Magento version release 1.1.7

In keeping with its proven history of coming up with effective enhancement time and again, Magento has released new version with number of fixes and improvements.
Magento, the proven high end open-source eCommerce solution offering unprecedented flexibility and control, the new release covers over 350 issue resolutions with new functionalities.
Google Website Optimizer Integration in Magento 1.1.7 is a major enhancement to the application. Website Optimizer is an easy-to-use tool for testing site content that delivers actionable results.

Here is the list of major highlights
• Google Website Optimizer integration
• Google Base integration
• Scheduled DB logs cleaning option

Offshore software Development India offers all the extensions for the new versions. All the Magento extensions developed at Offshore software Development India are compatible with the new version of the Magento.
Please find following services for the new version of the Magento by Offshore software Development India.

Magento Payment Gateway Solutions
1. iVeri
2. paymentec
3. safepay

Magento Custom Extensions
1. Magento Advance Search Extension.
2. Magento Non Product Search Extension.
3. Shopping Cart Extension.
4. Custom Shipping Charges Extension.
5. Custom Shipping Date Extension.
6. Image Rotation Extension.
7. Click and Popup Product Extension
8. Hide price Extension.
9. Custom Sitemap Extension.
10. Feature/ Clearance / Sales / New Arrivals Extension.

Magento Data/Site Migration Solutions
1. Migrate OSCommerce site to Magento.
2. Migrate any ecommerce site to Magento.
3. Migrating Data to Magento Site

Magento Theme Design Solutions
1. Magento custom design templates and themes.
2. Magento themes from PSD/JPEG/Any Site.
3. Migrating Data to Magento Site.

For more information please refer http://www.offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com/php-mysql-pgsql-programming/magento-customization-solutions.html

Magento's iPhone Theme: Mobile Commerce for the Masses?

Magento Commerce, an open source ecommerce platform, has introduced an Apple iPhone specific theme that is potentially the first step toward leveling the playing field for small online retailers who want to compete in the lucrative and booming mobile ecommerce market.

Mobile eCommerce has massive potential

Mobile ecommerce (often call m-commerce) is coming; 9 million Americans have already made a purchase from a mobile device, and perhaps half of the United States' 250 million odd mobile handset users are willing to make a purchase in the near future, according to a recent study from The Nielsen Company, New York, N.Y. All of those U.S. users plus the billions of consumers in Asia, Africa, and India, where a mobile handset may serve as phone, mobile TV, and primary point of Internet access, make m-commerce very attractive to e-retailers large and small.

But mobile browsing experiences can be frustrating for customers, and developing ecommerce websites that are functional, legible, and compelling for mobile device users has been the realm of moneyed and massive e-retailers like Amazon.com.

The Apple iPhone actually does an excellent job of rendering websites already, but there are still problems. Most online stores are designed to look good on a modern, flat-panel monitor which may be 19 inches in diagonal. While these sites are rendered properly on the iPhone, they take on diminutive dimensions, requiring an iPhone owner to zoom in, zoom out, and scroll in all directions. Bandwidth can also be a problem. iPhones use WiFi connections (802.11n standard), Bluetooth (radio), fast 3G cellular networks, or older and slower cellular networks depending on what sort of connection is available at a given time. Browsing on WiFi or a speedy 3G network might be no problem, but uploading an online store over older cellular networks can be painfully slow.

To address this, Magento developed a special theme or combination of layout, template, and presentation files that are optimized for an iPhone's browser. This theme still offers great looking graphics, full functionality, and the same payment gateways, but in proportions and layouts that make a store attractive and easy to use on an iPhone's palm-sized LCD screen.

Equalizing m-Commerce

Magento's new iPhone theme is an important (if small) step, giving independent e-retailers an easy way to tap m-commerce's amazing potential. Varien, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based ecommerce developer and consultancy, created Magento Commerce and then unleashed the platform, turning it over to a vibrant community of perhaps 400,000 users (store owners and developers), while staying intimately involved in the platform's development and expansion. The new theme makes it easier for iPhone users to browse and shop Magento-powered sites with ease. Basically, Magento utilizes "the iPhone's inherent navigation methods and offer[s] quick catalog browsing, global site search, customer accounts, and a shopping cart with a complete checkout process," Varien said, "The iPhone extension delivers a user experience that supports the iPhone's touch-screen functionality, taking users on a clearly defined path from browsing to purchasing."

