Advices From Magento Experts To Newbies And Developers

Thomas Burman

Bio: Thomas Burman is currently working as a Magento consultant at Like Digital.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What advice do you want to give to our readers about learning Magento? What suggestions do you want to give to Magento newbies?

My first piece of advice is when looking for example solutions online for Magento, look at the first search engine result, but then look at the second, the third, the fourth, etc. There is a lot of wrong or outdated information out there on the internet,  so try not always to implement the first solution you come across.

My second advice is to get to know the Zend Coding Standards/PSR(1 & 2). Keeping a uniform coding standard will help you and any other developers working on the product when you revisit the project after it’s completed. Think about the architecture of your product before starting. This helps towards a quality end product and fewer bugs to fix.

Gabriel Guarino

Bio: Gabriel Guarino is currently working as lead Magento developer and Magento master.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Magento is a powerful and complex ecommerce platform. What advice do you want to give to our readers about learning Magento? What would be your advice for Magento newbies?

My best advice is that they can learn what they need to about Magento 2 from the Magento DevDocs.

The DevDocs are organized in a way that you can read and learn everything related to your role. If you go to the Magento DevDocs website , you will see that all the content is organized depending on your interest in Magento.

If you are a front-end developer, then you will go through the pages on the Front-End section. If you are back-end developer, you can go through the Development and API sections. Finally, if you are a system administrator, you can review the “Setup and Deployment” section.

Dave Macaulay

Bio: Dave Macaulay is currently working as full stack engineer (MTS1) at Magento.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What advice do you want to give to our readers about learning Magento? Should Magento newbies also learn other technologies?

I’d say the most important thing is never to give up. There’s a huge possibility that the issue you’re facing has already been tackled by a number of other developers. Do some research and see if anyone has shared their solution in an article or on a Stack Exchange post.

If you’re unable to find any existing information, there are so many public communities who will be able to guide you in the right direction. Everyone had to learn it at some point, and the community is great at giving back to those who are starting on that adventure.

To get started with learning, it’d be really beneficial to understand the core concepts of the Magento platform and to get a grasp of the architecture that drives the various components of the platform. If a developer is already experienced with Magento 1, they’ll see a number of similarities between it and Magento 2 (that also contains a huge amount of differences). However, if you are going to learn Magento 2, you’ll need to have good knowledge of JavaScript as it’s heavily reliant on a number of JavaScript technologies that don’t translate from Magento 1.

Carmen Bremen

Bio: Carmen Bremen is a Magento Freelancer, Developer, Speaker, Magento Master and 1/5-Organizer of MageUnconference

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: As a Magento freelancer, what would be your advice to newbies who want to start their career as a Magento freelancer?

 Jump into the community – they will catch you. You need someone to ask or talk to. And last but not least you need someone to joke about Magento. Join Meetups and the MageUnconference and other events near your home. And the other big advice: learn to say no and trust your instincts.

Alessandro Ronchi

Bio: Alessandro Ronchi is currently working as a COO and Magento Specialist at Bitbull srl.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Being a Certified Magento Developer, what would be your advice for newbies who want to learn Magento Development?

Assuming that we refer to learning Magento 2, things have changed a lot since the early days of Magento 1.

Nowadays there are a lot of official resources to draw on, and paradoxically I wouldn’t suggest looking at how the core code is implemented. Magento 2 still has a lot of legacy code; it will change in the near future, and the best thing to do is to refer to the official documentation and integrate your code based on public interfaces as much as possible.

For the same reason, there is a lot of heat these days about going headless with Magento 2 and trying to avoid from coupling to the framework. Some of the talks and workshops of the next Mage Titans Italy are focused on this subject

Miguel Ignacio

Certifications: Solution Specialist.

Bio: Miguel Ignacio Balparda has over 6 years of experience in eCommerce and is a Senior Magento Developer at Nexcess.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: As a Senior Magento Developer at Nexcess, what are the key points you focus on before starting a Magento project?

