From the very outset in our discussions we understood that Kristian Isabella wanted a solution that will allow them to replicate what they do so well in their physical store on an automated online environment. As with most custom eCommerce projects we first began by understanding their high level requirements as well as the image and culture they were trying to portray online. They made it clear that they wanted the website to closely reflect what they represent in fashion, culture and quality. They are passionate about making woman feel luxurious and beautiful through apparel and related woman accessories and wanted the site to convey this philosophy and focus. They also sell a range of infant clothing and accessories which which creates a nice with maternity apparel and wanted to create a good balance between these to offerings that made sense to their customers.

As a small personalised business they take the time to understand their customers very well. They are in touch with their customers who regularly visit their store to see what they can purchase next to add to the stylish collection or to simply buy something new for either them selves or as a gift. Having established a successful business by being relevant to their new and existing loyal customers they wanted a solution that will help reflect that, one that would still convey a personal boutique type shopping experience that their customers can relate to with out appearing as just another online store, there are plenty of those around.

They felt that this way, they would not feel uncomfortable about suggesting their eCommerce store to their to the clients. This is something they have the luxury of doing and desire to do, even while customers are shopping in their store, or at the point of their customers making a purchase. They wanted to be able to comfortably mention to their customers that they can and should also visit them online and consider shopping their also. Though they didn’t want to give the impression to their existing customers that they are trying to palm them of to their website.

As with most businesses with a high focus on personalised service, they feared that their customers might feel that the shopping experience has become impersonal. This is so contrary to the way they operate their business, as well as what they feel is the reason for their success. We made it very clear to them that the website should be a perfect fit between what they do off-line. Going online should not be a replacement of what a business such as theirs does in the physical world, but rather a value added avenue that should strive to enhance what the do in their bricks and mortar store. They agreed and together we planed the structure of a beautiful website that is highly functional and effective in providing an added value service of being available to their on and traditionally off-line customers 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

They also understood that this would create a new avenue of business through customers they will reach through the Internet that they have never met before and that have never had a physical store shopping experience. The goal was to try to capture that same personalised boutique feeling for these customers also and in doing so introduce them to the Kristian Isabella culture and fashion range.

Our goal was to create a styling, modern yet personalised website that customers feel comfortable with. Once we understood their business philosophy, business motivation, existing customers, potential customers and the type and style of products they well, we were able to design and deploy an eCommerce solution that would meet their specific needs. We were successful in appropriately conveying these messages while at the same time offering their new and existing customers a highly functional and streamlined shopping experience, made possible through the powerful eCommerce features that Magento offers.

Some of the aspects of the eCommerce store project for Kristian Isaeblla include;
- large changing background images of literal items they sell, warn by models that fit the typical customer profile. This helps them strongly communicate with and appeal to their customers.

- Texture in the design giving the site a personalised look and feel with a great attention to detail, very much like their business approach.

- Warm earthy colours to suite the style and nature of products they sell. This also helps to accentuate the products.

- Dynamic banners that can be easily placed on the website to display relevant content. This is important to allow for quick website updates when new season stock becomes available.

- Subtle presentation of items sold on the site that can be made to appear on the home page or removed according to the store administrators preferences. This has been done in a minimal way to avoid the site form looking cluttered yet still promoting relevant items.

- Personalised dynamic banners that can be set to appear by the store administrator to allow them to add a personalised touch to items being sold which includes items that are on sale, staff picks and new stock.

- Use of filtered navigation to allow shoppers to filter trough the website by category, price and brand.

- Highly organised category structure and cross association of products to make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for and also easy for Kristian Isabella to organise products according to the way they feel they can best present items to motive their customers. For Example; the ‘On Sale’ department has items associated to it that actually live in a main parent category. This allows the client to properly list the items according to the actual product category it belongs to yet allow customers to easily find it under the specials department. This makes store management very easy. Store owners can create an ‘On Sale’ or ‘Specials’ list in minutes, promoting discounted stock across the entire store. This is a very useful feature Magento offers by treating products as individual entities that can be associated to individual categories. This feature becomes very effective when managing thousands of products in hundreds of categories.

