In the world of eCommerce every hour of every day means the possibility of revenue.
Learn how Magento can help your online business succeed.

Attend an eCommerce Forum sponsored by Magento and Magento Solution Partners to learn how Magento Enterprise can help you turn more browsers to buyers.

At these forums, eCommerce decision-makers will acquire a general understanding of who Magento is, what we do to empower the eCommerce ecosystem and how we can help you build a profitable online business.

Event Highlights

• Overview and demonstration of the Magento Enterprise eCommerce solution
• Examples of eCommerce success using Magento Enterprise
• Networking – talk to Magento personnel, a Magento Solution Partner and other companies with the same questions and ambitions as you

These events are free of charge but for planning purposes, registration is required.

What is Magento Developer Certification?

• An objective, professional mid-advanced level certification geared toward professional developers that have real-world experience with Magento implementations
• Sponsored by Magento
• Created by Magento developer gurus with the input of experts from the global Magento ecosystem
• Developed using the most rigorous industry standards and methodologies for exam development, ensuring exam’s accuracy in evaluating relevant skills

Why is this great news for all?

Magento Developer Certification benefits all members of the global Magento ecosystem:

• Individual Developers:
  • Be recognized for your Magento skills
  • Build credibility with your peers and network
  • Differentiate yourself from the competition
  • Increase your value and income
  • Gain additional knowledge through preparation and training
  • Promote your credentials via use of the Magento Certified Developer logo on your CV or Résumé
• Hiring Managers:
  • Easily identify qualified developers
  • Find Magento partners that have teams of Magento Certified Developers
• Solution Partners:
  • Ensure your developers have the right skills
  • Showcase your team’s qualifications

Developers can take the exam at Innovate!

During the Innovate Developers Conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Center on October 12th – 13th, developers will have the first-ever opportunity to earn Magento Developer Certification by taking a beta version of the exam. Magento Developer Certification is the gold standard for credibility among Magento developers, partners and merchants.

How much does it cost?

Participants in the initial beta test will pay a reduced rate of $150, a $110 savings (regular price $260) for the exam. However, space is limited so register for your exam in advance to guarantee your spot! Space will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis.

How do I sign up?

Step 1: Register for the Innovate Conference.
Step 2: Register for the exam.

When do I find out about the results?

Participating developers will be notified by email 4-6 weeks after the conference. Developers who pass the exam based on the Beta exam analysis will achieve the Magento Certified Developer or Magento Certified Developer Plus credential.

What if I can’t make it to Innovate?

Starting in December, developers will be able to take the Magento Developer Certification exam at one of 10,000+ testing sites worldwide. Please check for updates here.

Magento encourages all developers to take advantage of this rewarding opportunity. If you have additional questions, please send an email to training@magento.com with ‘certification’ in the subject line.

Hope to see you at Innovate! ]]> http://blog.theunical.com/ecommerce/shopping-carts/magento-cart/introducing-magento-developer-certification-program/feed/ 1 http://blog.theunical.com/ecommerce/shopping-carts/magento-cart/after-a-long-wait-magento-ce-version-1-6-0-0-stable-now-available/ http://blog.theunical.com/ecommerce/shopping-carts/magento-cart/after-a-long-wait-magento-ce-version-1-6-0-0-stable-now-available/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:02:36 +0000 Steven Wall http://blog.theunical.com/?p=308502 We are excited to announce the availability of Magento CE Version 1.6.0.0 Stable for download and upgrade.

The latest release is packed with new features as well as valuable code contributions from various community members around the world.

Some of the key new features in this release include:

• Persistent shopping – retain shopping cart content for customers across user sessions, browsers and devices.
• Minimum Advertised Price (MAP)
• Refactoring multiple database

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

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 permission before trying to upgrade through your Magento Connect Manager.

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

Greetings Magento Community Developers and Users,

As many of you are aware, as of June 1st 2011, Google Base Data API has been fully retired and merchants who are using Google Base APIs to upload products to Google should migrate to new extension Google Content API Extension.

Google Shopping API consists of two parts: Content and Search; Content API allows insert, update, delete and retrieve product’s info from Google; Search API allows search by uploaded items and it is not part of Magento’s integration.

This new extension covers the new Content API logic and it is designed for managing merchant item being uploaded to Google Base. For Magento, this simply replaces the current Google Base API logic.

Magento users can reference the following user guide documentation for additional information and instructions on how to utilize Google Shopping APIs for items with your Magento store.