We’re a web host, not a development agency, but we still see a lot of stores struggling with few similar issues. Many sites aren’t optimized or the coders don’t have complete grasp on how their software works. This often results in performance issues and slow sites.

While there are many key points to keep in mind, one of the most important to focus on is a performance from the beginning and not to leave it until the end of the project. Code with performance in mind, and you’ll have better code and better stores.

Brent W Peterson

Bio: Brent W Peterson is working as a Magento Evangelist at Wagento and Mage Training, and also a Lead US Forum Moderator on MagentoCommerce.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Being a famous personality in the Magento Community, what advice would you give to newbies who want to get started with Magento?

Get involved in the Magento community. Go and attend events. Ask and answer questions!

Marcel Hauri

Bio: Marcel Hauri is currently working as a Magento-Developer and Deputy Team Leader Internet at Stämpfli AG.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Magento is a powerful and complex ecommerce platform. What would be your advice to newbies to get the most out of the Magento platform?

Get your hands dirty and dive deep into the core. Try to figure out how Magento works and why they do the things the way they do. Also, watch videos from different events like Mage Titans etc., read the blog posts from Alan Storm, and participate in Hackdays whenever possible to get in contact with others from the community and benefit from their knowledge.

Viktor Khliupko

Bio: Viktor Khliupko is a Certified Magento Developer and Founder of Fire Bear Studio.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What would your advice be to the newbies who want to get the most out of Magento? What do you think are the biggest challenges for a student stepping into Magento development?

Join the community, follow #Magento2 and #RealMagento hashtags and Magento-related people on Twitter. Dive deep into the official documentation, attend community events, and enjoy what you do! During the last year, Magento has made great progress in building user-friendly documentation and study guides.

Joshua Hughes

Bio: Joshua Hughes is currently working as senior Magento developer at W.C. Bradley Co.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: As a certified Magento developer, what advice do you want to give to our readers who are learning Magento? Where should Magento newbies start from?

Have patience! The platform can be quite intimidating at first glance but there is definite method to the madness. I started learning Magento by building out my first magento CE (1.7) site while reading the user guide I printed out. I have learned so much from the omniscient magento.stackexchange.com. It really depends on your background and what type of learning you want to accomplish. The new and improved Magento dev docs are great for M2 learning.

Ben Crook

Bio: Ben Crook is an experienced Magento frontend developer currently working at Space 48.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: List any three key points you focus on before starting front-end development.

These are three key points which I focus on before starting front-end development:

• Organization – Split up tasks and estimate the time required. You can be the best developer in the world but with poor organization, the project will come crashing down.
• Customizations – What new/custom features do we need to build?
• Plan modules/components – What is reusable and can be created as a module/component? For example, buttons/carousels/banners, etc. Nothing annoys me more than seeing the same component styled 20 times individually (AKA reinventing the wheel).

Stephen Goudie

Bio: Stephen Goudie is currently a senior developer and solutions architect at Magescale.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What advice do you want to give to our readers about learning Magento? What would your advice be for Magento newbies?

Personally, I like to use multiple streams of learning. If you learn quickly in a classroom, try the Instructor lead courses at Magento U. If on-demand learning is your thing, then there are quite a few units, exercises, and tests leading to consolidating your knowledge and certification.

Otherwise rolling up your sleeves and kicking off a passion project should complement the above nicely. PHP and Object-orientated programming is a definite pre-requisite for best results.

Richard Baik

Bio: Richard Baik is currently working as a Support Manager for Magento.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: There are many students and young developers who want to pursue a career in Magento. What suggestions and advice would you give them?

Get more involved. The other powerful thing about Magento is the developer community. There are people from all over the world who are very passionate about Magento. Follow them on Twitter, join the Magento forums, get on GitHub, and attend the meetups and conferences, etc.

