Just wanted to put a note to a pretty good Photoshop extension that I found as I was looking for tools to create .ico files (favicons) for my web sites. Here’s a link to download the extension from Toby Thain: http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/#icoformat, all it is is a simple file that you copy into the “File Formats” folder inside your Photoshop Plugins folder.

Now when you create a new icon, which is a 16px x 16px icon you can save as .ico file format in Photoshop. As to where to put this file, simply name this file favicon and drop it into the root of your web site folder.

For Wordpress, you will want to drop this into your wp-content/themes/themeName folder.

For Magento, you will want to drop you favicon file in the root Magento folder as well as: skin/frontend/default/themeName if you want to add the favicon to the admin page you will drop it here: skin/adminhtml/default/ThemeName

e-commerce, magento, technical notes, wordpress favicon, magento, photoshop extension, wordpress

Today’s Magento installation has become a real drag!! The upgrade to version 1.2.1 was troubling as after the upgrade I had trouble logging into the admin page.  After digging for hours trying to find a fix, I finally came up with the right fix!! View Entire Thread Here

The long and short of the fix is that apparently the newer Magento version is implementing some security check to make sure that the domain is a valid one that is accessing the admin page; a valid domain name or host consists of one with a period in the host name, so if you are installing locally using something like http://localhost, YOU WILL RUN INTO THIS PROBLEM! There are a couple ways to fix this

1) you can reference your admin page by using http://127.0.0.1 (this way it has periods in the host name) instead of localhost or

2) if you are on windows xp, add a host record in your hosts file by going to: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc and have 127.0.0.1 point to something like magento.localhost

3. modify the core Magento code (keep in mind you may have to re-apply the fix if you update the code Magento code) - go to: app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Session/Abstract and open up varien.php, and comment out lines 73 (comment out the comma at the end of the line) through 76 so that it looks like the following:

// set session cookie params
session_set_cookie_params(
$this->getCookie()->getLifetime(),
$this->getCookie()->getPath() //remove this after putting on server (leave the comma)   ,
//$this->getCookie()->getDomain(),
//$this->getCookie()->isSecure(),
//$this->getCookie()->getHttponly()
);

I am sure many people will appreciate this fix!

blog posting, magento, technical notes Admin Login, magento

After my installation of Ver 1.1.8, I attempted to run a “Check for Update” through Magento Connect, so that I can upgrade the installation to 1.2.1 (the newest version right now).  The page did a postback and return nothing (a blank page - no listing of any updates).  Did a quick Google online and came up with the fix in the Magento forum:  Copy the following extension:

magento-core/Mage_All_Latest

Make sure no trailing spaces, and you should be able to successfully download and upgrade to 1.2.1.  From the forum it appears to be an issue with ver 1.1.8, as I didn’t have problem with version 1.1.6.

blog posting, magento, technical notes check for updates, magento, Magento Connect

I tried running the installation for a new Magento project this morning, and I used version 1.1.8 and had the following error message:

“Erro during installation magento mysql4-upgrade-0.7.46-0.7.47.php” - SQLSTATE[42000]“ with additional text indicating access violation with the database user account. I know that i don’t have an issue with permissions as I have setup other Magento stores using the same db user/pswd.

Anyways, the fix for this is to locate the file: mysql4-upgrade-0.7.46-0.7.47.php inside: app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/sql/catalog_setup and comment out lines 66-69 where it issues command to lock the database:

$installer->run(”
LOCK TABLES `{$installer->getTable(’catalog_category_product_index’)}` WRITE, `{$installer->getTable(’catalog_category_product’)}` READ, `{$installer->getTable(’catalog_category_entity’)}` READ;
/*!40000 ALTER TABLE `{$installer->getTable(’catalog_category_product_index’)}` DISABLE KEYS */;
“);

and then also comment out lines: 85-88 where it unlocks the database again:

$installer->run(”
/*!40000 ALTER TABLE `{$installer->getTable(’catalog_category_product_index’)}` ENABLE KEYS */;
UNLOCK TABLES;
“);

Then go into: app/etc and rename the local.xml file and rerun the Magento setup.  You should be fine this time around.

magento, technical notes installation error, magento, SQL

We just got our first online order on Tickon.com (our very own Magento-based e-commerce site)!! YEAH!!! But we weren’t even ready for order taking yet!! Paypal Pro hasn’t been setup and logistics haven’t been figured out out…yikes!!

Contacted Paypal to expedite the site approval process, and contacted our vendor with shipping the item…all done in 1 afternoon.  Everything is under control now, I was able to use Paypal’s virtual terminal to key in the CC info and all’s well!  So far.

When I was getting ready to print out the packing slip and the invoices for my vendor to ship the product, I noticed that the plain vanilla invoices and packing slips didn’t include my store’s logo nor address.  Make sure you get those on if to build your store’s brand identity!! Or atleast so that the customer knows where this package came from!

