Kalpesh Mehta

Blog

  • Magento: Get and set variables in session

    Suppose you want to set data in the magento session, so that you can retrieve it from other pages. Session has been very useful global variable in PHP and using it we can easily retrieve and add data to it and get it from the entire site.

    Here is the code that will set / add your custom data into session.
    {code type=php}Mage::getSingleton(‘core/session’)->setMyCustomData(‘blah’);{/code}

    here, setMyCustomData can be replaced with the meaningful name as per your need. One thing to be cautious while setting session variables is to make sure it doesn’t conflict with magento’s internal variables, example setData.

    Code to retrieve the session variable
    {code type=php}$session = Mage::getSingleton(‘core/session’, array(‘name’ => ‘frontend’));
    echo $session->getMyCustomData();{/code}

  • Magento: Some important functions

    Here I will show you some important functions/methods in Magento that will make your development easy.

    Get the path of your magento page.
    {code type=php}echo $this->getUrl(‘mypage’);{/code}

    Get the path of the image in your skin folder.
    {code type=php}echo $this->getSkinUrl(‘images/yourimage.gif’);{/code}

    Get the product link.
    {code type=php}echo $this->getProductData()->getProductUrl();{/code}

    Get the product name.
    {code type=php}echo $this->htmlEscape($this->getProductData()->getName());{/code}

    Call a static block in .phtml file.
    {code type=php}echo $this->getLayout()->createBlock(‘cms/block’)->setBlockId(‘YOURBLOCKID’)->toHtml();{/code}

    Get Image url of current category.
    {code type=php}echo $this->getCurrentCategory()->getImageUrl();{/code}

    Check whether the current category is Top category.
    {code type=php}echo $this->IsTopCategory();{/code}

    Get description of current category.
    {code type=php}echo $this->getCurrentCategory()->getDescription();{/code}

    Display products list page (list.phtml).
    {code type=php}echo $this->getProductListHtml();{/code}

    Display CMS block page.
    {code type=php}echo $this->getCmsBlockHtml();{/code}
    (more…)

  • Magento: Checking customer/admin is logged in or not

    The most important part in magento development is to check whether customer is logged in or not in the system. So that you can show specific features and extra privileges to your customers. There are many things that are restricted to the guests, while members can see the special privilege things.

    Also if the customer is not logged in, we can show a link like “Log in”; while for logged in customers, we can show link like “Log out”, “My account”, etc. This is already present in Magento, but we may want to add more features to our customers. So here is the code where you can check customer is logged in or not.

    This will check whether the customer is logged in the magento system or not.

    {code type=php}$session=Mage::getSingleton(‘customer/session’, array(‘name’=>’frontend’) );

    if ($session->isLoggedIn()) {
    echo “Welcome, “.$session->getCustomer()->getName();
    } else {
    echo “Not logged in”;
    }{/code}

    This will check whether admin is logged in or not in a magento site.

    {code type=php}$adminsession = Mage::getSingleton(‘admin/session’, array(‘name’=>’adminhtml’));

    if($adminsession->isLoggedIn()) {
    echo “Welcome Admin”;
    } else {
    echo “Not logged in”;
    }{/code}

  • Magento get file paths and URLs

    Get URL paths of your magento folder structure – Absolute URL Path

    Mage::getBaseUrl() => Gets base url path e.g. http://my.website.com/

    Mage::getBaseUrl(‘media’) => Gets MEDIA folder path e.g. http://my.website.com/media/

    Mage::getBaseUrl(‘js’) => Gets JS folder path e.g. http://my.website.com/js/

    Mage::getBaseUrl(‘skin’) => Gets SKIN folder path e.g. http://my.website.com/skin/

    Get DIRECTORY paths (physical location of your folders on the server) – Relative URL Path

    Mage::getBaseDir() => Gives you your Magento installation folder / root folder e.g. /home/kalpesh/workspace/magento

    Mage::getBaseDir(‘app’) => Gives you your Magento’s APP directory file location e.g. /home/kalpesh/workspace/magento/app

    Mage::getBaseDir(‘design’) => Gives you your Magento’s DESIGN directory file location e.g. /home/kalpesh/workspace/magento/design

    Mage::getBaseDir(‘media’) => Gives MEDIA directory file path

    Mage::getBaseDir(‘code’) => Gives CODE directory file path

    Mage::getBaseDir(‘lib’) => Gives LIB directory file path

    Get Current URL – whole URL path

    Mage::helper(‘core/url’)->getCurrentUrl()

  • InkFruit.com – launched in Magento

    Inkfruit.comAfter so much of hard work and less time to complete, finally we launched our old core PHP website in Magento.