The iPhone is just a Drop in the Bucket

Unfortunately, as awesome, cool, and fantastic as the iPhone may or may not be, it represents a very tiny percentage of the total mobile handset universe. By some estimates, leading mobile phone makers Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony-Ericsson, BlackBerry, and the like, build between 700 million and 1 billion new mobile handsets each year. While something like 8 million to 10 million iPhones have sold worldwide based on Steve Jobs 2008 MacWorld keynote speech and estimates for the iPhone 3G. So the new Magento iPhone theme only scratches the m-commerce surface. On the other hand, what e-retailer wouldn't want to reach as many as 10 million or so potential customers all of whom represent the iPhone's decidedly upscale user base.

Using the iPhone Theme to gain a Competitive Advantage.

m-Commerce is here to stay, and retailers who implement a mobile solution like Magento's iPhone extension will gain a competitive advantage over other ecommerce sites that are slower to adopt a mobile-specific platform. And there is still hope that Varien or other ecommerce developers will address the mobile mass market soon.

“We are looking to expand the capabilities of Magento to target additional mobile browsers in the future, but the iPhone, with its smart usability, market share and passionate audience was a natural place to start,” said Chris Marshall, a Varien spokesman.

source:- practicalecommerce.com/

Magento is a new professional open-source eCommerce solution.

Magento is a new professional open-source eCommerce solution offering unprecedented flexibility and control.

Customer Main Features:

Search Engine Friendly URLs
Create search-engine friendly URLs (like http://example.com/product/brand-best-shoe/1234) that make it easier for search engine crawlers to index your site, which ultimately drive more organic search visitors.

Meta-Tags
With each new catalog page (product, category, even a static or dynamic page) you'll be able to define meta tags: page title, description, and keywords.

E-mail Notifications
Magento will makes it easy to get notifications to customers. Customize email templates for a variety of notifications in both HTML and plain text. Examples of e-mails include new customer notifications, order confirmation, order update, lost password, etc.

Customers will have the ability to:
- Find products to compare by clicking "Compare" on the products to add them to the Compare Box as they browse.
- From the Compare Box, a "Compare These" button brings up the product comparison chart.
- View, print and email a comparison chart, showing all of the selected products' comparable attributes and how they stack up against one another.
Layered Navigation allows your customers to filter products in a category using different product attributes. Customers can filter down a large number of items to fit their price range, size, etc., allowing them to find the right products quickly and easily.

On each product page, you'll find:
- Add-a-Tag: Allow logged-in users to add a tag to the product's description.
- Tag Cloud: The tag cloud will display all tags associated to the product. Clicking on a tag will bring up a product listing page with all other products that share the same tag.

The Shopping Cart will be composed of the following:
The products list, which will list the products currently in the cart along with the following information about each:
- Product Thumbnail
- Product Name
- Unit Price
- Quantity (editable)
- Total (per product)
- Remove Button
- Update Button
The totals section, which will show the following applicable totals without having to go through checkout:
- Subtotal
- Tax (if applicable)
- Discounts (if applicable)
- Grand Total (what the customer owes)
- Estimated Shipping, where a customer can enter a zip code and get a shipping quote
- The discount field, where a customer can enter a coupon code

Administration Panel Main Features:

Sales Report
A detailed overview of number of orders, items sold, revenue, shipping charged, discounts applied, taxes collected, etc.

Shopping Cart Report
This shows a per product breakdown of how often products have been added to cart, conversion rate, etc. An additional view shows a breakdown of customers and number of items in their saved shopping carts.

Wishlist Report
A per product breakdown of popularity in wishlist, number of times purchased from wishlist, percentage of wish lists purchases vs. regular purchases, etc.

