Redstage Magento Blog

Magento, with its wide support for multiple payment gateways, makes it easier than ever to accept customer payments. There are a plethora of payment gateways out there, and today we’re going to show you just how easy it is to set up Authorize.net. Authorize.net acts as an intermediary between your Magento store and the vast payment processing networks.

The Process:

• Gather Account-Specific Authorize.net Data
• Enter this Data into Magento
• Enable the Payment Module

I. Gather Account-Specific Authorize.net Data

Once you have an account with Authorize.net, you’ll need to obtain values for these fields:

• API Login ID
• Transaction key
• Merchant’s Email (this you should already have)

To find these, follow these steps (source):

1. Log in to your Merchant Interface at https://account.authorize.net
2. Click Settings in the main left side menu.
3. Click API Login ID and Transaction Key.
4. Under Create New Transaction Key, enter your Secret Answer.
5. Click Submit.

II. Enter this Data into Magento

Log in to your Magento Admin Panel.  Then, using the horizontal navigation at the top, navigate to System > and click Configuration.  Once that page loads, look for and click on “Payment Methods”, found in the left-column under the “Sales” category.  When the page loads, expand the “Authorize.net” area in the main-column by clicking on it.

Add the relevant Authorize.net values from the previous step, and set the various settings to your liking (e.g. which credit cards to accept, whether or not to require CVV validation, etc.)

Authorize.net Settings

III. Enable the Payment Module

While still in the “Authorize.net” area of System > Configuration, change the “Enabled” dropdown (first setting) to “Yes“.

Enable the Authorize.net Payment Module

Finally, click the “Save Config” buton found at the top-right hand side of the screen.

Adding a video to a product greatly enhances the online shopping experience. The out-of-the-box Magento package doesn’t support video. This How-To shows just how to do that. We’ll be able to either (1) drop in HTML embed code from sites like YouTube, or (2) use an FLV file that we provide.

This article assumes you have the jQuery Javascript library installed and have “jQuery.noConflict()”‘ set up.  If you don’t have jQuery.noConflict(), then simply replace instances of “jQuery” with “$”.  If you don’t have this library, download jQuery here.

Here’s the sequence of steps we’re going to take:

1. Create a product attribute for the video code
2. Assign the newly created attribute to an attribute set
3. Modify the template files
4. Obtain and upload a copy of the free JWPlayer
5. Add video to a product using HTML embed code or using an FLV file

1. Create a product attribute for the video code.

Log in to your Magento Admin Panel. Navigate to Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attributes. Click on the “Add New Attribute” button found close to the top-right hand corner of the screen. The first tab that’s open is the *Properties* tab. You are presented with lots of textboxes and dropdowns. Here’s what to fill them in with (you can also view this screenshot):

Attribute Properties

- Attribute Code: video
- Scope: Global
- Catalog Input Type of Store Owner: Text Area
- Default Value: [leave blank]
- Unique Value: No
- Values Required: No
- Input Validation for Store Owner: None
- Apply To: All Product Types

Frontend Properties

- Use in quick search: No
- Use in advanced search: No
- Comparable on Front-end: No
- Use in Layered Navigation: No
- Use in Search Results Layered Navigation: No
- Use for Price Rule Conditions: No
- Position: 0
- Allow HTML-tags on Front-end: Yes
- Visible on Product View Page on Front-end: No
- Used in product listing: No
- Used for sorting in product listing: No

Then navigate to the *Manage Label / Options* tab. You only have to fill in the “Admin” value, and for this use “Video“. This can be changed later if you need to.

Click the “Save Attribute” button to save the attribute.

2. Assign the newly created attribute to an attribute set (likely Default)

While still in the Admin Panel, navigate to Catalog > Attributes > Manage Attribute Sets. From the right-hand column, labeled “Unassigned Attributes”, drag our new video attribute to the “General” group found in the middle column.

Click “Save Attribute Set” button to save the attribute set.

3. Modify the template files

You’ll need to use a text-editor and FTP client.