- Custom brands category page to nicely display brands. This is using one of Magento’s custom features that allows you to design a different style and structured template and associate it to a specific section of  the category, product or content section in order to define a specific web page structure and look. This is great for creating effective landing pages and custom content presentation – www.kristianisabella.com.au/brands.html

- Shopping cart coupons are also being used. This is being used in various ways to encourage customers to shop online. One way that the Client has used this is by offering free shipping on orderes that exceed a certain sub total value. This is a great way to encourage shoppers to spend more with your store and in doing so benefit from saving on shipping charges. The coupons and price rule engine/module in Magento offers many great opportunities for retailers to encourage customers to visit their websites and shop with them. These can be used very well in an offline-online strategy.

- Because of the nature of the items sold on the website, such as lingerie and other personalised items, Kristian Isabella wanted a special terms of purchase agreement validation at the check-out level. This was a custom implemented feature at the check out level set up in a streamlined fashion to make it as easy as possible for clients to adhere to the shopping condition set with out being deterred or hindered from proceeding through the check out process.

Over all the Kristian Isabella website is a beautifully designed and developed Magento eCommerce store that is both elegant and creative, one that demonstrates the combination and balance of creativity and eCommerce functionality.

For more information about our Magento Design and Development Solutions please contact us. We will be happy to discuss your individual project requirements and ways that we can assist you.

For Eg:
Use this one

$installer->run("CREATE TABLE `{$this->getTable('test_table')}` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`event` varchar(255) NOT NULL default ''
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;");

Instead of

$installer->run("CREATE TABLE `test_table` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`event` varchar(255) NOT NULL default ''
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;");

If you want to alter the structure of an existing module, Magento support a simple versioning scheme that will let you automatically run scripts to upgrade your modules.

Once Magento runs an installer script for a module, it will never run another installer for that module again (short of manually deleting the reference in the core_resource table). Instead, you’ll need to create an upgrade script. Upgrade scripts are very similar to installer scripts, with a few key differences. To get started, do the following steps.

1. Check the version of your module in yourcustommodule/etc/config.xml. You will have something like this there.
   
<modules>
<YourCompany_YourModule>
<version>0.1.0</version>
</YourCompany_YourModule>
</modules>


   Here the version of the module noted as 0.1.0.

2. We need to place the upgrade script in YourCustomModule/sql/yourcustommodule_setup folder.
3. Create the upgrade script with new sql statements like the same way we created the install script.
4. Name the script as mysql4-upgrade-0.1.0-0.1.1.php. The syntax should be like mysql-upgrade-old.version.number-new.version.number
5. Edit the version number in yourcustommodule/etc/config.xml.
6. Reload your site. It’s all set!!

The thing that I enjoy most about my work is undeniably the simple fact that I work in the space of eCommerce. It’s a fantastic field to be in as I am sure those who work in eCommerce would also agree. It’s more than a job; it is a type of lifestyle. I find one thing in common with all of us who are in this space, its something we almost live and breath and is often hard to switch off from. We are always looking and working on ways to advance our own or help people’s business ideas and dreams become a viable and successful online reality.

We deal with many types of clients, in all kinds of industries, both product and service based industries, all of which work with eCommerce at different levels and at varying capacity. Our clients consist of larger organizations, small to medium sized companies, partners or simply individuals who have an eCommerce idea that they desire to establish online and are seeking the help and support from someone who understands then in order to make it happen. The end result is a satisfied customer who is able to make it happen online embracing all of the possibilities that the Internet and particularly eCommerce has to offer.

I love working in the eCommerce industry because we are part of a growing industry that is defining the web and literally changing the way people live, work and play and especially shop! It has bought a new dimension to the world of commerce and has changed the world forever. Not only has it revolutionized the way we shop, it has even revolutionized the way we think, providing opportunities for people all over, even the less advantaged.

Just he other day I was watching the evening news when it showed a short story of a mainland Chinese town who is embracing eCommerce in their community. They were using eCommerce as a way to generate a livelihood for people within the town by involving them in the processes of selling and distributing products to the greater Chinese community. This is both encouraging and humbling considering that a few years ago many of these people would be relatively isolated and perhaps limited to their direct community. This is just basic example of how eCommerce is changing not only individuals and businesses but also entire communities.

Working with eCommerce involves helping people to grow and to change, encouraging them to think outside normal way of operating and perhaps the way that has been most comfortable and familiar to them for so many years.

Embracing eCommerce may even require people thinking outside the box as it were, embracing new ideas and concepts, some that others have already thought of and adopted, but often new, innovative ideas, which will impress and even, inspire people.

The greatest thing that I love about working with eCommerce is that we are in a field were we are creating something of financial, economical, social, creative and operational value. We are always involved in the processes of helping people realize their potential online, the potential that the Internet and its supporting technology has made possible as well as the people who embrace it.