Daniel Sousa

Bio: Daniel Sousa, who works as a Magento developer at Mediotype.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What advice do you want to give our readers about learning Magento? What would your advice be for Magento newbies?

Start reading about Design Patterns and PHP 7.

If you have any doubt, I’m sure that Magento community is willing to help you: visit the community forum, create an account, and start looking for answers.

You also have Magento StackExchange. And look for a community nearby because I’m sure you will find developers working on Magento.

Tom Robertshaw

Bio: Tom Robertshaw works as an Ecommerce Evangelist at Space 48.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What advice would you give to our readers about learning Magento, and what would your advice be for Magento newbies?

Dive deep. As many will say, there’s a sizable learning curve to such a platform, and so the only way to get along the curve is to dedicate thousands of hours it. Those that struggle with Magento are using it for a project or two in between projects with other software. This is going to slow down your progress and is going to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

There’s an additional challenge at the moment to new people coming to the ecosystem due to both Magento 1 and Magento 2 projects still being around. I think it would be putting too much pressure trying to learn both at once, so pick one, probably Magento 2 at this point, and focus on that.

 Rafael Correa Gomes

Bio: Rafael Correa Gomes works as a global lead developer at Imagination Media.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Do you have any tips for newbie developers?

First of all, learn about things before you need them to work for you. Train yourself to predict them, practice new skills by engaging in personal real-life projects. Use Github a lot. Be involved with open source projects and learn how their workflow works. So yeah, lots of tips actually lol.

Guillaume Sautereau

Bio: Guillaume Sautereau is a professional services director Europe at Akeneo.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: You’re experienced in ecommerce, what’s your take on the newbies? Any tips for those looking to dive into ecommerce with a store or a business?

Three words for the newbies: work, curiosity, and passion!

As far as setting up a business is concerned, that’s a tough one! Ecommerce is a broad subject and launching a business means having a proper strategy, planning and excellent timing. There’s lots of room to grow but lots of ways you can fail. So, my advice? Keep trying.

Kalpesh Mehta

Bio: Kalpesh Mehta is currently working as a Development Manager at Corra.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Mention 3 things every Magento developer should know while developing a project?

That’s easy

• Don’t edit the core, unless you are contributing to it
• Use plugins over observers and rewrites
• Flush the cache before complaining that Magento doesn’t work

 

Tarandeep Kharbanda

Bio: Tarandeep Kharbanda is currently working as Magento Architect, Programmer Analyst and Team Lead at Rave Infosys Inc.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Being a Magento 2 Certified Solution Specialist, what advice and tips you will like to give to the newbies who want to achieve this certification?

Getting certified always helps you know about strong areas and the areas where you need to work on. It also helps you know Magento more closely. My recommendation to all of those who want to achieve M2 CSS certification is to go through the Magento study guide and read the Magento dev docs. Both of these resources will help you in preparing for the exam. For the practice test, Swiftotter will be very helpful.

Bohdan Korablov

Bio: Bohdan Korablov is currently working as a Software Engineer at Magento Commerce.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Being an experienced Web Developer, what would be your advice for today’s developers?

Learn, learn and learn :)

Do not be afraid to experiment and try something new. And don’t forget to rest. A rested developer is a more productive developer.

Simon Sprankel

Bio: Simon Sprankel work as a Magento and Web Developer at CustomGento, established Magento extensions, and development website.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What are some of the key points that Magento developers must focus before, during and at the end of any Magento project?

Even though you are a developer, I think it is always important to consult the merchant first. Sometimes developers tend to simply implement things a merchant or a project manager wants without a technical point of view which is wrong. In such cases, speak to your PM or directly to your merchant. Explain, why it does not make sense and offer better alternatives. Think about the things you implement and even when you have a better idea for a specific function, be vocal about it This, of course, applies to all phases of a Magento project.

Colin Tickle

Bio: Colin Tickle is currently working as CTO at AYKO.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What are the best practices that developers should keep in mind when writing Magento code?

