Magento

So I’ve recently began learning the Magento e-commerce platform. Magento is one of the most popular, open-source, e-commerce platforms in use today. It uses a combination of HTML, PHTML, XML, and PHP files as the core files of the platform. It is possible to customize magento and build templates to make your e-commerce site look unique and stand out among the crowd. There is definitely a learning curve involved and an intricate file structure you must learn to navigate. This is to be expected for a system that is so customizable. It just takes a lot of code to provide all the functionality and customization abilities. I’m excited about learning more and adding this new tool to my web developer toolchest.

WordPress!

Recently, I have been working almost exclusively with the content management system, WordPress. I have grown to really love this powerful platform and am excited to have it in my web development arsenal. I’m sure there are certain limitations that I haven’t stumbled across but so far I’ve been able to accomplish all mine and my client’s goal using wordpress. I have yet to do an e-commerce site in wordpress but I’ve been reading about it and I know it is possible. It looks like Foxycart is probably the way to go with this and I will definitely base the site on the wonderful videos presented by Chris Coyler over at css-tricks. Chris Coyler is my favorite wordpress expert. He presents the often complicated nuances of the WordPress system in an easy to understand manner. I totally recommend his Linda video on wordpress. You can find it here WordPress 3: Creating and Editing Custom Themes. I especially recommend the section on custom fields.