I browsed in the Magento admin interface, and looked everywhere but couldn’t find the form to fill in the store address nor an image for the outputted PDF file.  After some googling i found the thread that talks about this…and the location to configure this IS in the admin interface…just that it wasn’t placed at a very intuitive location. To customize the logo and the store address on the invoice, go to: System (at the top), Sales (on the left side), and Invoice and Packing Slip Design (third tab in the middle).  Upload the images, and type in your store address.  All Done.

NOTE: Picture shown is what was purchased. Very cool Queue 2-Tone Stick Lighter.

blog posting, e-commerce, magento, technical notes customize, e-commerce, invoice, lighter, magento, pdf, tickon.com

Are you sick of seeing that Magento notification always showing up whenever you login to the admin page?  There’s a quick way to disable this feature…I am surprise that it was so hard to google for a solution on this. Am I the only one annoyed by that notification?!

Anyways, the quick fix is the following: go into app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Notification and open up the file: toolbar.php and look for the function: isShow.  If the function returns true that notification box will show up, but if it returns false, the notification will never show up.  So what I have done is change the original code:

public function isShow()
{
if ($this->getRequest()->getControllerName() == ‘notification’) {
return false;
}
if ($this->getCriticalCount() == 0 && $this->getMajorCount() == 0 && $this->getMinorCount() == 0 && $this->getNoticeCount() == 0) {
return false;
}
return true;
}

to always return false:

public function isShow()
{
return false;
}

Hope someone appreciate this fix.  I know I do.

blog posting, e-commerce, magento, technical notes admin page, magento, notification

As more clients begin to request for quotes on web projects, I need to start building up a stronger development team to support clients requests.  If you live in Southern California and have experience developing with PHP (LAMP), please contact me with and how me what you have done as of late.  It’s a strong plus if you have written plugins and/or themes for Wordpress, and it’s also a plus if you have extensively worked with Magento

I want to talk to you!

If you have experience writing application for IPhone and/or experience working with authentication mechanisms such as Facebook Connection, OpenID, please drop me a line too!

Send me an email at jerry at casualcommerce dot com

blog posting, magento, services, wordpress jobs, php developers

When setting up a new Magento-based e-commerce store, one common thing that users overlook is to modify the order confirmation emails that the system sends to the customers…and many store owners don’t know to modify this until their first order is sent out to an actual customer…and guess what? that order confirmation email is gonna have the “Magento Demo Store” wording all over the place.  Couple things to look out for:

1. Update the Magento logo with your own, but replacing the logo file/name in skin/frontend/default/your template/images. File name: logo_email.gif (for all outbound emails), logo_print.gif (for logo on the pdf invoice)

2. update all the html files in: app\locale\en_US\template\email and app\locale\en_US\template\email\sales

e-commerce, magento, technical notes confirmation emails, magento

Just signed up for my Linux plan with Simple Helix as i’ve heard all the great things in the Magento Forum about them.  The performance is indeed excellent, my new Magento site http://www.tickon.com is very very speedy, even the backend admin pages have been quite snappy.  So definitely no complaints on the performance. PLUS it’s only a shared standard hosting $20/mo.

One big grip that i have tho…they haven’t been able to give me a dedicated IP address, and couldn’t give me an ETA on when i can get one!  So i am stuck with an awesome site that can’t take any orders b/c I can’t install SSL without a dedicated IP.

twiddling my thumbs just waiting now….i will give them 2 more days to resolve this, otherwise i am demanding a refund, as much as i don’t want to.

I was even thinking about signing up for the Reseller Program, but from the way they have handled my dedicated IP situation, i will hold off for now.

blog posting, e-commerce, magento dedicated IP, simple helix, SSL, web hosting

Just signed up for a Linux hosting plan with SimpleHelix.com, I must say, the performance is EXCELLENT!!  The site actually runs faster on the hosting company than my local install (WinXP + WAMP)

Just want to document an issue that I ran into when I moved my site…a lot of the images were broken…it was bizarre as when I checked..all the images were intact and they were all ftp’ed to the web host properly.  To my surprise, it was an issue with the image path being CASE SENSITIVE, it was a non-issue on my local install as Windows disregards case-sensitivity in image paths, but Linux is different.

So what ended up happening is that I have to browse through my entire product catalog, looking for missing images and trace back to which product and then lookfind the image path and file name were having issues, and then reference back to root/media/catalog/product/ to see whether the sub-folders are upper case or lower case and then modify the associated path accordingly in the mysql database table (catalog_product_entity_media_gallery).  The file structure for the image files is quite interesting, as it takes the first two characters of the image file name and creates a folder usig the first alphabet, and then create a sub-folder within using the 2nd alphabet; I find that odd but interesting.

Once the path name is updated in mysql, you would have to go back into Magento admin and reselect the base image, thumbnail, and small image, as those settings gets reset once you manually update the row entry in mysql table.

blog posting, e-commerce, magento, technical notes case sensitive, image disappearing, magento