Reviews Report
The reviews report will show the most active customer reviewers, most frequently reviewed products. Store owners can also view all reviews written by individual customers, or all reviews applied to individual products.

Tags Report
The tags report will show the most active taggers, and most frequently tagged products. Store owners can also view all tags added by individual customers, or all tags added to individual products. The report will also show most popular tags, regardless of product.

Search Report
Will show most popular search terms, or search terms with the highest number of results.

With Magento's Content Management System (CMS), you'll be able to create an unlimited number of static pages and landing pages using HTML. When you're creating a page, you can define the following: - Page Title: Define the title of the page.
- Meta Data: Define meta data like meta description, meta keywords etc.
- URL: Define the page URL (http://www.mystore.com/faq)

Batch Import/Export
With Batch Import/Export, you can easily manage your catalog without having to edit within the admin. Instead, export your data (you can customize exactly what data you export), edit it (add or modify items), and then import it back to see the changes in the catalog.

Not everyone in your company should have access to every facet of your store. That's why Magento features an easy-to-use Permissions Editor. Create users for all your employees then assign them to groups, eg. "Full Admin", "Customer Service", "Warehouse".

source:- webscripts.softpedia.com/

Magento: The Zimbra of Ecommerce?

Magento is a new open source ecommerce platform that aims to handle all aspects of building and maintaining an ecommerce site including shopping carts, shipping, product reviews, and much more. The company looks to play in the “professional open source” space, offering its code base to developers that want to build their own plugins or create customized versions of the software. Magento seems to be off to a good start with more than 10,000 downloads in the two weeks since first being released, according to the company.

Magento plans to make money by offering an enterprise edition, partnerships with third parties that want to integrate with the platform (for example, payment gateways), and a platform for companies to buy and sell components for the software. Other potential revenue streams include training, certifications, and consulting.

The approach Magento is taking to ecommerce software is very similar to the approach Zimbra successfully applied to email. Considering the $350 million pay-off Zimbra received from Yahoo earlier this week, Magento may be onto something as they go after one of the Web’s largest segments in ecommerce.

source:- mashable.com/

OS Commerce Watch: New Magento 1.1 Released

This is one in a series of columns on the open-source commerce (OSC) industry.

Those Magento boys and girls are at it again, kicking butt and taking names by releasing a brand-new, expanded 1.1 release of their already feature-rich open source e-commerce program. The company claims to already be the fastest growing e-commerce platform on the market – and not just open source e-commerce — with over 400,000 production downloads in only 16 weeks. This latest release will boost the world’s acceptance curve sharply with new features that will pique international interest.

The team's marketing messages, already good from the start, have become laser-focused and clearer than any open source e-commerce team I've seen. They have positioned themselves as the competitive solution for shops ranging from the mom-and-pop-type shop, through the medium-size shop selling up to $150 million per year, and their features make them ideal for an enterprise shop. The company is aiming this latest release squarely at world expansion.

Summary of New Features
This new release includes hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements including SEO-related fixes, improvements in the Admin components, and also adds support for Canadian and European taxes. Expanded product options will win over the hearts of those who sell customized products, with custom product options, personalized products, and virtual or downloadable products. And an exciting new feature is a Web services API, which opens the door for Magento to be integrated with any application via a Web Services API.

Performance Issues Addressed
The company says one of the main goals for Magento 1.1 was to examine bottlenecks in the platform and improve performance. This new release addresses the key concerns of many 1.0 users, including many bug fixes and slow page-loading times. Changes have been made to the Admin so that data are loaded only when necessary, improving the responsiveness of the Admin significantly.

The company claims a 40-percent performance improvement. Some 1.1 alpha users reported performance improvements of 70 percent in their tests, while others complained that while the new version is much faster, it remains relatively slow. Many factors can influence the speed of the program, including server and caching settings, so if a store remains slow after upgrading, the store owner should seek out additional measures to improve the store's performance.

