Magento provides users with different product type profiles to select when creating a new product. Choosing the right product type is very important for accessing the appropriate set of features required to sell your items. My tutorial today is designed to help you understand the differences among product types and what they’re intended to set up your Magento products.

1. Standard Product Types

Magento has 6 standard product types, including: Simple product, grouped product, configurable product, virtual product, bundle product and downloadable product.

• Simple product: is an instance of physical products, having a single configuration (one-size-fits-all). For example: a cell-phone, a monitor…

• Grouped product: is a product type that allows you to create a new product using one or more existing products, such as Magento Red Furniture Set product in Magento’s sample data. This product group has 3 separated products: Ottoman, Chair, Couch and each one is available for purchases. When buying a grouped product, customers can choose each separated product to add to cart:

• Configurable product: is a product type allowing customers to select the variant that they want by choosing options. For instance: Zolof The Rock And Roll Destroyer: LOL Cat T-shirt has its size and color for customers to choose. A simple way in this case is that you can create some simple products with different colors and sizes to sell. However, configurable product type helps you create the product more convenient, faster, and easier to manage products.

• Virtual product: is a product type used for products that don’t have a physical instance. It’s always used for service products or intellectual products (as software). Those products don’t need to be shipped.

• Bundle product: is also known as a kit. A bundle product is one product in the customer’s shopping cart but in fact, it is made of a number of other products. Magento’s sample data has Computer product which is bundled from other products: Case, Processor, Memory…

• Downloadable product: is similar to the virtual product (like an instance of the virtual product).  But these products have one or more digital files for download. This is great for software, digital music files and other electronic products. Otherwise, downloadable files can be used as a configuration for customers to choose when adding to cart.

2. Product type’s modules

Magento has 6 standard product types, but just 4 product types are implemented as the parts of the Mage_Catalog module. The bundle product and downloadable product are implemented in the separated modules (Mage_Bundle and Mage_Downloadable). A product type needs to be configurated (in global node) as same as below:

<catalog>
    <product>
        <type>
            <configurable translate="label" module="catalog">
                <label>Configurable Product</label>
                <model>catalog/product_type_configurable</model>
                <price_model>catalog/product_type_configurable_price</price_model>
                <composite>1</composite>
                <allow_product_types>
                    <simple/>
                    <virtual/>
                </allow_product_types>
                <index_priority>30</index_priority>
                <price_indexer>catalog/product_indexer_price_configurable</price_indexer>
            </configurable>
        </type>
    </product>
</catalog>

• <model>: a model to work with the product type
• <composite>: product is simple or composite
• <price_model>: a model to work with the product type’s price

If you want to add a new product type, you can use these configurations to register with the system. The detail instruction for Magento themes will be available in the next tutorials. Stay tuned!

 

We’ve received a lot of feedbacks and ideas from customers telling us which products they wish to update. The top requests are for two outstanding extensions: Banner Pro and Group Deal. Thus our technical team is working hard in order to bring you the improvements of these modules in the shortest time.

 

 

Banner Pro updated to v.3.0.0

Banner Pro – the extension helps you add unlimited banners as sliders in different positions on your site is about to be completely updated to v.3.0.0. This version is designed to optimize steps in creating a banner block in the back-end.

 

 

Group Deal for Magento Enterprise Edition

To satisfy the demand of numerous customers, Group Deal extension is upgraded to be compatible with Magento Enterprise Edition from 1.9 to 1.12.

All of these updates will be available tomorrow. Just a little time ahead!

What products do you want us to upgrade next?

21 is the number of Magestore’s extensions that Klaus Bothe has installed for his website www.isarfoto.de Curious what extensions has he been using? Find out in this below Interview.

Store: www.isarfoto.de

Product: camera, photo accessories and others

Located: Germany

We cooperated with some companies providing e-commerce solutions and they all highly recommended Magento platform. Besides, it fully fits our business’s needs.

The wide range of very wonderful and intelligent extensions especially designed for Magento platform is the reason we selected Magestore. We want to have the best possible solution from your company as a Partner.