Uncle Bob’s Clean Code is a great (if at times surreal) guide to writing readable and maintainable code. Trying to stick to the parameters taught there is a good start.

Having the EQP guidelines and/or the ECG standards installed in your IDE will alert you to coding standards issues early on in the process.

Some of the common performance errors and how to avoid them are documented in this PDF.

Beyond that, I am a firm believer in the code review process as a way of sharing and building knowledge. It’s a tricky thing to get right and relies on good communication as nobody likes to think they’re doing things wrong but it’s worth the effort.

Keyur Shah

Bio: Keyur Shah is currently working as a Senior Programmer at Accenture Poland.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What key points do you consider when planning or accepting a project?

When considering a Magento project, I analyze the requirement of the client (the most important thing). Also, I believe that it’s really important to spend time on R&D rather than developing. After that, I divide the OOTB features and custom features.

Qaisar Satti

Bio: Qaisar Satti is currently a Magento Developer at UnitedSol (Pvt) Ltd and also runs a great blog for Magento developers.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What are your three most important tips for Magento newbies? How should they plan their career in Magento development?

My advice for newbies is:

1. Follow the documentation. If you don’t find anything on Stack Overflow, the answer lies in the Magento docs.
2. Don’t hesitate to ask questions.
3. When you find a solution, share it with the Magento community.

Amit Bera

Bio: Amit Bera is a Senior Magento Developer and currently working as a Team Lead and Magento 2 Developer at Digital Aptech Private Limited.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Can you please share some useful resources for newbies who want to learn Magento Development?

Magento2:

I would recommend the following:

• Inchoo
• Magento DevDocs
• Mageplaza
• Webkul

 

Fayyaz Khattak

Bio: Fayyaz Khattak is currently working as a Magento Community Manager at Cloudways.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Can you please share some useful resources for newbies who want to learn Magento Development?

In my opinion, everyone is doing a fantastic job in the community. If you are a layperson, I recommend the following resources:

• Magento Official Documentation
• Inchoo
• Magenticians
• Magestore
• Atwix
• MageWorx

I also write Magento related articles and tutorials on Cloudways blog.

Mathias Elle

Bio: Mathias Elle is currently working as the frontend web developer in Joussenkarliczek and has a long relationship with Magento.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Could you recommend a few educational Magento resources that are worth reading?

There are many good resources to read about Magento. I can give you 3 of my favorite blogs that I usually read.

• For Magento 2 developers, I recommend Magento DevDocs. I’m sure most Magento 2 developers know about this page.
• Another good Magento blog is from the guys at Inchoo Blog. This blog is one of the best I know – besides Magenticians :-)
• The third blog that I would recommend is Firebear Studio, which you can find here: FireBear Studio Blog.

Vijay Golani

Bio: Vijay Golani is the Managing Director of India’s branch of Wagento Commerce.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What advice do you have for beginners that want to learn Magento? Can you please name some useful resources?

As a Magento U authorized trainer, my first advice for beginners is to learn Magento using Magento’s core code. The Magento Core team has used all different kinds of coding techniques, coding standards and comments among other things which you can use for your Magento Project.

Other resources: In my training courses, I always show trainees an example of where they can find interesting Magento-related references. Here are some links to useful resources.

• Magento DevDocs → This helps to understand all basics about Magento’s all different products and release notes for each version.
• Viani Kopp’s Blog → This provides many technical and dev testing related blogs.
• Alan Kent’s Blog
• Alan Storm
• Fooman’s Blog

Lars Roettig

Bio: Lars Roettig is currently working as an Ecommerce Specialist and PHP Developer at TechDivision GmbH.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Can you please share some of the essential resources and tips that every Magento Developer should follow before starting Magento Development?

