For a few weeks now I have been working with the new eCommerce solution Magento. In the past I have had brief encounters with other eCommerce solutions like Cubecart, as well as eCommerce plugins for e107. None of them really come close to been as well structured and feature rich as Magento does.

At the time of writing this Magento is at version 1.0, with a bug fix release just around the corner. Many of the features built into the core of Magento are features that aren’t built into other solutions without the use of plugins/modules.

Some of the nicest features that are built into Magento are…

• Individual items within an order can be shipped to mutliple addresses.
• People can create wishlists to send to there friends.
• Reports (Sales, Tax, Searches, Stock, Most Viewed, Coupon Useage etc…).
• Ability to allow users to configure products (Size, Colour etc…).
• Import / Export Products
• Export information about customers, (Collect email addresses for mailshots).
• An RSS feed that warns you of low stock.
• Users can tag products.
• Order tracking.
• To see more of the great features built in click here.

I am not creating a shop for personal use, but for a client of 383 Project. So my main focus on the system is the template system. The first time you look at the template/skinning/theming system in Magento it can be pretty daunting.

The files for the skin are separated between several folders (app/design & skin). Within the app/design folder you will find all the HTML for the templates, within the skin folder you will find the images, stylesheets and javascript files.

Once you get used to navigating through these folders it’s pretty much plain sailing. A neat feature in Magento allows you to turn on labels telling you where a particular template file is located, this can be found in the Admin Area > System > Configuration then navigate down to Developer and turn on ‘Template Path Hints’.

I will be posting more about the system in the near future as I work with it more and more. Personally, if I was creating an eCommerce site for my own use then i’d use Magento. Go try it out. If you want to know more head over to the Magento website and look around, they also have screencasts showing you the process of many parts of the system.

A few months back I brought a package from Adam Roberts that included a domain and designs for a web development site. I am now actively working on getting this site up and running. I am hoping to officially launch several sites at once.

The site essentially is based around readers and writers creating articles, tutorials and news posts for cash. If you wish to earn some extra money and create a few posts ready for when the site launches get in touch with me by using the contact page or twitter.

All posts will need to be related to Web Development, I am still working out rates to pay writers but i’m sure we can come to an agreement that suites everyone. If you have experience blogging or writing then that will be a bonus.

Look forward to hearing from all you writers.

I brought the SitePoint Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications book just over a week ago and i’m now around 120 pages into it. I have to say its a great read. I wanted to start learning Rails as soon as I read how easy it was to work with on a blog post at Carsonified.

After a day or so watching screencasts and reading up on what you can do with Rails, I set out and brought the Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications Sitepoint book from Waterstones (after searching in a few other book shops).

Getting into the book was relatively easy, but if you wish to start working on the sample application (Shovell - A Digg Clone) that you build while reading the book straight away you have a good 3-4 chapters to read first.

While I haven’t got into the bulk of the application coding I have to say I am very impressed and by the sounds of it, Ruby on Rails will look great on anyones CV and portfolio.

I would have gotten further into the book by now if I hadn’t gotten stuck on getting MySQL all set up and running on Leopard, I kept getting errors and after about 6 attempts it worked. Now I can start building the Shovell application, then once i’m happy with that I can start building my other projects that are in the works.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Ruby on Rails, its a great introduction to Rails. I will no doubt be posting more posts about this book in the coming weeks when a few other of my projects start coming together.