Book Image

Getting Started with Magento Extension Development

By : Branko Ajzele
Book Image

Getting Started with Magento Extension Development

By: Branko Ajzele

Overview of this book

Modules, are a group of php and xml files meant to extend the system with new functionality, or override core system behavior. Most of the base Magento system is built using the module system, so you can see why they are an important feature for this rich open-source e-commerce solutions. This book explores key module development techniques and teaches you to modify, understand and structure your modules making it easy for you to get a strong foundation for clean and unobtrusive Magento module development. Getting Started with Magento Extension Development is a practical, hands-on guide to building Magento modules from scratch. This book provides an in depth introduction and helps you discover features such as; blocks, controllers, models, configuration files, and other crucial elements which contribute to the Magento architecture. This book introduces the you to real-world modules and helps provide a strong foundation which you need to become a professional Magento module developer. The book further explores best practices and tips and tricks offering you the ultimate go to guide. Getting Started with Magento Extension Development focuses on three areas. First you are guided through the entire Magento structure, where each important directory or file is explored in detail. Then the essence of the module structure and development is explained through the detailed coverage of models, blocks, controllers, configuration, and other files that manifest a single module. Finally, a detailed set of instructions is given for building four real-world modules, including a payment and shipping module.

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Getting Started with Magento Extension Development
Branko Ajzele
Sep, 2013 | 128 pages
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Table of Contents (13 chapters)
Getting Started with Magento Extension Development
Getting Started with Magento Extension Development
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
An Overview of Magento Extensions
An Overview of Magento Extensions
The root directory structure
Code pools
The theme system
Basic extension configuration
Controllers
Blocks
The model, resource, and collection
The event/observer pattern
Cron jobs
Helpers
System configuration options
Summary
2
Building the Extension – Maximum Order Amount
Building the Extension – Maximum Order Amount
Planning your extension
Registering your extension
Building the configuration options interface
Adding the business logic
Summary
3
Building the Extension – Logger
Building the Extension – Logger
Planning your extension
Registering your extension
Summary
4
Building the Extension – Shipping
Building the Extension – Shipping
Shipping methods
Planning your extension
Registering your extension
Dissecting the existing shipping method
Defining your shipping method
Adding the business logic
Summary
5
Building the Extension – Payment
Building the Extension – Payment
Payment methods
Planning your extension
Registering your extension
Dissecting the existing payment method
Defining your payment method
Extension business logic
Summary
6
Packaging and Publishing Your Extension
Packaging and Publishing Your Extension
Magento Connect
Packaging your extension
Creating an extension profile
Uploading the extension package
Summary
Index
Index

About the Reviewers

Matej Krivak is an experienced web/database developer, born and raised in Osijek, Croatia.

He has a Master's degree in Engineering (more specifically, Process Computing) from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Osijek where he graduated with highest honors (that is, summa cum laude).

Matej is currently working for Inchoo, a Croatian company specializing in the creation of e-commerce solutions based on Magento, as a team leader and a senior back-end developer. In the past, he has worked for Dialog, a small Croatian company, where he developed and maintained systems based on Oracle technologies.

He has a good knowledge of Magento, Oracle Designer 9i/11g, and various relational database management systems (for example, MySQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server).

Andrea De Pirro graduated with a Master's degree in Computer Engineering at Università degli Studi di Roma Tre in Rome. He started his career as a Symfony and Drupal developer at Emoveo, an innovative startup in Rome, learning about Agile methodologies and PHP best practices. His next step was moving to Bioversity International, where he developed and managed a digital asset management project with the Alfresco J2EE platform. Then he moved to Wind, one of the largest Italian mobile operators, developing Java and PHP web services. Finally, he moved to Barcelona, working at Newshore on large e-commerce projects based on Magento and Zend Framework, for customers such as Privalia, Groupalia, and Intercom. Now he's co-founder of Yameveo, a company specializing in e-commerce solutions and web applications.

Alistair Stead is Technical Assurance Manager at Session Digital UK and a Magento Certification board member. Alistair has been developing software with PHP and other technologies since 2000 and has helped many enterprise clients from the UK and Europe realize complex commerce solutions.

He speaks regularly at conferences, not only regarding Magento but also many different technical topics relevant to current development practices, performance, and scalability.

In his spare time you will find Alistair tinkering with new technology and tweeting about the results.

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