We have installed up to 21 extensions to our Magento system: Data transporter, FAQ, Membership, Product file viewer, Support ticket, Product Social media, Catalog permission, Auction, Social login, Banner pro, One step checkout, Store pickup, Instant search, Customer Reward, Product Offer, Image Option, Gift wrap, Group Deal, Gift Voucher, Product Contact and Shop by manufacturer

Customer Reward - Product Offer
Image Option - Gift wrap
Group Deal - Gift Voucher
Product Contact - Shop by manufacturer

Today we will continue exploring a journey through the Adminhtml by discussing Magento extensions – the issue that always grabs a lot of attraction and interest of many people. Three main following parts will be covered in this tutorial:

• Magento extensions
• Decouple extensions from Magento
• Install extensions from Magento Connect

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

1. Magento extensions

Magento primarily works on a base of modules. An extension is one or more modules providing new features and functionalies for a Magento site.

Magento extensions are divided into 3 types: community, core, commercial.

• core: extensions developed by Magento core team. These extensions are located in the app/code/core directory. You need to keep your extensions out of the core to avoid any conflicts with core extensions or any future updates.
• community: community-distributed extensions developed by Magento community members or partners. These extensions are located in the app/code/community directory. You can install them through Magento Connect or download from a source.
• commercial: extensions developed by 3rd party. They are often located in the app/code/local directory and offered for sale. To install these extensions, you can purchase them from the seller then upload the codes to your site.

2. Decouple extensions from Magento

There are two methods for you to choose in order to decouple extensions from a Magento site.

The first way: You can copy the codes of your extension from the Magento site then paste these code files to a folder through a structured directory.

The second way: Use the Package function in the backend of your Magento site.

• Step1: Login to the backend and select the menu System > Magento Connect > Package Extensions

• Step 2: Complete the form with the information:

• The package info: includes fields as name, description… for the extension package
• Release info: releases information for the extension as a released versions, released stability and notes.
• Author: the author’s information (name, user, email) of the extension
• Dependencies: the extension’s dependencies
• Contents: contains the information of extension’s folders and files that will be exported to a package from the Magento site

• Step 3: Click on Save Data and Create Package button to create a packaged extension from your site.

You can use the extension that has been decoupled to set up it into another Magento site.

3. Install extensions from Magento Connect

• Step 1: Go to http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/ and search for the extensions that you need. In the extension view page, you can get the extension’s key:

You can use the extension that has been decoupled to set up another Magento site.

• Step 2: Login to the backend of your site and select the menu System > Magento Connect > Magento Connect Manager

• Step 3: Paste your extension’s key to the input box then click on Install button

Then just wait for the extension installed on your site.

Why don’t you try installing some modules for your site now? It’ll really be very interesting. Hope you succeed and don’t forget to let us know the result, OK?

Gifterrific this May: $20 discount on Gift Voucher

Your chance to discover the awesome product at the lowest cost ever is now coming! During the month of May, we offer you an exclusive discount of $20 for each purchase of our Gift Voucher extension. It means that you can grab an entire module at just $129.00 instead of $149.00. Please quickly take this advantage to save your money as it’s only valid in this May!

In addition, to make our summer gift more meaningful, we decided to present you 4 more free themes. Let’s visit Our Theme Store and pick a perfect one for your own site!

 

Updated extensions coming soon

We are also very pleased to notify you that Social Voice and Banner Pro modules are about to be completely upgraded to the new versions with a lot of improvements. Just wait for a little more time and we can assure that you will be impressed by Social Voice v1.2 and Banner Pro v3.0.0.

Also, which extensions do you want to be updated next? Don’t hesitate to let us know by giving comments and we’ll take priorities based on your feedback.

 

Interview with Magestore

Last but not least, have you ever thought of expanding the reputation by letting your store and yourself appear on Magestore.com? Taking just some minutes to join our interview and share your own thoughts must be the good idea. Who wants to leave comments here to register for an interview now?

Recently, many customers have contacted Magestore to ask about our Social Voice extension. They have asked various questions, but mainly focused on the features and benefits of Social Voice, why they should choose Social Voice for their Magento stores instead of other customer care systems.

Due to that high demand, we decided to release this comparison to help you understand thoroughly about Social Voice. In this comparison guide, we have analyzed Get Satisfaction – one of the most well-known customer care systems. This review aims to provide readers with clear and obvious concepts of the two products.

First, we should get to know about the them:

Social Voice is a Magento extension developed by Magestore.com – one of the leading magento extensions providers. Social Voice was especially developed for Magento platform. With a well-organized interface, customers can easily ask questions, report a problem, give praises or share their ideas while admin can efficiently manage customer’s feedbacks.

