SiteGround Tutorials
Magento Tutorial
Magento is an open source eCommerce solution. It comes with a variety of tools, necessarily for building a successful online shop. To create an online store with Magento you need reliable web hosting services. SiteGround Magento hosting package is an excellent choice for this purpose. There you get a free domain name, Magento installation, free shared SSL, and numerous ecommerce tools.
This Magento tutorial will provide you with comprehensive installation instructions for Magento shopping cart and will also show you how to create and manage a web site using Magento.
The Magento tutorial covers the following topics:
- How to install Magento shopping cart on your hosting account;
- How to configure your Magento shop;
- How to change themes in Magento;
- How to design the home page of your online store;
- How to set SSL certificate in Magento;
- How to optimize your shop for the Search engines (SEO);
- How to use Magento customer manager;
- How to configure Shipping and Payment modules
Magento main features include:
- Analytics and Reporting - the script is integrated with Google Analytics and offers many different reports.
- Product Browsing - multiple images for products, options for extensive reviews, wishlists and much more.
- Catalog Browsing - easy navigation, advanced product filtering system, product comparison.
- Catalog Management - inventory management, batch import and export of products, different tax rates per location, additional product attributes.
- Customer Accounts - order status and history, e-mail and RSS feeds for products in the wishlist, newsletter subscription, default billing and shipping address.
- Customer Service - enhanced features for customers' accounts, Contact Us form, comprehensive order tracking and history, customizable order e-mails.
- Order Management - create orders through admin area, create multiple invoices shipments and credit memos, call center order creation option.
- Payment - different payment methods: credit cards, PayPal, Authorize.net, Google Checkout, checks, money orders, support of external payment modules like Cybersource, ePay, eWAY and many more.
- Shipping - shipping to multiple addresses, flat rating shipping, supports UPS, UPS XML (account rates), FedEx (account rates), USPS and DHL.
- Checkout - one page checkout, SSL support, checkout without having an account.
- Search Engine Optimization - 100% Search Engine Friendly, Google SiteMap support.
- International Support - multiple languages and currencies, list of allowed countries for registration, purchasing and shipping, localization.
- Marketing Promotions and Tools - coupons, discounts and different promotion options.
- Site Management - control of multiple web sites, multiple languages, tax rate with support for US and International markets, customizable outlook through templates.
Magento Installation
Please mind that Magento is not compatible with MySQL4. It requires MySQL5 in order to run. SiteGround Magento hosting package is fully compatible with Magento requirements. You can flawlessly run the Magento application with SiteGround
Get a Free Magento installation with SiteGround Magento hosting package!
The steps which you must follow in order to complete the Magento installation are:
Step 1: Download the latest stable Magento package from:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/download.
There is also a package, called magento-downloader-x.x.x, but you do not need it, since you will install the latest stable script version.
Step 2: Upload the package on your hosting account through your cPanel -> File Manager or using an FTP client.
There are 2 options where you can place the Magento download file:
- Either under the public_html folder, which is the main one for your web site content. Then your web site will be accessible directly through your domain.
- Or under a subfolder, for example if your domain name is called yourdomainname.com and you decide to install the script in the public_html/magento folder, then you will open the web site at: http://yourdomainname.com/magento.
Once you upload the package, you can extract it through your cPanel -> File Manager. Using the same tool, please change the file permissions for the Magento files to 755.
Step 3: Create a MySQL database and assign a user to it through cPanel -> MySQL Databases. Remember the database details, since you will need them during the script installation.
The MySQL database is created with your username as prefix - username_databasename, and this is the name you have to use for your application.
Step 4: In our example we will install the Magento script in the public_html/magento folder. Once the package is uploaded and extracted and you have a MySQL database, please navigate to the http://yourdomainname.com/magento URL:
Click on the check box besides the "I agree to the above terms and conditions" label and click on the [Continue] button.
Step 5: Choose the preferred Time Zone, Locale and Currency:
Click on the [Continue] button.
Step 6: Enter the database details: Database Name, User Name and User Password. You can leave the other options intact.
Click on the check box besides the "Skip Base URL validation before next step".
Click on the [Continue] button.
Step 7: At this point you should enter the personal information and the admin login details, which you want to use. You can leave the Encryption Key empty and the script will generate one for you.
Click on the [Continue] button.
Step 8: Write down your encryption key, which will be used by Magento for passwords, credit cards and other confidential information.
Well done! Your Magento installation was successfully completed. Now you can navigate to its Frontend or Backend.
Creating a Magento web site
Congratulations, you have completed the Magento installation. Now you can proceed with the building of your web site.
By default the main page looks as follows:
In order to start populating your web site with content, you need to navigate to the Magento's admin area:
Log in with the details entered during the script installation and navigate to System -> Configuration. Here you can configure the script options per your personal needs. Most options are self explanatory:
Once you are ready with the configuration, please open the Catalog -> Manage Categories section. Now you will create a new category. The only necessarily attribute is the name.