3a. video.phtml

Create a file with these contents:

<?php
$_product = $this->getProduct();
?>
<?php if( $video = $_product->getVideo() ){ ?>
<h2>Product Video</h2>
<div class="products">
<?php if( file_exists( getcwd() .'/skin/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/videos/'. $video ) ){ ?>
<div id="mediaspace">&nbsp;</div>
<script>
jQuery( document ).ready( function(){
jQuery.getScript( '<?php echo $this->getSkinUrl('videos/mediaplayer/swfobject.js'); ?>', function(){
var so = new SWFObject('/skin/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/videos/mediaplayer/player.swf','ply','470','320','9','#ffffff');
so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');
so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
so.addParam('wmode','opaque');
so.addVariable('file','<?php echo Mage::getBaseUrl(); ?>/skin/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/videos/<?php echo $video; ?>');
so.write('mediaspace');
} );
} );
</script>
<?php } else { ?>
<?php echo $video; ?>
<?php } ?>
</div>
<?php } ?>

And save the file as /app/design/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/template/catalog/product/view/video.phtml

3b. catalog.xml

Open up /app/design/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/layout/catalog.xml and add this line:

<block type="catalog/product_view" name="product_video" as="product_video" template="catalog/product/view/video.phtml"/>

as a child anywhere inside this node:

<block type="catalog/product_view" name="product.info" template="catalog/product/view.phtml">

… and save the file.

3c. catalog/product/view.phtml

Open up /app/design/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/catalog/product/view.phtml and add this line:

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('product_video'); ?>

wherever you want the video to appear on the page. Save the file.

4. Obtain and upload a copy of the free JWPlayer

Download the player from: http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/

After you download the ZIP file, extract and upload the files using an FTP client to: /skin/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/videos/*

With the FTP client, rename the “mediaplayer-viral” folder to “mediaplayer”

5. Add video to a product

In the Magento Admin Panel, navigate to Catalog > Manage Products and click on the product you’d like to add video to. You should see a textarea labeled “Video”.

5a. Use HTML embed code

In the “Video” textarea, simply drop in the HTML code you’ve received (such as from YouTube) and click “Save” to save the product.

5b. OR use an FLV file

- Upload your FLV file to /skin/frontend/[your-package]/[your-theme]/videos/

- In the “Video” textarea, specify the filename of the FLV you’ve just uploaded.

Repeat Step 5 for all of the products you want to add video to.

Congratulations, you’ve added video to your products.

* This method is tested and working for Magento v 1.3.2.4

You are locked out of your Magento site’s Admin Panel.  You’ve tried every username/password combination you know and have searched your entire computer (inside and out) for a file or sticky note to no avail.  Don’t worry, all is not lost — that is, assuming you have access and permission to browse and modify the database.

Access to the database is typically done through:

• phpMyAdmin – a 3rd party utility that usually comes packaged with hosting accounts (whether dedicated, shared, cloud, etc.)
• SSH – a command-line interface

Let’s say for example we’ve lost the password for the account with username: testadmin.

Using phpMyAdmin

1. In the left-hand column, click on the table called “admin_user“.

2. Click the “Browse” tab found at the top (horizontal) menu.

3. Locate the account you wish to modify (testuser in this example), and click on the “Edit” icon (to the left of “Delete” and looks like a pencil)

4. Locate the “password” row.  Select “MD5” from the dropdown menu and type in the new password.

5. Scroll to the bottom and click “Go” — and you should be all set!

Using SSH

1. Log in to the mysql> prompt using:

mysql -u [dbUsername] -p[dbPassword] -h[dbHost] [databaseName]

For more information on this, see: Accessing MySQL via SSH

2. You should now see that your command prompt now looks like:

mysql>

3. Enter the command:

UPDATE admin_user SET password = MD5('OurNewPassword') WHERE username = 'testuser';

4. Hit Enter on your keyboard and you are done.

When you’re starting an e-commerce business, there are a some necessary things that you need to get started. These include various accounts, software, scripts, and more. The goal of this post is to show you all of the things you need to get your e-commerce business off the ground from a technical point of view along with some recommendations for where to get these fulfilled. Some of these are obvious, and some may not be – take look!

This is a good checklist, but every business is different. If you have any questions about starting your e-commerce business OR about Magento in general, call us at 10888-335-2747 and we’ll be glad to help you out!

Ok, let’s get started!

Choose a Ecommerce System/ Shopping Cart Platform

Of course, you need to choose a platform for you business to run on. For many reasons, we highly reccomend using the Magento e-commerce system. Magento is extremely scalable, open source, easy to use and quickly becoming the most popular shopping cart system around.

Website Design

You’re going to need a design that connects with your customers and properly shows your offerings. You can find a TON of Magento themes and templates all over the web on blogs and forums. Our recommendation is to get a professional web designer to create a custom look & feel for your website.