International Support Increased
Magento Version 1.0 was a US-centric product. Version 1.1 will see the expansion of Magento into many additional new countries where it was previously impossible to use the program due to tax law limitations. Complex laws in Europe and elsewhere for Value Added Taxation (VAT) formerly required programmers to extend the code. According to Varien's Chief Technology Officer, Yoav Kutner, the team has redesigned the tax module so it is more flexible for international use, as well as for changing taxation laws in the US. Already there are active user forums in nearly 50 languages. Translations of over 60 languages and dialects have been initiated by volunteers with varying degrees of completion, and 23 locales are 85 to 100 percent complete. As a result of these activities and changes, the number of version 1.1 product downloads should spike sharply with significant world-wide interest.

Additional “Wow” Product Features
The new version allows customers to create custom products, also known as bundled products or "kitting" (making kits). For example, a customer can create and purchase a computer with user-selectable options such as case, hard drive, RAM and monitors with pricing dynamically generated. Unfortunately, store owners who have already created simple products cannot convert the existing products to bundled products; they must go back in and recreate the product as a new, bundled product. But, this is a small price to pay for such an expansive feature.

Another welcomed product feature in this release is “customer-defined product options” such as specifying text or images for monograms, engraving, and custom printing.

Most exciting is that the company unexpectedly tucked into this release support for virtual or downloadable products. Roy Rubin, President of Varien Inc., the company that developed the program, said he Initially expected to release downloadable product support "right behind 1.1." It is rare indeed to move the launch of a planned feature up, and this new feature alone will create many new converts to the program.

Other New Features
Rounding out the gaggle of new additions to the program are a couple of small but nice new features; new customer attributes such as prefix/suffix (Dr., Jr.) and date of birth.

The “One-Click Upgrade” from 1.0
Rubin says the heavily-touted Magento "One-Click Upgrade" is now in place for this release, and that it will work with the public release of 1.1 as long as the relevant 1.0 code has not been modified. It is always wise, however, to make a copy of the site and install the upgrade on the copy. The company strongly recommends against installing on a live or production site, but how many store owners will listen only to the words "One-Click Upgrade"?

Industry Wait-and-See
Template companies that offer templates for many other open source e-commerce programs have taken a wait-and-see attitude towards releasing templates or skins for Magento. Likewise, many experienced open source programmers are unfamiliar with the object-oriented programming used by Magento. Slow release of programmer documentation to get programmers on board, and unfamiliarity with the Zend Framework on which the program is based, have all slowed the program's acceptance into the industry by Web developers. The company would be well-advised to speed the release of developer documentation even if it is not pretty or absolutely fleshed-out yet.

Enthusiastic Community
Still, the company has been responsive to the concerns of its users with the product it has released today, and that responsiveness to end users is refreshing in the techno-centric world of open source e-commerce. With this release, it's time for the industry biggies — osCommerce, Zen Cart and CRE Loaded — to sit up and take notice if they haven't already.

In its short four-month existence, Magento has already been nominated for a number of prestigious awards, including the O'Reilly 2008 Open Source Awards and SourceForge.net's Community Choice Awards. Magento was a finalist in SourceForge’s categories for Best Project for the Enterprise, Best New Project, Most Likely to Change the World and Most Likely to Be the Next $1B Acquisition. How many eCommerce programs can claim that, open source or not?

The bottom line: Magento is already loved and accepted by end users and the community. This new release will just create more, worldwide converts. It’s a real winner.


source:- ecommerce-guide.com/

Digital Surgeons Now Providing Magento Commerce Development for Powerhouse Ecommerce Websites

Web development firm Digital Surgeons takes on the East Coast ecommerce industry with the announcement of their Magento Commerce development services. Already with a healthy menu of website design, programming, branding, and search engine marketing services at their finger tips, this dynamic group is now mastering the Ecommerce art form known as Magento.

Magento Commerce is a PHP ecommerce platform with all the versatility of open source code, as well as unprecedented control over online store features and functions. Magento popularity is growing at a rapid rate for reasons that make a great deal of sense. The store keeper gets all kinds of say about how the store looks and functions. The administrative section is logical, clear, and very easy to use. The store layout is built to be all about the customer in every detail.