You can leave the other settings intact. Once you have a new category, you can add some products under it. This can be done through the Catalog -> Manage Products section. Click on the [Add Products] button:
Click on the [Continue] button:
Now you can enter details for your product:
Clicking on the [Create New Attribute] button will allow you to enhance the options available for your products:
Once you are ready with the attribute, click on the [Save Attribute] button. Then you can click on the [Save] button in order to store your product information.
At this point you will be prompted for the price of the product. You can enter the default price, a special price and its validity, the cost and whether it is taxable:
Click on the [Save] button to continue. You need to assign the new product to a chosen category:
Then you should define the available quantity of the product and whether it is in the stock:
You can also check product reviews, product tags and the other options. Once you are ready, click on the [Save] button. The new product was added for your online shop.
From the Catalog category you can also manage the attributes, rewrite URLs for the products, perform searches, edit tags, generate a GoogleMap and manage reviews and ratings:
From the Promotions section you can set promotions, define the rules for them and the customers' groups for which the promotions are valid:
Multiple comprehensive statistics and reports can be obtained at the Magento admin area -> Reports.
Changing the Magento theme
You can download a new theme from the official Magento web site. So far there is one available Magento theme and its announcement is published at:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/568/
Once you download the theme, please uncompress it and upload the theme and the Skin folders of the Magento installation through FTP under the corresponding locations:
your_magento_folder/app/design/frontend/default/
and
your_magento_folder/skin/frontend/default/
Then rename the two folders to match.
In this example we will install the Tealo theme. The folders are called tealo-theme and tealo-skin. We have uploaded them to the respective locations and renamed both of them to tealo.
Since the script installation was performed in the public_html/magento folder, the corresponding locations are:
public_html/magento/app/design/frontend/default/tealo/
and
public_html/magento/skin/frontend/default/tealo/
Once the folders are uploaded, navigate to your Magento admin area -> System -> Configuration -> Design. Click on the Themes option and enter the theme name in the Default, Layout, Templates and Skin fields.
Click on the [Save] button and your new Magento theme will be installed.
How to design the Magento main page
In order to manage your web site pages you need to navigate to the CMS section under the Magento admin area.
Click on the Manage Pages link in order to proceed with the pages modification:
You should pick the page which you want to edit.
You can alter its code.
Static blocks are another useful option. For example you can edit the footer block which contains the links located at the bottom of your main page:
The Poll Manager allows you to create and edit your polls:
SSL configuration for Magento
You can purchase a private SSL from the SiteGround SSL Certificate page. This certificate could be easily enabled via the SSL support for Magento through the Admin area -> System -> Configuration -> Web. There you can define the insecure (non-SSL) and secure (SSL) URLs:
Bear in mind, that the SSL connection over HTTPS is slower than the HTTP, thus the secured connection should be applied only to the pages that contain and transfer sensitive information.
SEO for Magento
The Search Engine Optimization for Magento can be enabled through the script admin area -> System -> Configuration -> Web -> Search Engines Optimization:
Magento Customer Management
The new customers can sign-up for your online store through the main page->My account section. They should click on the [Create an Account] button and fill in the prompted details:
You can add new customers or manage the ones, who have already signed up in your web site through the Customers section in the Magento admin area:
In order to change the customer details, please click on the [[Edit]] button.
There you can alter all the details regarding the customer, including the username and the password, the address, monitor the orders, the shopping cart, the wishlist items, the reviews and the tags and manage the newsletter:
You can add and manage the customers' groups through the Customers section -> Customer Groups:
You can monitor the online users from the Customers section -> Online Customers.
The newsletters, which you will send to your customers can be composed and managed through the Newsletter section in the Magento admin area:
You can create templates, manage the newsletters' outgoing e-mail queue, include subscribers for the newsletter and check the problem reports.
Shipping and Payment methods in Magento
You can configure the shipping and the payment methods for your script through the admin area -> System -> Configuration -> Sales:
In this tutorial we will illustrate how to enable the USPS shipping method and the credit card payment method. The others can be enabled using a similiar approach.
Before enabling the shipping method please configure the shipping settings:
The fields there are self explanatory.
Once you are ready, please click on the Shipping Methods -> USPS link:
Enable the shipping method, enter the Gateway URL and the UserID. The next options allow you to describe the packages, which you need to be delivered. Then you can define the handling fee. It can be fixed or calculated on the percent basis. After this you can pick the allowed delivery methods. You can configure a free shipping method and define whether there is a minimum purchase sum for it. At the end you can define the countries for which the shipping is supported and the default error message in case the service is refused.
The credit card payment method can be configured through the Payment Methods -> Saved CC section:
Enable the method, enter its name, set the new order status, pick the supported credit cards, decide whether the credit card verification is required, define from which countries to accept payments and the range of the accepted payments. Then you are ready with the configuration.
We hope this tutorial will help you get your new online shop ready. We wish you good luck with your project!
Please, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations about this tutorial at: tutorials 'at' siteground.com