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Magento 1.4 Development Cookbook
Magento 1.4 Development Cookbook
268 pages, Paperback
First published December 14, 2010
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February 20, 2011
Although this book is designed to ‘dip in and out of’ it does start with a very good guide to setting up a development environment and getting an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) – Netbeans which was used throughout the book although this is not a beginners guide and I think the assumption is that you some knowledge of similar environments.
Included in the book is a wide variety of articles to take your Magento install to the next level making your eCommerce site more attractive and more functional. Of course, we should never loose site of the aim of any eCommerce site which is too sell and get more customers and sell more to those customers (presuming that is your aim) and for me this book covers some of the main areas which can currently help you achieve this. These areas, in my opinion, being improving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specifically Google (important to all eCommerce businesses but especially important to UK and European sites where Google is ridiculously dominant), integration to social media/networking services and analytics because – ‘what doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done’ possibly a reversal of what Tom Peters may have said – ‘What gets measured, gets done’.
Having a closer look at these three areas:
Search Engine Optimisation for Magento
Google has a massive influence over what gets sold on the internet for many reasons and even small improvements in a sites Google optimisation can have a big effect, in the cookbook Nurul Ferdous writes the articles:
‘Using Google Website Optimizer‘
‘Optimizing Magento store for search engines‘
A whole chapter on ‘Performance Optimisation‘ – site speed has become a key factor to good Google ranking
Social Media and Networks for Magento
We don’t have to look far to see the influence of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter on our lives but for online businesses the importance of online networks can be even more pronounced without going overboard on the ‘Social Shopping’ buzz you do not have to have a million clicks viral campaign to be consistently driving traffic to your website using social sites and getting a serious ‘return on investment’ (ROI). In particular I found the following guides from the book really useful:
‘Integrating WordPress in Magento‘ – Magento may have CMS functionality but WordPress is probably the best blogging software in the world so integrating the best open source eCommerce platform with the best open source blogging platform could certainly give you the best of both worlds.
‘Creating a custom “Twitter handle” field in a registration form’ – Adding ‘Social CRM‘ elements to you customer tracking can be key to modern Contact Management
‘Adding a Facebook ‘Like’ button in product page‘ – apparently (from my own experience) a must have on many consumer eCommerce sites now to tap into the 500 million people recommending products and services to their friends and seeing businesses benefiting from the network effect.
‘Embedding a YouTube video in product details‘ – Peoples expectations of product pages are increasing daily, ASOS the largest UK ‘online only’ fashion retailer now has catwalk videos on all its clothing product pages and consumers appear to love video content, especially in attracting initial interest where it has been said web users are more likely to click a video than any other link or content.
‘Adding an RSS feed (last five tweets!)’
Analytics
Adding all of this cool functionality as mentioned above is great but if we have no way of tracking the benefits especially making comparisons to changes then we are never really going to know if all our hard work is paying off. This is why analytics are so key and with Google Analytics being free there is no reason why every site should not be using them. Time spent on analysing the ‘numbers’ should result in a serious pay back if you can easily see where the increased sales are coming from (and do more of it) and see the less effective promotions (therefore reducing or stopping them). Again some great articles in this area with:
‘Using Google Analytics for Magento’
‘Adding AdWords tracking code to order confirmation page in Magento’
I have highlighted three particular areas that are covered in the book but of course there are many other guides included from implementing payment solutions like PayPal to a whole chapter on creating your own module. Selfishly it was these three areas I found the most interesting and also the ones that I think are key to taking a Magento eCommerce store to the next level which after all is what this book is all about. To see a list of all the chapters and articles the full table of contents is available to see online and you can even download a sample chapter from the Magento Developers Cookbook. As well as the physical book and a PDF available one of my favourite features of Packt is that they make the code available to download too (once you have registered with them).
Conclusion
Clearly this book is not going to suit everybody but for a someone who is relatively comfortable with Magento and the environment of their own install this book is crammed full of practical ideas that can have a direct effect on sales. While the guide’s are clear and well written some novices may need some further assistance or background information which is often available elsewhere or most probably covered in more depth in one other of Packt’s many books on Magento. Overall I would say this book is easy to dip in and out of and would be a wise investment for anyone looking to add functionality and get the most out of Magento.