This ecommerce platform delivers much more than your average shopping cart software. Magento includes a content management system for building new website content pages and managing newsletters; a micro-site builder for high focus marketing of multiple locations and store divisions; an impressive array of marketing tools and options; and a scaleable php site structure that is more than ready for company growth.

The professional service and support that goes with Magento is a very welcome benefit, one previously unheard of with other open source ecommerce platforms. Help with all kinds of questions, integration, start up, and custom website development is available from a lively forum community of users; the Magento development team; and from quality Magento Partners that have learned the software inside out.

Digital Surgeons is a full service Connecticut marketing agency with deep experience in the world of ecommerce websites, search engine marketing, and conversion enhancement. Magento Commerce fits perfectly with the firm’s talents, with a suitcase full of the best search engine optimization tools available and an SEO friendly structure that is highly uncommon with most ‘out of the box’ shopping carts. This platform is built from the ground up with Conversion to Sale as the main focus. Proven marketing elements, based on exhaustive research, are woven into the Magento storefront, incorporating everything that makes a consumer friendly experience.

The php ecommerce team at Digital Surgeons crafts custom ecommerce websites for their clients geared toward each unique consumer audience and industry. Magento Commerce is seamlessly woven into this website tapestry for a powerful online store that sells, and sells well.

Custom development to integrate with other essential software systems, or to further expand on Magento’s capabilities, is a Digital Surgeons specialty. The company also arranges professional ecommerce hosting services and provides in-depth training on the administration of the website for their clients.


source:- webwire.com/

Ultimates Vol. 3 #4 Review

One thing to keep in mind is we're providing you with multiple reviews and multiple scores. To keep things simple (for you and for us), we're limiting this to one Additional Take. The Additional Take reviewer will have his or her score listed directly after their opinion. The Final Score is not affected by this and is directly determined by the Main Reviewer (who is listed in the article's byline).

Any time you feel like commenting on our reviews, you may. Our weekly review index, which is published late Wednesday night, has a comment section. Every review we publish does as well (look below). You can also find our message boards by clicking the link on the left-hand side. Enjoy!

I'm tempted to cut and paste my original review of Ultimates 3 #2 from back in January because issue #4 is almost the exact same thing. By now you know the drill with this book, it's heinous and doesn't stop being heinous even if you try to turn your brain off. Some might've taken last issue's sudden obsession with convoluted backstory as a signal that the dumb action portion of this monstrosity was through, but rest assured, #4 is back to the same nonsense that sunk the first half of this abortive project.

If you've read up through issue #3, you're already familiar with the plot of this one because the storyline is moved incrementally at best. Considering we're now 80% of the way through and we're still more or less where the first issue of it left us, that's not really a great sign. The Ultimates continue to fight the Brotherhood gratuitously, and say stock lines like "Come with me if you want to live" while doing so.

Joe Mad's artwork is kind of nice if you like that sort of thing, but I find that most of the time it approaches absurdity too often for comfort (made exponentially worse with the likes of Shanna now running around in addition to Valkyrie and, really, anyone with breasts). But by now none of this can come as a shock to anyone. It's business as usual for Ultimates 3, and I doubt anyone expected the book to up its game this far along. In fact, I wouldn't even bat an eyelash if it weren't for the tiny little nugget of development that Loeb unleashes towards the end of this issue.

In short, this issue reveals a "secret" conspiracy element that basically has the potential to explain why this book has sucked so bad for four issues straight. Doing a basic truth reversal like this one works if orchestrated the right way (see: Xorn into Magneto, for instance), but Ultimates 3 demonstrates how to do it wrong and piss people off at the same time. Not only can a case be made for a thinly-veiled Secret Invasion rip but, in essence, we've waded through four issues of the worst book Marvel puts on the stands because of a trumped-up conspiracy that only rears its head in the home stretch. That's evident of terrible plotting, complete lack of forethought, and total abandonment of skill. This scripting inanity, coupled with the earlier (and still present) offenses of juvenile frat house comedy, the utter misunderstanding of the fundamentals of these characters, and how basic superhero fight dialogue is meant to operate, and Ultimates 3 is about as amateur an affair as you're likely to find from the Big Two.

