Brodie

Magento is the number one eCommerce software in the marketplace today. Magento offers flexibility and extensibility like no other open source eCommerce system. We truly love working with the software and love being part of the Magento community and helping it grow.

That being said, we have some concerns regarding the Magento Community Advisory Board.

The CAB was an incredible idea – Koby Oz (Member of the Magento Team) was the project leader. Community members were selected to be on a board that would determine the future roadmap of Magento. The meeting overviews were posted in the blog, and we would follow very closely to keep up with what was going on.

There have been some great changes to the community site, specifically the knowledgebase and wiki – the new formats are more organized and easier to navigate. Inviting guest authors such as Alan Storm is a tremendous help to Magento developers. The problem we see is that the Community Edition development is scattered and misguided with all the internal changes and new products launching.

We generally run three local installs for testing:

  1. Stable
  2. Development
  3. Beta (if available)
Our Recommendations:

Move to GitHub Development was all done in subversion, which didn’t seem to be doing the trick, so in December 2009 it was announced that development would be moving to GitHub with weekly commits. Sadly, this never happened, and right now there is one person (who is not part of the Magento team) responsible  for downloading the latest version and uploads to GitHub. This doesn’t work simply because commits lose their messages. One problem with the current abstract development setup the dev team is using for Magento CE is that there are sometimes more features in a development version than the beta version. For example, the latest svn commit at version 1.4.x-devel-77328 has newer features than the latest beta at version 1.4.2-beta. The svn commit has it’s own release notes with missing features such as built-in StrikeIron integration. That’s huge. A move to GitHub would be one of the most effective moves possible. Branching would be easier, and everyone could develop locally since it’s made for distributed development.

Keep Up With the Public Issue Tracker The public issue tracker is great, but often it is not kept up with. Bugs are fixed and not crossed out. This could easily be fixed by looking at the development process from a project management point of view.

Make MagentoConnect Channels Easier to Find All MagentoConnect channels are supposed to be reflected in MagentoConnect 2.0, but sometimes we can’t download modules because they can’t be found. We could download modules in a different version and then copy the files to the development version, but that breaks the process of testing MagentoConnect Manager 2.0.

Public Announcements The people of the Magento community want to know what’s going on with the product they are using to support their clients. If a new community leader leaves or one is hired, we’d like to know about it. Not only would we like to know about the face of the community, but also where these changes will take us.

More Error Detail Uploading to MagentoConnect channels often throws an error with minimal detail. I sent a PM to someone who previously handled a similar issue, and they told me to put it in the issue tracker. There is no category in the issue tracker for MagentoConnect issues (Magento’s server-side), just MagentoConnect Manager (client-side). We understand that Magento is growing faster than anticipated, but we have concerns. It is a great product but without proper management it could be a disaster. We care deeply about the community product – it’s one of the best things to happen to eCommerce in years, but it seems as though management of the project is falling apart. People don’t know which department handles what product, development branches are all over the place, and bug tracking is lagging. Many of these issues could be easy fixes, and we would love to help. With the right systems and processes in place, development could be much smoother and the community could be much more involved, and that’s what it’s all about.

Perhaps a new spot for the Magento CAB is in order. The simple addition of a category in the blog would be a step forward, but a new portion of the site would be best.

Some relevant links to Magento CAB blog posts: http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/introducing-the-magento-community-advisory-board-and-first-meeting/ http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/directions-directions-1/ http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/cab-meeting-2-wrap-up/ http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/community-edition-roadmap-vote/ http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/august-2009-cab-meeting-wrap-up/ http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/december-2009-cab-meeting/ http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/march-22-2010-cab-meeting-wrapup/

The Gap That Open Source eCommerce Fills

August 30, 2010 by Bob Brodie
The Open Source Initiative keyhole.
Image via Wikipedia

There will always be hosted, closed-source systems. They have their place, pros, and cons. The cons – that’s where open source systems come in. Right now Magento is eCommerce. That’s been proven. Generally, the platform doesn’t matter. As a programmers and business people, we take many options into consideration when reviewing a client’s existing systems. Are they running an ERP? Are they a .NET shop? Custom? It all goes into the mix. Most of the time, you can’t make a hosted solution bend. For instance, if they have no support for WorldShip, you have two options: 1) Don’t use the hosted solution -or- 2) Don’t use WorldShip. That’s not a big deal for new companies; you can explain for hours on end different systems, pricing, pros / cons. The situation that calls for something different than a hosted solution is an existing company. There are business processes in place, and you can’t walk into a company who has been doing business a certain way for 20 years and completely interrupt their process. That looks bad for your company and it makes your client feel bad, and feelings are important. If you’re a business that’s a year old, you can’t waltz into an established corporation telling them they’re wrong.

That’s where open source systems come in – particularly in eCommerce.

Until Magento, there really weren’t any impressive open source eCommerce systems. I wouldn’t punish the devil himself with osCommerce, I think he would cry. ZenCart is really just osCommerce in better clothes. Seriously now – if they are any good then why has development pretty much stopped since the introduction of Magento? (I’d love to hear from the developers on that one.) There are a few other open source (and partially open source) systems, but none are particularly powerful or fast. If they’re PHP, there’s definitely some encrypted code that relies on ionCube Loader and if it’s a .NET system there’s compiled DLLs that you’ll pay thousands of dollars for the source on top of Windows licensing. Oh yeah – and I forgot Java; if you’re not a bank, school, or confused government agency then you probably have no use for Java.