The best resource to start is indeed the Magento 2 Training course. On top, there are a lot of blogs and great tutorials that you will find like the following:

• Alan Storm Blog
• Maxpronko Blog
• Inchoo

Hirokazu Nishi

Bio: Hirokazu Nishi is the CTO & Co-founder of Veriteworks Inc.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Being a Certified Magento Developer, what’s your advice to newbies who want to learn Magento development.

Read core codes deeply. Launching projects by yourself is a good experience for understanding the entire process of a Magento based website.

Marius Strajeru

Bio: Marius Strajeru is currently working as a PHP Developer at Arnia Software.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: What is your advice for newbies who want to learn Magento Development? Could you please name some useful resources?

Reverse engineering is the best way to learn Magento. Try to do actual tasks, do them wrong and fix them later with what you learn in the meantime. Right now, there are a lot of resources out there. Blogs, tutorials, screencasts. I guess all of them bring value to a developer, but the most important thing, in my opinion, don’t just follow them blindly. Always ask yourself, “why does this work?” and try to find the answer.

Christian Münch

Bio: Christian Münch is currently working as a Senior Web Developer at netz98 GmbH.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Being a Magento Developer, what key points do you focus on before starting a Magento project?

Most of my projects over the last years were enterprise shops. So I can only talk about bigger projects. Most of us developers really like programming. With programming, we mean writing source code. Before we start writing source code it is important to have a “module concept” for the important parts of the system. The focus should be on a feature/module planning based on the requirements.

It is very important to look at the code from a developer’s point of view. Read a lot of Magento source code to understand the core concepts. Use a debugger to dive into the system. Don’t be afraid of the code.

Try to build your own Magento module and publish it. Writing open source software is a good way to get a quick feedback on your own work.

Maier Bianchi

Bio: Maier Bianchi Founder of Bemeir LLC.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Which key points do you think every developer must implement before starting development?

I think there are a few ways to approach this question. You should try to have a good set of tools ready for the job. Then it is down to how you approach the project. It is important to always keep in mind the end goal of what you are trying to build with your end user in mind before you begin. This includes having an understanding of the workflow and what steps you will take, and how you will validate and or secure what you create. To me, it is about ensuring the right end result in the right timeframe while following best practices. This helps you hone in on what is required to get the task done and to help block distractions.

Simone Zuurveld

Bio: Simone Zuurveld employs her skills as a Founder of novaecommerce.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: If you could go back in time when you were just getting started with Magento, what advice would you give to yourself?

I love this question! I would tell myself that it’s okay to not know something. I’ve spent hours and hours of my life trying to find answers to questions I had, when I could’ve just asked the senior/lead developer to point me in the right direction and saved myself so much time(and sweat, and maybe even a few tears lol!). I was afraid of looking ‘stupid’ and I ended up spending a lot of time on finding answers, sometimes until midnight.

For some reason, I always felt like I had to know everything, like I should’ve been somehow born with this knowledge, which of course is nonsense. It takes time to really become an expert at something, no matter what that is. I still struggle with this sometimes, though ;-).

Sander Mangel

Bio: Sander Mangel is working as a technology leader at Vue Storefront and has a vast experience in the field of Magento along with a Developer certification to his name.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: Since you also have experience in the field of Magento Development, what suggestion would you give to developers before starting a Magento project?

Magento Certification is the most important thing for any Magento developer. It’s not just a piece of paper to showcase in your CV. To pass this certification, you need to have knowledge of each and every aspect of Magento. While preparing for the exam (at least for me) you need to know lots of Magento hidden features. And yes, with the certification I gained a lot of technical knowledge. It also helps in creating a good image for the company that you’re employed at (generally, client always Impressed with certification :))

Andrew Pemberton

Bio: Andrew Pemberton is currently working as development director at Interactive Web Solutions Ltd.

Talking to us in an interview, he said:

Question: As a Magento Developer, what are the key points that you focus on before starting any project?

For me, I’m always keen not to re-invent the wheel so starting a project is about looking at what I’ve done before; what other people have done and taking it from there, so I usually ask myself these questions