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Magento Product Audit Extension – Monitor and Record Changes to your Products

I wrote up an article over on MageBase this weekend expanding on a tip I got from the Magento Developers Paradise. In the process of writing it, I went through a worked example and as usual with articles you want to make sure the code actually runs too, so I installed it on my local test Magento. Having done all of this, it occurred to me that the only missing part of what I had done to make it into a usable extension was an implementation of this function:

class Aschroder_ProductAudit_Model_Entity_Attribute_Backend_Audit extends Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Attribute_Backend_Abstract {
 
    protected function _afterSave() {
		// This is where we would perform the audit (or any other logic we wanted)
		// We could email the changes to a store admin, for example
    }
}

So I went ahead an put a simple little implementation in the custom backend model. The result is Magento Product Audit, a trivial little extension that will let you know when your products change, and who changed them.
Continue reading Magento Product Audit Extension – Monitor and Record Changes to your Products

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Magento Developers Paradise By The Numbers

Having just got back from the Magento Developers Paradise in Mallorca, I thought I’d try for a creative summary, here we go.

1

The number of blog contributors I enjoyed meeting in person.

2

The number of wing mirrors involved in my first motor vehicle incident in Mallorca, < 15 minutes after renting the car. Continue reading Magento Developers Paradise By The Numbers

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Shipwire Tracking API – Mapping API carrier codes in Tracking updates within Magento

This is just a quick note that might save someone some time/effort. I’ve been working with the Shipwire Tracking API and Magento lately and although I think their API is good, it’s lacking in certain areas. Namely utility for customer facing applications.

The Shipwire tracking API returns short codes for carrier and service, which doesn’t really make it very useful for customer facing communication, nobody wants to know their parcel shipped on “RM FCLR“, instead of Royal Mail First Class Large Letter – Recorded Signed For. I contacted Shipwire support about it and they provided the comprehensive list of carriers and codes (thanks Gene!).
Continue reading Shipwire Tracking API – Mapping API carrier codes in Tracking updates within Magento

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New Version of Magento Cloud Backup Available: bug fixes, stability and self testing.

Big mistake, big face palm

-			// TESTING
-			$files = array("js", "media");

Please get the latest version on Magento Connect as soon as you can…

And sign up to be notified of future bug fixes/features – I’ll aim for more of the latter and fewer of the former.

PS: Big Thanks Oren for bringing this to my attention.

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A New Theme, A WP 3.0 Upgrade, Flickr, Tumblr – But No Actual Content

If you’ve visited my site in the last 9 months you’ll notice it looks a bit different now. I just upgraded the site to the latest version of WordPress, and have installed a WooTheme called Unite. I haven’t tried a Woo Theme before, but they’re pretty slick, well coded, I’d probably buy another one.

I also moved my photos over to Flickr from Picasa (mainly because I was too lazy to rework the Picasa integration and the theme supported Flickr out-of-the-box).

I liked Unite because it looks a bit like Tumblr, which all the cool kids seem to be getting into. I like the _idea_ of Tumblr, but have been put off by a few things they don’t support as a platform (comments being one). Plus the task of trying to migrate my blog with all it’s comments and posts to Tumblr is a non-startr.

As a side effect of buying this theme, I have two others available to me, so if you fancy a particular WooTheme, let me know, I’d share one for a good cause.

One last thing – this update will mean the IE6/7 people who visit (albeit not many of you) should now see a reasonable site. Speaking of which does anyone use IE6/7 because they want to or is it symptomatic of a lack-lustre corporate IT department?

I’d appreciate any feedback you have on the theme, particularly if you are visiting on a weird platform/browser.