So take a system like Magento – well thought out, clean code, and built on top of a framework by a company who’s founders contributed much of the core of PHP. The toughest part with a system as complete as Magento is to find something it can’t do or integrate with. Customers don’t need to ask, “Can Magento do _____?” but rather, “I need features a, b, c, x, y, and z. What’s our timeframe?”.

I’m not a Magento fanboy. You have to take it for face value. Does it work out of the box? Yes. But really it’s the best eCommerce framework around right now. If something better came along tomorrow, would I push that? Yes. If it’s RoR, it’s RoR. If it’s .NET, it’s .NET. It really doesn’t matter because as long as I can make it bend, an open source eCommerce system will always fill the gap of hosted, closed source solutions.

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Magento Launches Mobile Platform: Reach More Customers via Smartphones.

June 24, 2010 by John Suder

The Magento Team has announced the launch of Magento mobile, a new product that will allow Magento merchants to easily create branded, native mobile storefront applications that are deeply integrated with Magento’s market-leading eCommerce platform.

Here’s an overview of what Magento Mobile offers:

Seamless Storefront Integration The Magento-mobile admin will allow you to bring the functionality of Magento eCommerce to your mobile commerce channel.

This includes full integration with your store’s catalog, checkout, inventory, reporting and more.

Magento Mobile Storefront

Easier, Hassle-free submissions Magento manages and handles the App submission process, allowing you to focus on running your business.

Easily Manage Multiple Devices One installation allows you to manage multiple devices.

Fully Customizable Device-specific features and branded themes can be deployed with just a few clicks. Easily update the colors and appearance of your app with the new Magento mobile admin, even after customers have downloaded your app.

Smartphones are the best way to create deeper relationships with your customers. Combined with Magento’s mobile platform, creating apps for your storefront just became easier and more efficient.

SUMO Heavy Industries can help you lead the way with a custom Magento storefront app. Contact us to get started!

Magento Meetup Recap

June 16, 2010 by John Suder

Our first Philadelphia Magento Meetup was a great success!

Thanks to all the folks who came out to Dark Horse last night to share a beer or 3, talk Magento and hopefully make some connections. The Magento Worldwide Community is growing fast, and we plan on being a big part of it here in Philly. We’re planning on another meetup in a month or two, so stay tuned.

Thanks again to Koby Oz from Magento, who drove 20 hours (ok, it was like 6) in insane traffic to get here to present, and to our other sponsor Julian Barkat from MJM Ecommerce.

We’ll see you at the next one.

Our 1st Magento Meetup in Philly

June 15, 2010 by Bart Mroz

Tonight! Come out to our First-ever Magento Meetup in Philadelphia. Free beer*, cheap parking and great conversation (what more could you ask for on a Tuesday?)

Meet, network and raise a pint with fellow Magento developers and designers, and meet the the SUMO Heavy crew at the iconic Dark Horse Pub at Headhouse Square in center City Philly.

*The sponsors will have an open bar tab for a limited time, so get there early!

The details: Magento User Meetup Sponsored by Magento, SUMO Heavy Industries and MJM Ecommerce Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2010 Time: 6 pm to 8pm Location: Dark Horse Pub 421 S. 2nd. St. Philadelphia, PA 19147 215.928.9307 Map

Parking: Use the ParkAmerica lot at 2nd and Lombard (behind Pizzeria Stella) – bring your ticket and get $5 validated parking (cheap!)

Tonight’s event sponsored by:

Getting Ready for our Magento Meetup

June 14, 2010 by Bart Mroz

We are getting ready for our first Philadelphia Magento Meetup. Just got some stickers from Magento. If you are around Philly tomorrow you should come and hang out.

The first meeting, taking place on June 15th at 6pm is being hosted by SUMO Heavy Industries at the Dark Horse @ 241 S 2nd Street in Philly.

Sign up.

Philadelphia Magento Meetup

May 26, 2010 by Bart Mroz

Join Philly area Magento Partners, developers, freelancers, partners, designers and other members of the Phildelphia Magento Community as we kick of the first local gathering of Magento Phanatics.  The first meeting, taking place on June 15th at 6pm is being hosted by SUMO Heavy Industries at the Dark Horse @ 241 S 2nd Street in Philly.

Don’t miss your chance to connect, network with and learn from other community Members in the Philly area.  Magento team members will also be in attendance to answer your questions and keep you up-to-date on the latest Magento news.  Sign up today!

If you would like to Speak, Sponsor, or Help with the event please let us know by email info at sumoheavy.com

BIG Announcement

May 17, 2010 by Bart Mroz

We are happy to announce that round3media is changing its name to SUMO Heavy Industries. As of Monday this will be a new company and a new name. So why the change? Well, this brings another great announcement. Robert Brodie is becoming a full Partner in the company. Robert has been a great asset for the company with his extensive knowledge of eCommerce. He will now be our Technical Project Manager. Robert will mainly be responsible for the technological aspect of the company. We are very exited for what is in store for the future and how we can make you successful.

Cart Buttons

May 7, 2010 by Bart Mroz

Get Elastic blog has a good article on Unusual Shaped Buttons. I just noticed that one of clients buttons is included. Our friends at i-Site did an awesome job on the site design.

http://www.getelastic.com/unusual-buttons/

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