Get satisfaction is a customer service tool which can be used to get feedbacks from the visitors of your website. They can choose to ask a question, share an idea, report a problem or give praise to you. Customers can interact with each other comfortably.

Now, to the main part, we will see what to be compared. In this quick review, I will just point out important features.

What to be compared		Get satisfaction	Social Voice
Features for users	Forum	• There are highlight sections   • FAQ integrated	• Feedbacks are well-classified in “View all topics” section • No FAQ section
	Interface	User-friendly	User-friendly
	API	V	X
	File attachment	V	V
	Posting without login	V	V
	User following	V	V
	Feedback on Product Page	V Available under the form of Widget	V Potential customers can directly ask product-related question on product page
	Multiple languages support	V	V
Features for admin	Customizable theme	Available, must pay extra money to acquire this function	Available to all editions
	Moderators	V	V
	Social network integration	V	V
	Magento compatibility	A totally separate system, not a built-in extension, all configurations are made on GetSatisfaction website	Excellent, specially designed for Magento sites. Admin can configure directly in admin section, no dependence on 3rd website
	Ban users	V	X Admins & Mods can only delete posts, no option for banning users
	Open Source	X	V
	White label customization	V Only available for enterprise edition	V Available to all editions
Price		Monthly price Start package: $19 month Grow package: $49/month Connect package: $99/month Enterprise package – Order for price	Life time price Trial edition: Free – Including most of important functions Platinum edition: $199 Custom edition: $0 – $399
Advantage		• Easily to use, compatible with all types of websites • Powerful search system	• Good price compared to its functions • Built-in extension for Magento site, admins can manage directly on their site • Open Source • Feedback on product page
Disadvantage		• High price • Feedback on Product page only as widget	Only works with Magento platform

To recap, if you are looking for a popular customer care system, Get satisfaction might be what you are looking for. In case you are looking for a Magento-specialized customer care system with a reasonable price, then Social Voice can be up your alley.

Just enjoy the best customer services with Social Voice:

• Free Lifetime Support
• Free Updates and Bug Fixes
• 30 days money back guarantee, no questions asked
• 15 days free trial

Also, please keep in mind that Social Voice offers a FREE VERSION including most of important features, allowing you to spend a few minutes on doing a comparison by yourself.

For the whole list of Social Voice features, please visit here.
Thanks for your following

As you may concern, Magento uses an Access Control Lists (ACL) to authorize and control user access within the system with the purpose of effectively managing the site. The tutorial presented today will demonstrate the ACL in details and guide you how to setup and authorize a backend menu.

1. Define the ACL

According to www.techterms.com: ACL stands for “Access Control List”. An ACL is a list of user permissions for a file, folder, or other object. It defines what users and groups can access the object and what operations they can perform. These operations typically include read, write, and execute. For example, if an ACL specifies read-only access for a specific user of a file, that user will be able open the file, but cannot write to it or run the file.

In Magento, ACL is a list of user permissions for a resource path (link to menu entry or action), allowing users to access a resource or not. In ACL, there are some basic terms and elements as the followings:

• User: the entity that has an authority to use the system. The user that we mention in Magento is the backend user.
• Role: the role of the user when logging in to the system. In Magento, a user has only a role.
• Rule: the rule set of user and role. It defines user’s permission or role’s permission to access the resource.
• Assert: the condition to active an item in ACL. It is used for a special control when checking permission by ACL.

2. Magento stores ACL in the database

Magento stores the role in the table admin_role:

• parent_id: the parent role of the current role
• role_type: the user role or the group role

The important table of ACL is the admin_rule table which stores the list of permissions of a user or a role with the resource:

• role_id: the id of the role to apply in the ACL
• resource_id: the resource to access the system
• permission: permission for a role to access the resource

3. Create a menu and setup permission for it

In Magento, you can easily add the backend menu item and ACL resource for that menu to your extension by adding the following code into the adminhtml.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <menu>
        <socialrecommend module="socialrecommend" translate="title">
            <title>Recommend</title>
            <sort_order>71</sort_order>
            <children>
                <settings module="socialrecommend" translate="title">
                    <title>Settings</title>
                    <sort_order>1000</sort_order>
                    <action>adminhtml/system_config/edit/section/socialrecommend</action>
                </settings>
            </children>
        </socialrecommend>
    </menu>
    <acl>
        <resources>
            <admin>
                <children>
                    <system>
                        <children>
                            <config>
                                <children>
                                    <socialrecommend module="socialrecommend" translate="title">
                                        <title>Social Recommend</title>
                                        <sort_order>71</sort_order>
                                    </socialrecommend>
                                </children>
                            </config>
                        </children>
                    </system>
                    <socialrecommend module="socialrecommend" translate="title">
                        <title>Recommend</title>
                        <sort_order>71</sort_order>
                        <children>
                            <settings module="socialrecommend" translate="title">
                                <title>Settings</title>
                                <sort_order>1000</sort_order>
                            </settings>
                        </children>
                    </socialrecommend>
                </children>
            </admin>
        </resources>
    </acl>
</config>