Included in the book is a wide variety of articles to take your Magento install to the next level making your eCommerce site more attractive and more functional. Of course, we should never loose site of the aim of any eCommerce site which is too sell and get more customers and sell more to those customers (presuming that is your aim) and for me this book covers some of the main areas which can currently help you achieve this. These areas, in my opinion, being improving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specifically Google (important to all eCommerce businesses but especially important to UK and European sites where Google is ridiculously dominant), integration to social media/networking services and analytics because – ‘what doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done’ possibly a reversal of what Tom Peters may have said – ‘What gets measured, gets done’.
Having a closer look at these three areas:
Search Engine Optimisation for Magento
Google has a massive influence over what gets sold on the internet for many reasons and even small improvements in a sites Google optimisation can have a big effect, in the cookbook Nurul Ferdous writes the articles:
‘Using Google Website Optimizer‘
‘Optimizing Magento store for search engines‘
A whole chapter on ‘Performance Optimisation‘ – site speed has become a key factor to good Google ranking
Social Media and Networks for Magento
We don’t have to look far to see the influence of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter on our lives but for online businesses the importance of online networks can be even more pronounced without going overboard on the ‘Social Shopping’ buzz you do not have to have a million clicks viral campaign to be consistently driving traffic to your website using social sites and getting a serious ‘return on investment’ (ROI). In particular I found the following guides from the book really useful:
‘Integrating WordPress in Magento‘ – Magento may have CMS functionality but WordPress is probably the best blogging software in the world so integrating the best open source eCommerce platform with the best open source blogging platform could certainly give you the best of both worlds.
‘Creating a custom “Twitter handle” field in a registration form’ – Adding ‘Social CRM‘ elements to you customer tracking can be key to modern Contact Management
‘Adding a Facebook ‘Like’ button in product page‘ – apparently (from my own experience) a must have on many consumer eCommerce sites now to tap into the 500 million people recommending products and services to their friends and seeing businesses benefiting from the network effect.
‘Embedding a YouTube video in product details‘ – Peoples expectations of product pages are increasing daily, ASOS the largest UK ‘online only’ fashion retailer now has catwalk videos on all its clothing product pages and consumers appear to love video content, especially in attracting initial interest where it has been said web users are more likely to click a video than any other link or content.
‘Adding an RSS feed (last five tweets!)’
Analytics
Adding all of this cool functionality as mentioned above is great but if we have no way of tracking the benefits especially making comparisons to changes then we are never really going to know if all our hard work is paying off. This is why analytics are so key and with Google Analytics being free there is no reason why every site should not be using them. Time spent on analysing the ‘numbers’ should result in a serious pay back if you can easily see where the increased sales are coming from (and do more of it) and see the less effective promotions (therefore reducing or stopping them). Again some great articles in this area with:
‘Using Google Analytics for Magento’
‘Adding AdWords tracking code to order confirmation page in Magento’
I have highlighted three particular areas that are covered in the book but of course there are many other guides included from implementing payment solutions like PayPal to a whole chapter on creating your own module. Selfishly it was these three areas I found the most interesting and also the ones that I think are key to taking a Magento eCommerce store to the next level which after all is what this book is all about. To see a list of all the chapters and articles the full table of contents is available to see online and you can even download a sample chapter from the Magento Developers Cookbook. As well as the physical book and a PDF available one of my favourite features of Packt is that they make the code available to download too (once you have registered with them).
Conclusion
Clearly this book is not going to suit everybody but for a someone who is relatively comfortable with Magento and the environment of their own install this book is crammed full of practical ideas that can have a direct effect on sales. While the guide’s are clear and well written some novices may need some further assistance or background information which is often available elsewhere or most probably covered in more depth in one other of Packt’s many books on Magento. Overall I would say this book is easy to dip in and out of and would be a wise investment for anyone looking to add functionality and get the most out of Magento.
March 19, 2016
This is a really good resource for Magento developers, if you already know the basics of Magento admin and want to sharpen your skills as a magento developer and PHP programming, this is the book for you. Covering many tips, module creation, SVN and TDD.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews