magento-commerce

When I wrangle with Magento Commerce and customize anything, every other bit is of course tied to a product’s ID, or sometimes entity ID. The challenging part is that whenever you’re in a template in Magento, the scope is very different from the previous one. This is sometimes frustrating, but when you think of it — it makes sense. That is, in Magento! ;-) Magento works in blocks and each block is basically a class file, of course $this is never the same....

Frequently, you do client work and if you are fortunate enough, you can setup a development environment on your own server or your laptop (or whatever), tinker with the files, and templates, and so on — until it’s all done. And whenever you are done, it’s time to move files. Sounds easy? It sort of is! Checklist Here’s a small check list of things to keep in mind when you move an installation....

Moving a store from one server to another server, you’re bound to have small issues. While 99% of the configuration is stored in app/etc/local, there are other bits and pieces that are more spread out. For example, I noticed that there’s no central ‘Are all file permissions OK?’ screen in Magento Commerce and at times the system is pretty secretive when it comes to error messages. For example, after moving a store from a linux to a BSD (essentially a different WWW user id), Magento Connect just died with “Error: Please check for sufficient write file permissions”....

Multiple stores is probably the killer feature of the Magento Commerce store. It enables the needy to manage multiple stores through a single interface. Your very own mall in a box. It’s also a management/deployment nightmaredream come true. A single piece of software powering multiple websites. This small HowTo requires a working installation of Magento (tested with Magento Commerce v1.3), multiple stores setup already, an understanding of your (web)server, some shell-fu and probably root access....