• <menu> tag: defines menu  entry in the backend

• <title>: the menu title
• <sort_order>: the order to show menu
• <action>: the link of the menu

• <acl> tag: defines the ACL entry to access to backend menu above

• <title>: the title to show in ACL’s resource list
• <sort_order>: the order to show in ACL’s resource list

Now, when adding a role to your system, you can see the ACL item in the list and select the checkbox corresponding with the resource that allows the role to access:

When the user logs in to the backend, the backend menu will be shown depending on the user’s permission. If the user runs an action request, the system will check the user’s permission before running an action by function _isAllow() of Action class. For example:

/**
 * Check is allow modify system configuration
 *
 * @return bool
 */
protected function _isAllowed()
{
    return Mage::getSingleton('admin/session')->isAllowed('system/config');
}

Hope that all information above will be helpful to you. Have fun and nice code

We are so happy to tell you that our Affiliate Plus extension has been updated to v1.2, incorporating considarable enhancements. You can visit the Product Page then click on the Released Notes to find more details of the update.

For purchased customers, please go to your account then click on My downloadable Products to get the update for free.

Just feel free to leave comments here if you have any questions or suggestions. All of your great ideas are welcome!

Hi all, Magestore always hope to listen to what merchants say about our products. Have they selected Magestore’s extensions to bring customers easygoing time on their stores or not? That is the reason why we invited Aydin Buyuktafli to share something of his business on his avizeci.com to other web-store owners. Avizeci is a home appliance store known for providing luxurious and classical chandeliers.

Q: Why did you choose Magento platform for your business?
A: Through my friends and after trying to use Magento, I found that it was an open source and very nice structured software that makes our customers feel comfy when shopping on my store.
Q: What made Magestore your selection over other Magento solutions providers?
A: I have spent quite much time on researching all of the extension providers and I saw a lot of positive comments on your Company. And your products best suit our business with outstanding extensions like Auction, Offer product, etc.
Q: What extensions of Magestore have you used so far?
A: Affiliate Plus, Product Offer, Auction and I will buy Social Voice extension for my next project.
Q: Which Magestore extensions installed do you have special impressions?
A: I have special impression on Auction that fully fits online auction of our customers’ needs. With smart functions, this module makes them more satisfied.
Q: How have Magestore products impacted on your business in terms of sales, conversion rate, and customer care?
A: Well, you know that the impact of some of these extensions is valuable. Affiliate plus for our affiliate
network is big number one. We can strongly assert that thanks for this extension, we have had the professional affiliate program and got an amazing increase of customers, sales and traffic.
The Auction extension brings more benefits than my expectation. We are able to create flexible and great auctions that allow our customers join and manage at their convenience. This module helps us generate a quite big amount of profit.
We also hope for the same result when using Social voice extension.

Q: Could you please share your experience in using Magestore extensions?
A: I believe most of Magestore extensions made are good structured software with details. It seems that Magestore will make the sale and cooperation easier and user friendly ecommerce website.
Q: Did you have trouble when using Magestore extensions? Are you satisfied with our support?
A: I have had some troubles when using Magestore extensions. However, the most rapid solution for me is your Support team’s assistance. No words more than AWESOME. The responses are very respectful and always in the shortest time. Thank guys!
Q: Any recommendations for people evaluating Magestore?
A: Magestore has granted a relief and refreshing feeling of Magento platform. I will keep developing my business of Magento store and certainly, with Magestore support! Believe that Magestore brings the best solution to your business!
Good luck! Magestore.
Thanks for your detailed answers, Aydin! We wish you good luck and prosperity in your business.

The information contained in this tutorial is designed to help you obtain further knowledge of System Configuration XML in Magento Adminhtml with a minimum of time and effort. First, I will present the basic terms and elements of system configuration XML and then different methods to fetch a variable from the system configuration.