• GoogleContentExtension.pdf

Magento developers can reference the following technical overview documentation on Magento integration with Google Shopping APIs.

• GoogleContentAPI_Technical.pdf

As always feel free to contact Rhonda or Baruch directly if you have any questions.

Posted by RoyRubin on Magento Blog

Magento Go is really going places

At Magento, we’re always looking towards the future of eCommerce. We’re constantly moving forward so quickly that we need to periodically pause and reflect on where we are today and remind ourselves just how much we owe our success to our customers, partners, community and the entire Magento ecosystem. With a few months under our belt since the launch of Magento Go, we thought this was the perfect time to look back on the unbelievable achievements you have realized thus far.

While Magento Go is still very young, the results thus far have been astounding. Tens of thousands of you have visited the site to explore, set up trials and sign-on to Go to build stores of your own. We’re seeing some very cool and innovative stores, and we’re planning to begin showcasing them in the near future.

We are committed to doing everything we can to satisfy our customers, and have been listening closely to your comments. Through your much appreciated feedback, the product itself is getting better every day and we intend to do everything we can to ensure your ongoing success. We’re continuously investing in Magento Go and quickly rolling out updates and new features. Here are just a few of our latest updates and additions to Magento Go:

Latest updates on Magento Go:

Store Design – Themes and Design Services

Many merchants have asked for help with Magento Go store design. We took your comments into consideration and have developed two new solutions to make it even easier to customize your Magento Go store. First, we are actively adding many new store themes into Magento Go so you will have a variety of options to choose from when setting up your stores. In addition, we’ve signed up some incredibly talented design partners who can help you create a custom look and feel for your Magento Go store. A preliminary list of partners is now featured on the site.

Payment Gateways

One of the most frequent requests we receive from merchants is to expand our portfolio of supported payment methods and gateways. This week we will announce the availability of SagePay for Magento Go. SAGE PAY is the UK’s largest independent payment service provider, processing millions of secure payments every month for over 33,000 businesses, from start-ups through to major online, consumer, and business brands.

Magento Go Platform

Soon we will be launching the Magento Go Platform which will allow developers to build, host and deploy custom applications for Magento Go. With the launch of this platform, you’ll be able to easily integrate a variety of apps including feature enhancements, marketing, analytic and accounting apps (among many others) from our partners and developers into your stores directly. Last week the Magento Go Platform entered beta and it has received amazing feedback from our beta testers.

We’ve come a long way since the initial launch just a few weeks ago, but we can’t wait to see just how far you can take Magento Go. We want to extend a very special thank you for your continued support and ask you to stay tuned for more to come! We couldn’t be more excited!

A Webinar Presented by Zeon Solutions and Magento

Optimizing SEO for Improved ROI

Packaging extensions using 1.5 has some minor syntactical changes from previous versions. Please see our new documentation on packaging an extension using Magento 1.5.

The significant changes are:

§ When packaging extensions, the channel field now uses the single word community. Extensions packaged prior to 1.5 use the words magento-community in the channel field.

§ When packaging an extension, you now have the option to package your extension for Magento shops that are 1.5.0.0 & later version (2.0) or for shops pre 1.5.0.0. (1.0)

§ When you click on the Save data and Create Package button to generate the tar.gz package file, the 2.0 extension file is now created in the var/connect directory. The 1.0 extension file is generated in the var/pear directory. This means there are two individual files – one for 1.0 and one for 2.0.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For broader extension support for free (unpaid) community extensions, it is best to package using pre-1.5.0.0 option. When uploading the 1.0 version from var/pear — Magento Connect will make the 2.0 version for you. If you wish to only support 1.5 and higher versions of Magento only then only upload the 2.0 file from the var/connect directory to Magento. If you are trying to create separate packages (such as to upload both a 1.0 and 2.0 version to your site for a PAID extension, or if you want different version numbers for different releases) then you must select both options when packaging which generates both 1.0 and 2.0 file types.

Make sure that you add this information to your extension description so that merchants are aware of the supported versions of your extensions.

Additionally, if you have previously uploaded a 1.5+ (2.0 only) extension and would like it to have support for Pre 1.5 (1.0) as well, repackage the existing extension with a new version number but be sure to upload the file from the var/pear directory when adding to Magento Connect. This will update both versions but also give you a 1.0 version for Pre 1.5.

Incomplete Extension Information

If you have previously attempted to upload an extension and that extension is listed as pending/incomplete, you can still recover this extension by properly packaging the extension using a new version number and uploading the update under the existing extension.You cannot use the same version number.