Technology Partner

Ok, this is the shameless self promotion but as you read on you’ll see that there are a ton of core business things to be focusing on as you grow your online company. You shouldn’t be focusing on the technology when there are experts that can assist you. We can design, develop and provide Magento Support for your site while you are doing the important business growth actions.

Domain Name

Your site needs an easy to remember, targeted, dot-com domain name. You can get away with a dot-net domain if it’s necessary but it’s highly recommended to brainstorm and get a top level dot-com name for your website. Here are a few excellent websites to use when trying to find a domain name.

http://ajaxwhois.com
AjaxWhois lets you search the WhoIs database with a nearly instant Ajax search. It searches as you type so you never have to hit enter and you can search faster than one domain at at time.

www.domainexposer.com
Domain Exposer is awesome because it will append your keyword to a huge database of themed words and tell you if they are registered or not.

Web Hosting

There are hundreds if not thousands of web hosts out there. Trying to find the exact right host for your business can be an overwhelming project. You want to avoid having to move your website from one host to another after your website grows. If you are starting a serious e-commerce business, start with the right web host to ensure that your website will be fast, reliable and properly supported.

We are specialists in getting your Magento E-Commerce site hosted correctly from the beginning. For more information about Magento Hosting, call us at 1-888-335-2747.

Products

You probably know what you want to sell with your e-commerce website. However, it can be hard to source the products so here are a few recommendations.

http://www.thomasnet.com
Thomasnet can get you linked up with manufacturers so you can source directly without any middlemen.

You can test a product line by dropshipping products to test, pricing and forecast sales volume without having to purchase inventory. We have been partners with http://www.dsdi.com for a long time and they are by far one of the best drop shipping companies we have ever worked with.

When you are searching for product sources, do extensive research so you get as high on the supply chain as possible so you can save as much money when you are buying inventory.

Other places to search for product sources is to obviously perform a Google search for your product + “wholesale sources” or “manufacturer”. You can go to trade shows and conferences as well as make calls directly to companies to try to make connections.

Product Images

Having your products shown clearly on your website is extremely important to the overall look of the site as well as the conversion rate of the site. If you are selling clothing, make sure that you have models showing the clothing off. If you’re selling electronics, furniture or even sneakers, you need multiple angles of very clear photos. It might cost a bit more than you expect to have professional photos of your products taken but from over 10 years of e-commerce experience, it can really separate the websites that get sales from those that do not.

Product Titles & Descriptions

Be sure to write captivating, accurate and titles and descriptions for your products. It’s a time consuming process, but as your website matures and the search engines pick up the long tail pages you’ll be happy that you optimized these textual elements of your website.

Not only are the titles and descriptions important for SEO but this text sells your product! There are a few sites that really go above and beyond with their descriptions. You can use these for inspiration. One is http://www.thinkgeek.com, and the other is http://www.woot.com.

Shipping Account

When someone buys something, you have to send it to them. Make sure that you sign up for UPS, USPS and/or FedEx.

In order to print labels and ship your products, you’ll need a service like www.shipworks.com. Luckily, Shipworks conveniently works with Magento!

Packing/Shipping Materials

Don’t for get about boxes and packing peanuts! You’ll need a shipping scale and heavy duty packing tape as well.

We were always a customer of www.uline.com. These guys are great. They are extremely reliable and their pricing is the best we found. Great discounts for large orders so as you grow you save!

Security (SSL)

Your website is going to need an SSL certificate to encrypt credit card transactions. All modern web browsers will alert their users VERY intrusively if this isn’t set up right. We are partnered with Comodo and offer various levels of SSL certificates if you need one or go to www.comodo.com. You can get set up with other certificates too from Godaddy.com, Verisign.com, and many others.

Toll Free Phone Number

You’re probably going to want to get a toll free phone number for your customers to call if they have a problem. You can use VIOP services to reduce the costs of this feature or call your local phone company for more information.

Newsletter Management System

If you are going to build a list of e-mail addresses on your site so you can send out promotions and other mass communications, you should use a 3rd party service like Aweber.com so ensure the highest delivery rate and ease of list/email/contact organization.

Social Media Accounts

Don’t forget to sign up for your social media accounts. Definitely claim your brand on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc…

You can use this awesome program NameCHK to check 72 sites at once! http://namechk.com/

–

Wow! That was a ton of stuff. I might have forgot something too. If you have any other recommendations, please leave a comment below! Thanks for reading!