Magento FAQs : Frequently Asked Questions about Magento

What is Magento?

Magento is one of the most preferred ecommerce development platforms with a large number of features and functionalities which enable companies to build, run and manage their ecommerce websites easily, seamlessly and in an optimised way. Published by a Varien INC in 2008, it functions as an open source ecommerce management system and is the most popular ecommerce platform across the globe. The 2.0 version of Magneto arrived in November 2015 and has additional functions and features to make your ecommerce site more resourceful and customer-friendly.

Why is Magento valuable for businesses?

If you are planning to start your ecommerce business and looking for a feature-rich and highly-functional ecommerce website which offers you a high level of control and flexibility when it comes to the look, functionality and content, Magento is the name you need to remember. You can easily and seamlessly run your ecommerce operations as it is a convenient and effective platform with a wide range of features which makes operations like smooth sailing. Also, it is an SEO-friendly platform and can be optimized for search engine rankings.

What are the different versions of Magento?

Magento categorizes its product across multiple offerings:

• • • Magento Commerce
    • Magento Order Management
    • Magento Business Intelligence
    • Magento Shipping
    • Magento Social
    • Magento Open Source

What are some of the top features and functionalities of Magento?

Some of the worth-mentioning features and functionalities of Magento are:

• • Payment
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Customer Accounts
  • Product and Catalogue Browsing
  • Site Management
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Customer Accounts
  • International Support
  • Checkout
  • Marketing Promotion and Tools
  • Order Management

What is MVC Architecture?

MVC literally means Model View Controller which is a type of architecture in which separate applications are made for business logic, data access and user interface. There are two different types of MVC: Configuration based and Convention based. Magento functions with the configuration based version and it makes it imperative to specify everything to get a module’s configuration file to function properly.

Can you explain the technology that is used by Magento?

Magento uses MYSQL for database management and PHP as a web server scripting language. The advanced MYSQL version of MYSQL 5.6 (Percona or Oracle) is used and when it comes to PHP, the PHP 5.4 and 5.5 are used. It makes Magento more powerful, convenient and feature and functionality-rich.

Are there any limitations to the Magento software?

Though Magento has carved a niche for itself by offering a wide range of features and functionalities to run ecommerce operations, there are some drawbacks worth mentioning. First of all, it consumes a lot of space and memory. In addition to that, it also requires Object Oriented Programming to prevent it to become a complex system. Also, at times, Magento might perform slower than other ecommerce platforms. However, these are not some major issues to worry about. The advantages and features of the Magento offers usually outweigh these small issues.

How do you create a custom module in Magento?

If you want to create a custom module in Magento, first of all, you need to create a module directory. Then, you need to create a controller, block and module files and then a module configuration file. The last thing is to create an XML file. The XML file helps you in enabling or disabling the module and also guides the system to take a code pool from which the module will be taken from.

How can you improve the performance of Magento?

Improving the performance of the Magento application is easy and you can do a number of things to achieve it such as:

• Disabling any modules that are not being used
• Disabling the Magento log
• MySQL Query Caching
• Optimizing your image
• Enabling Gzip Compression
• Enabling Magento Caching
• Combining the external CSS/JS into a single file

These steps will surely speed up the application and optimize its performance.

Which billing information can be managed through Magento?

All of the following things can be managed from the client account.

How to add a new product?

You can add products from the Magento Admin area -> Catalog -> Manage Products -> Add Product (located at the top right of the page). You need to select the product’s settings – Attribute Set and Product Type and click Continue.

How to add a new category?

Step 1: Generate a new category

– First of all, you need to generate a category on the admin panel with Product- Inventory-  Categories.
– Now you need to add a subcategory.

Step 2: Configure the general information

– On the General Information section,
– Name for the new category.
– Enable the category by choosing Yes for Is Active field.
– Create a URL Key for own or it will be auto-created by the system.
– Write some descriptions about the category in the Description box.
– Upload the Image for the category if needed.
– Enter the data: Page Title, Meta Keywords, Meta Description for your SEO.
– In the Include in Navigation Menu field, select Yes to show it on the Navigation Menu.
– Click on the Save Category button.

Step 3: Configure the display settings

– From Products Only, Static Block Only or Static Block and Products, consider the Display Mode.
To define the category page, you need to select a type of static block in the CMS Block.

– Is Anchor is the agreement to display the Filter by Attributes of the M2 Layered Navigation. If it is accepted, select YES.

– In case you don’t want to use the configuration settings, you can ignore the checkbox and instead, choose a feature with name and price to reorder a list of product.

Is Magento SEO-friendly?

Yes, Magento is very much SEO-friendly.

How do you add a blog to Magento?

To rank high on search engine results, blogs can play a pivotal role. You can add the blog section to Magento in two ways, there is a pre-built Magento blog extension that you can use or you can create a custom blog module. In the first case, you need to download the extension from Aheadworks and then you need to install and configure it. If you choose to build a custom blog, you need to create a module for the same.

How many design patterns does Magento Have?

There are a total of 12 design patterns Magento has such as:

– Factory Pattern
– Singleton Pattern
– Model View Controller Pattern
– Front Controller Pattern
– Registry Pattern
– Prototype Pattern
– Iterator Pattern
– Object Pool Pattern
– Service Locator Pattern
– Lazy Loading Pattern
– Observer Pattern
– Module Pattern