What’s the difference between 1.0 and 2.0 Extensions?

You may have noticed that Magento Connect Marketplace now has both 1.0 and 2.0 extensions. If you are on a Magento shop prior to 1.5, use extensions labeled as 1.0. Systems 1.5 and later use the 2.0 extensions. It is important to be aware of the differences.

Beta vs. Stable Extensions

If you package and uploaded a Beta or Alpha extension – please add this information into the extension description. It’s important for the community to be aware that they’ll need to change their stability settings on the back-end of Magento Connect Manager. Magento Connect Manager’s Preferred State defaults to “Stable” extensions and attempting to install a beta extension with this setting results in a “Not Detected” error message as the system is not detecting the Stable extension.

To change this setting:

1.Select System->Configuration-> from your store’s admin panel.

2.Log into Magento Connect

3.Click the Settings tab

4.Use the pull-down menu to select your perferred state (stable, alpha, beta)

5.Click Save

If you have any questions about Magento Connect or looking for updated information, please check into our Connect Community Forum. This forum has all the latest information on extensions, guidelines, as well as any issues that you as a developer, may need to be aware of.

As always, feel free to if you have any questions.

Rhonda

Greetings Magento Community,

Do you develop on Magento? Do you want to contribute to Magento’s core?  Do you like collaborating with others on new features and enhancements? Then you should sign up to be a Magento Contributor.

Since our Imagine Conference, I’ve been getting many requests for information on how we can make this happen. We get requests in every day. Today alone, I am working on requests for over 10 developers who are interested in contributing, and you can too!

What does this mean to you?

When you become a Magento Contributor, we’ll provide you with access to our SVN repository where you can commit changes, and access to our ticketing system if you’d like to provide a patch. Our core team looks at these changes, prioritizes the contributions, and and makes implementations based on those suggestions.

How Do I Get Started?

Just send an email to Magento Contributors. As I receive these requests, I’ll respond with our basic guidelines. Click the link to fill out and sign the Magento Contributor Agreement and send it back to us. I’ll request access, and notify you with your access credentials. That’s all there is to it.

We’re very excited to kick-start this program and are looking forward to seeing what great contributions are going to be made to our fabulous products. We love the idea of collaborating with you, to make Magento a better and stronger product. Our community is what makes Magento so great!

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to email me directly.

Branded Native Storefront Applications on iPhone, iPad and Android

Last May Magento announced Magento Mobile for iPhone, a powerful application that enables merchants to create unique, branded experiences for their customers on their iPhones.  In that time companies such as The North Face and Easton Bell Sports have built custom-designed mobile experiences that extend the power of their Magento stores to the iPhone.

Now Magento is expanding Magento Mobile to the iPad and Android platforms.  Like the iPhone version, Magento Mobile for iPad and Android enable merchants to create branded, native storefront applications that are deeply integrated with Magento’s market-leading eCommerce platform.  Now merchants can provide the best shopping experience possible to customers based on the device they are using.  And of course, Magento provides an industry-leading mobile web shopping experience for any customer that does not have your native application installed.

Product Features & Benefits

• Seamless Storefront Integration
  With the new Magento-mobile admin, you’ll bring the functional powerhouse of Magento eCommerce to your mobile commerce channel, including full integration with your store’s catalog, checkout, inventory, reporting, and much more!
• Manage Multiple Devices
  Easily manage multiple devices with a single installation. Coming later this year, easily extend your mobile presence to the iPad and Android devices.
• Hassle Free Submissions
  Supporting a native app can be time consuming and tedious, so we manage the submission & support lifecycle for one low monthly fee. We manage the complexity of mobile apps so you can focus on running your business!
• Fully Customizable
  Deploy new device-specific features and branded themes with just a few clicks. Quickly update the colors and appearance of your app with the new Magento mobile admin, even after customers have downloaded your app.
• Engage Your Customers
  If you want to build deeper relationships with your most profitable customers, smartphones are the way to do it. From geo-targeted push notifications to immersive native experiences, mobile apps unlock new opportunities that will take your business to the next level!
• Low Cost of Ownership
  Magento’s cost-efficient approach allows you to bring best-in-class mobile experience to your customers without the high price tag. Pay only for the features and devices you want while Magento handles the ongoing maintenance of your app in the iTunes marketplace.

Pricing

Magento Mobile is available immediately for a one-time fee of $799 and a monthly fee $69 per platform.  Learn more at www.magento.com/product/mobile.