There is more I could write but I don’t want to get to philosophical on this point! : ) I just want to encourage both those who work with eCommerce, who at times may feel a little tired or frustrated, as it is hard work. As well as those on the other side of the fence, the ‘end-user’s, who are essentially those the eCommerce solution is being for. Be encouraged as there many possibilities out there as well as many great ‘eCommerce people’ to help you along the way.

Magento extensions are playing a large and vital role in the progress of Magento Commerce because they are helping to not only advance and enhance Magento, but also to literally shape its existence. Magento extensions help address the functional requirements of the store. Every eCommerce store has its own unique functional requirements that often cannot be addressed by the standard core system itself. This is fair enough. The core system is not and will not necessarily address every single element that the store requires.

This is especially true for unique and very context specific stores that have various requirements of their own. The good thing is that with Magento Commerce being such a flexible and robust Open Source eCommerce platform and framework, there is indeed the provision for additional extension development, were custom Magento extensions can be created and added to the store to accomplish the specific functional requirements of the store owner.

The great thing is that even if Magento can not address all of the functional requirements out of the box as it were, the flexibility exists to enable you accomplish this either by adding pre-developed extensions available through 3rd parties or having the Magento extension you require custom designed and developed so that it suits your exact needs.

The large and growing range of Magento extensions available help to address the various functional requirements stores have. Today store owners can benefit from other peoples development efforts as they offer a large number of functions and facilities that will either do the exact thing you require, having been developed for the same purpose, or even indirectly address your requirement. For example, at ECSSO we have a particular Magento extension for advanced attribute search called the Magento Advanced Search – Product Attribute Filter Extension, that was originally designed for a website that sells car tyres/tires. It was developed to address a specific Magento global search requirement that couldn’t be attained using Magento’s default function. Later it was further enhanced to address a requirement for a Magento store requiring a Magento extension for searching and ordering loose diamonds. This particular Magento extension has since been used for various other stores and has helped them address various drill down search requirements that would not have otherwise been possible.

This is the beauty about Magento and Magento extensions. In this case other customers have benefited greatly through the collective development effort offered to others. For a fraction of the cost store owners can add greater value to their own website that may other wise not have been feasible. My utilizing Magento extensions it eliminates the requirement of having to bare the cost of designing and developing the Magento extension on your own and at your own direct cost.

In other cases, Magento extensions play a vital part in addressing areas of operation where Magento ‘fails’ to address the specific customer needs for functions or processes they require. The availability of various and diverse extensions make this possible and provide a cost effective solution. This is what makes Magento the best eCommerce solution on the market and this is what makes Magento great.

Though it would seem that Magento is indeed trying to meet each and every eCommerce functional need available, it is natural that it can not always do so at the pace that such requirements are needed. However Magento has provided the framework and basis for custom Magento extension so fill the void and address such needs, limited only by the height of peoples vision, requirements and needs.

Utilizing Magento extensions will not only help address specific eCommerce needs, but considering the diverse ange fo extensions that are available, will also give you some great ideas of ‘what else’ can be done with the Magento store to help enhance its functionality and customer value. At the time of writing this article there are over 3,000 Magento extensions available and the number is growing daily.

Magento extensions add great value to stores because the offer a way for store owners to add creative and functional facilities to benefit store and its users. In some cases the Magento extensions themselves serve to address the entire fundamental purpose of the store. This is true in cases were the entire store concept is based on a function and facility made possible through the utilization of a particular custom developed Magento extension. An example of this is a pizza store using a custom post code delivery extension, filtering our all orders that fall outside the delivery zone. Or another one might be a music store offering downloadable music samples to customer prior to purchase. There are many such examples were specific Magento extensions make eCommerce possible.

If you would like to learn more about how custom Magento extensions can help you address your specific store requirements or would like to learn more about any of our own extensions, please contact us today. We would be glad to help.

Here is a link of some of the Magento Extensions available at ECSSO – Magento Extensions

This article explains how to integrate the ‘tweet button’ and ‘facebook like button’ of various styles for Magento.

Instructions:

1. Open file to \app\design\frontend\default\default\template\catalog\product\view.phtml
2. Copy the codes of the button that suite your magento store design and paste them exactly where you need to appear the button in the frontend
3. Save the file and refresh the page

Facebook Like Button:
Add the following codes to display the facebook like button in the products view page.

