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.

Helibo, a site created by a a good friend Adam Roberts has now launched. It focuses on anything web designer/developer related. I am fortunate enough to be a guest poster on Helibo, although I can never find much time to blog nowadays I am going to try my best to get some decent articles and tutorials written for this site and Helibo.

So far posts have covered, Content Management Systems, Talking to Clients, and 3D. The site is only just launched and its already been a great site to be involved in.

Hopefully over the next few day/weeks I will be launching a few new projects of mine, sites, widgets and anything else I can get out of the Internet Workshop.

Do you use a CMS? Is it Wordpress, Drupal, Mambo/Joomla? Have you looked around at what other systems are around?

Have you tried e107? No? Maybe you should try it out.

As I keep reminding readers of my blog my CMS of choice is e107, has been for years. The main reason for this is the way it works and how simple it is to understand and use. I have used several content management systems in my time on the web and well some I have liked and some I have used once and never used again.

The two systems I use now are e107 and Wordpress. Wordpress is more suitable for blogs than e107, its a great system and I love using it. Just like Wordpress is great for blogs, e107 is great for alot of other things. Sites that require more interaction with the user, with features like forums, profiles, chatboxes etc… These are just a tiny selection of the features that are included within e107.

With the ever growing plugin database adding to e107 functionality as well as the core been developed continuously e107 may just be the right CMS for one of your sites.

Some Core e107 Features…

• News System
• Submit News System - Allows users to submit news to your site.
• Custom Menu/Pages System - Includes a menu activation area to set menu’s to a certain area within your sites theme.
• Flood Protection System, allow auto banning of IP’s flooding your site.
• Downloads System
• Uploads System
• Banner AdSystem, rotating adverts.
• Core Plugins, Forum, Chatbox, Event Calender, Stats, Google Sitemap, Links Page, RSS and many more…

So why not go and try e107 for yourself, download it here or view a demo here.