    At beginning, the task was the tough nut to crack, but then it was more interesting and honestly we loved it.

    Magento is really far more different and complex than other frameworks, cms and commerce softwares.
    It has got the power to make a giant eCommerce website but beware, it is also too slow and resouce-hungry.
    It has everything you want during development, you just need to know from where and how to get and use it.

    There were many things we learned through the process.

    It has everything the magento website can have, from core module rewrites to EAV module.

    Plenty of customization but no changes in core!

    It was really a great experience and things in Magento are far more clear to us now.

  • Override/Rewrite Magento core blocks and controllers

    After spending many hours in rewriting block and controller of Magento core module, I finally came up with a solution.
    Here I am going to rewrite block: Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Sales/Shipment/Grid.php
    and controller: Mage/Adminhtml/controllers/Sales/ShipmentController.php

    First you will need to make a xml file for your new module at app/etc/modules directory
    CompanyName_Adminhtml.xml

    {code type=php}



    true
    local


    {/code}

    Then, make folders in your app/code/local directory as follows:
    – CompanyName
    -> Block
    —> Sales
    —-> Shipment
    ——> Grid.php
    -> controllers
    —> Sales
    —-> ShipmentController.php
    -> etc
    —> config.xml

    In etc/config.xml, your code should look like below:

    {code type=php}



    0.1.0





    CompanyName_Adminhtml_Block_Sales_Shipment_Grid






    /admin/sales_shipment/     CompanyName_Adminhtml {/code} In ShipmentController.php, you should start like this: {code type=php}require_once(“Mage/Adminhtml/controllers/Sales/ShipmentController.php”); class CompanyName_Adminhtml_Sales_ShipmentController extends Mage_Adminhtml_Sales_ShipmentController { //controller methods goes here.. }{/code} require_once is necessary as magento is not going to load controllers as it does for blocks and models In block Grid.php, start the file like below: {code type=php}class CompanyName_Adminhtml_Block_Sales_Shipment_Grid extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Grid { // block methods goes here.. }{/code} That’s it! Now you should get your local Grid.php and ShipmentController.php loading instead of core’s.

  • eBay to buy Magento

    On June 6th, 2011 I got email from magentocommerce that eBay agreed to acquire our darling magento. Whether it is a good news or bad news for the Magento developers? Without any proper documentation or helpful sources, we have fought enough to get our Magento development run flawless. It may be obvious that after eBay acquires Magento, there may be many changes in Magento world, like proper documentation with code examples, good community support (where we can expect working answers to our posted questions) for enterprise edition, leader in the eCommerce market, education of Magento and its training globally, any many more.

    Magento will be called as X.Commerce after eBay acquires it. eBay is already attached with Magento since 2010, when it became the magento’s outside investor. eBay saw a great scope of Magento and that is the reason it does not resist itself in acquiring this eCommerce web application giant.

  • Magento: Get all the values of a Magento EAV for a particular attribute code

    If you have ever wondered how to get all the values of any EAV attribute for products in Magento, then this is the workaround for you:

    {code type=php}$attribute = Mage::getModel(‘eav/config’)->getAttribute(‘catalog_product’, ‘color’); //here, “color” is the attribute_code
    $allOptions = $attribute->getSource()->getAllOptions(true, true);
    foreach ($allOptions as $instance) {
    $myArray[$instance[‘value’]] = $instance[‘label’];
    }
    Mage::log($myArray);{/code}

    You will get list of all colors in an array called “myArray” in value => label format.

  • Magento 1.5: Cannot login to admin panel after fresh install

    After installing magento 1.5, I tried to login to the admin panel with correct username and password, but it does not let me in without any error message. This is due to cookie problem in magento and can be fixed as below:

    Open this file in your favorite editor: app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Session/Abstract/Varien.php

    Comment lines that says like (probably line number 81 to 83)
    {code type=php}
    $this->getCookie()->getDomain(),
    $this->getCookie()->isSecure(),
    $this->getCookie()->getHttponly()
    {/code}
    to
    {code type=php}
    //$this->getCookie()->getDomain(),
    //$this->getCookie()->isSecure(),
    //$this->getCookie()->getHttponly()
    {/code}
    Now you could login to your admin panel without any problem.