There are two kinds of bad comics: the kind that must've sounded like a good idea when it was pitched but somehow faltered, and then the kind that is, was, and always will be so fundamentally flawed at its core that whoever green-lighted it had to have been kidding. Four-fifths of the way through, I'm reasonably certain I know which camp Ultimates 3 falls into.

sorce:- http://comics.ign.com

PR10_2008_07_15_Magento Customization

In the period of June-July, Offshore software development India has delivered Magento customization to their UK, USA, Canadian clients. Following are the customized solutions for the Magento to different clients.

Magento custom design templates and themes

Magento themes from PSD/JPEG/Any Site

Magento module development

Payment module solutions

Cart module solutions

Migrate OSCommerce site to Magento

Migrating Data to Magento Site

Creating multiple online storefronts and store websites

Magento setup hosting

Magento Development team at offshore software development India has expertise to deliver Magento Customized solution in 15 working days for an average project. Magento developers at offshore software development India has good experience on Magento customization and development based on the Zend framework. Zend framework is core framework used by Magento. All the application development at offshore software development India are based on Zend framework.

Please find more details at Magento development page on http://www.offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com/.

Please contact info@offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com for the inquiry of logo design, flash website design, theme design, and website development using Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Wordpress and development based on Zend framework.

About Magento Commerce:

Magento is a new professional open-source eCommerce solution offering unprecedented flexibility and control. With Magento, never feel trapped in your eCommerce solution again. You can Control every facet of your store, from merchandising to promotions and more. There are no limits to creativity with Magento.

Please visit http://www.magentocommerce.com/ for more details.

About Offshore Software Development India:

OSDI offering a wide range of skills in IT Services, Mainly focusing in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Software Development, IT Consultancy, Web Designing / Web Development, Offshore Outsourcing, Multimedia, Customized Software Applications and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

OSDI offers following services

· B2B, B2C portal Designing, CMS, E accounting solution,

· Web development of full-scale enterprise applications using Asp.NET. PHP, Flash

· Customization of Drupal Themes, Joomla Templates, Magento Commerce Layouts, Oscommerce

· PHP Development using Zend framework, Symfony framework.

· Enterprise solutions using share point server and project server

· Solutions, administrations and maintenance for the Microsoft Commerce Server.

· Development using Microsoft BizTalk Server

· Programming, designing, customized software development, script installation.

· Hire dedicated team, Designer and Developer.

For more information please refer http://www.offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com.

Address:

Offshore Software Development India
406, Shiromani complex,
Nr Nehrunagar cross road,
Nehrunagar,
Ahmedabad-380015
India.
Ph: 91-79-65457841
info@offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com

Offshore software development India’s Magento team has successfully Magento ecommerce customization, custom themes, Payment gateway solutions, migration from oscommerce for Canadian, US and UK clients.

• Offshore software development India has Delivered Magento custom design templates and themes.
• Offshore software development India has Delivered Magento themes from PSD/JPEG/Any Site.
• Offshore software development India has Delivered Magento module development.
• Offshore software development India has Delivered Payment module solutions.
• Offshore software development India has Delivered Cart module solutions.
• Offshore software development India has Delivered Migrate oscommerce site to Magento.
• Offshore software development India has Delivered Migrating Data to Magento Site.
• Offshore software development India has Delivered multiple online storefronts and store websites using Magento.

First Magento Training Class - Sold Out, New Dates Announced

Magento’s first developer focused training class, Developing with Magento, is now completely sold out. The next class will take place on May 6 and run until May 29. These classes are timed to start at 6PM Eastern Daylight Time, perfect for after-work attendance in North America and daytime attendance in the Asia-Pacific region.

To learn more about Magento’s training program, visit our training page.