1. Standrad Button
   
   Using XFBML
   <?php $currentUrl = $this->helper('core/url')->getCurrentUrl(); ?>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><fb:like href="<?php echo $currentUrl ?>" show_faces="false" width="450" font=""></fb:like>

   Using iframe
   <?php $currentUrl = $this->helper('core/url')->getCurrentUrl(); ?>
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php echo $currentUrl ?>&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

2. Minimal with count – Horizontal
   
   Using XFBML
   <?php $currentUrl = $this->helper('core/url')->getCurrentUrl();  ?>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><fb:like href="<?php echo $currentUrl ?>" layout="button_count" show_faces="true" width="450" font=""></fb:like>

   Using iframe
   <?php $currentUrl = $this->helper('core/url')->getCurrentUrl(); ?>
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php echo $currentUrl ?>&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:21px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

3. Minimal with count – Vertical
   
   Using XFBML
   <?php $currentUrl = $this->helper('core/url')->getCurrentUrl();  ?>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><fb:like href="=<?php echo $currentUrl ?>" layout="box_count" show_faces="true" width="450" font=""></fb:like>

   Using iframe
   <?php $currentUrl = $this->helper('core/url')->getCurrentUrl(); ?>
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php echo $currentUrl ?>&amp;layout=box_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=65" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:65px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

Twitter Button:
The twitter buttons are very simple and takes the current pages url automatically. i.e. it doesnot need any php codes for its working. Placing the javascript codes at the correct location will make the button load in the next page refresh.

1. Vertical
   
   <a href="http://twitter.com/share" data-count="vertical">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
2. Horizontal
   
   <a href="http://twitter.com/share" data-count="horizontal">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

3. No Count
   
   <a href="http://twitter.com/share" data-count="none">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget::getrowurl() in

[yourpath]/app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Widget/Grid.php on line 1622 in v1.5.0.1
[yourpath]/app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Widget/Grid.php on line 1607 in v1.4.2.0

And for manage categories section, it may show a blank screen without any errors, just like the screenshot below.

Solution:

1. Open the file app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Widget/Grid.php
2. Search and Find
   $res = parent::getRowUrl($item);
   and replace with
   $res = parent::getUrl($item);
3. Save the file and check again.

Note: We found these issues in the Magento versions v1.5.0.1 and v1.4.2.0 while testing. Please let us know if you find this issue in other versions by commenting below this article, so that we can update our article

Solution:

For this you need to remove the validation for the particular section.

1. Open \app\design\install\default\default\template\install\config.phtml
2. Find the textbox where the base url is entered. It will be around line no 85 with name ‘config[unsecure_base_url]‘
3. Remove ‘validate-url’ from its class and save the file.
   
4. Now you can continue the installation.

It is the best way to attain your very own website personality that reflects your brand, business, products and services you sell, culture and identity, or that of your customer if you are designing and developing a Magento store on their behalf.

In essence there are no limitations to what you can accomplish when you take this approach to Magento eCommerce store design, development and implementation, as it opens up a limitless range of creative possibilities, demonstrated by the uniqueness of each and every theme that goes through integration to the end product. Every business has its own personality and culture and communicating this through the way you do eCommerce is exciting, challenging and rewarding. It is our goal as development consultants to ensure that we deliver this successfully either directly to our end client, or on behalf of our solution partners that rely one our Magento development services.

People come to us with newly designed themes that they would like integrated onto the Magento Commerce platform. It is our role and responsibility to take the template and convert it into a functional eCommerce store, utilizing all of the systems capabilities, features and functions that have been accounted for and specified in the design.

Magento theme integration is a very large and exciting part of our business and we love it. This is because it gives us the opportunity to work on developing new and exciting Magento stores that stretch the boundaries of creativity and help us to make other peoples vision a functional and practical reality. Integrating a Magento theme that is unique and different is very rewarding as we understand both the technical importance of our service that our clients rely on, as well as the satisfaction the end result brings to all related stakeholders including the online shopper, the end-client, and our solution partners. It is also very rewarding to take a design that is basically a ‘flat image’ and visual representation of the eCommerce store and turn it into a fully functional solution that people can interact with, use and ultimately benefit from.

If you would like to learn more about our Magento Theme Integration services please Contact Us.

Here are some helpful links;
- Learn more about eCommerce Software Solutions Online (ECSSO)
- See our Custom Magento Integration Services
- See our Magento Hosting Services and Plans
- See our Magento Development and Integration Packages