1. Basic terms and elements of system configuration XML

Magento provides the system configuration for you to configure your system and your modules as well. You are able to add your custom module configuration via system.xml file in the folder etc of your module folder, such as the file app/code/local/Magestore/Ajaxcart/etc/system.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <tabs>
        <magestore translate="label">
            <label>Magestore Extension</label>
            <sort_order>400</sort_order>
        </magestore>
    </tabs>
    <sections>
        <ajaxcart translate="label" module="ajaxcart">
            <class>separator-top</class>
            <label>Ajax Cart</label>
            <tab>magestore</tab>
            <frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
            <sort_order>299</sort_order>
            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
            <show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
            <groups>
                <general translate="label">
                    <label>General Configuration</label>
                    <frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
                    <sort_order>1</sort_order>
                    <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                    <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                    <show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
                    <fields>
                        <enable translate="label">
                            <label>Enable Ajax Cart</label>
                            <frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
                            <sort_order>1</sort_order>
                            <source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_yesno</source_model>
                            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                            <show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
                            <comment>Enable using Ajaxcart</comment>
                        </enable>
                    </fields>
                </general>
            </groups>
        </ajaxcart>
    </sections>
</config>

In this file, you can view some basic tags:
• tabs: tabs of the configuration showed on the left column of the configuration form.

• magestore: tab’s identity
• label: tab’s label
• sort_order: order to show tabs

• sessions: sessions of your configuration, each session corresponds with a configuration form

• ajaxcart: session’s identity
• tab: its value is tab’s identity linking to session
• show_in_default, show_in_website, show_in_store: the scope of this configuration

• groups: define groups of your configuration form. Each group corresponds with a form fieldset
• fields: define fields of your configuration form

• frontend_type: the type of fields (similar to form field in previous chapter)
• source_model: the source providing data for the field (only some types need sample data like select, multiselect…)
• comment: the comment to explain the field

Besides, you can use some tags such as frontend_model,backend_model,upload_dir,base_url…, depending on your field.
Default, Magento use Mage_Adminhtml_Block_System_Config_Form Mage_Adminhtml_Block_System_Config_Form_Fieldset and Mage_Adminhtml_Block_System_Config_Form_Field blocks to render to HTML form. However, it’s possible to use your custom block to render via the configuration tag frontend_model. You are able to refer to classes above to write your custom block. If data of the form and database is not compatible, you can use tag backend_model to convert.
Your configuration maybe needs the default value for working. In this case, you can add it to config.xml file. For example: the default value is added to the file app/code/local/Magestore/Ajaxcart/etc/config.xml

<config>
    ...
    <default>
        <ajaxcart>
            <general>
                <enable>1</enable>
                <timeout>10</timeout>
                <cart>1</cart>
            </general>
        </ajaxcart>
    </default>
</config>

That configuration values will be overridden if you save your custom value by the admin form and Magento will store that values to the table core_config_data in database.

• scope: the scope of the configuration (default,website,store)

• path: the path of the configuration, it equals <session_id>/<group_id>/<field_id>

• value: the value of the configuration

2. Fetch a variable from System configuration

It’s necessary to get the configuration value of fields above. To do that, you can choose one of the following methods provided by Magento.

Method 1:  Mage::getStoreConfig($path,$store)

• $path: is the path to your configuration which is similar to the path stored in database, it equals <session_id>/<group_id>/<field_id>

• $store: a store to get configuration. It can be a store object, store id or store code.

For instance:

$enable = Mage::getStoreConfig('socialrecommend/general/enable','default');

Method 2: getConfig
You can use the method getConfig of a store/website object with the $path parameter (as same as above). For example:

$enable = Mage::app()->getStore()-> getConfig('socialrecommend/general/enable');

Method 3: getNode
It’s also possible to use the method getNode of the configuration model. This function has three parameters:
• $path: a path to the configuration. If $scope is store or website, this path will be similar to two methods above. On the other hand, $path will be the path from tag to your tag that you want to get configuration.
• $scope: not required. It can be store or website
• $scopeCode: not required. It can be store/website code.
For example:

$enable = Mage::getConfig()-> getNode('socialrecommend/general/enable','store','default');

Or getting the configuration by the path from tag:

$enable = Mage::getConfig()-> getNode('stores/default/socialrecommend/general/enable');

Enjoy coding!