Magento News for the weeks 27 and 28

With another two weeks passed, it’s time for the bi-weekly Magento News round-up. If you master German, don’t forget to check out Matthias his original blog post.

Magento

• Erfan Imani wrote about the ability to group layout blocks without making use of text lists.
• Alan Storm pointed us in the direction of qconfig. An useful extension for quickly searching through the Magento system configuration.
• Tim covered what the changes are in the updated Magento CE 1.9 and EE 1.14 database.
• A new version of the Magento CE User Guide (direct download) has been published. 30 MB and 746 pages long (!), it should help with getting users up to speed with the Magento system.
• Phil Winkle got to the bottom of an issue which made it impossible for him to login to the Magento backend. Apparently, it has to do with the cookie-domain configuration settings. In a related Magento SE question, Alan provides a checklist for solving login-issues. Additionaly, there is an older (but up-to-date) post from Ashley regarding these issues. n98-magerun has the [cci]sys:check[/cci] command which automatically validates common issues.
• n98-magerun has been updated to version 1.90.0. Notable is the modularization of the [cci]sys:check[/cci] command. There is a blogpost describing how to extend this command including an example.
• Vinai released two extensions: CategoryLink and JsMessages. CategoryLink allows to embed links within the category tree. JsMessages is a drop-in replacement for the standard Magento messages so that they are rendered client-side with JavaScript.
• Though not perfectly tweaked, Phil Winkle shared an example-configuration for mod_pagespeed and Magento installations.

Magento 2

• Alan Kent wrote about automated tests in Magento 2 and the various test types which Magento 2 makes use of (ranging from traditional unit tests to static code analysis).
• We started writing about the development of a a Magento 2 module which attempts to replicate the PulseStorm Launcher in the Magento 2 backend.
• Within a period of two weeks, there are usually two Magento 2 updates. This time we greet 2.0.0.0-dev84 and 2.0.0.0-dev85. Here’s an overview:
  • lots of new unit tests and bugfixes,
  • updates to better support mobile clients,
  • lots of service layer improvements,
  • a reorganization of the directory structure for the service layers (now indexed by version),
  • improved the payment process.
  • As always, check out the changelog for the full story.

Community

• Always felt as bit of a misfit within the Magento ecosphere, Magento Go is no more. The statement is, that Go is going away to improve focus on Magento EE and CE. Bigcommerce has been appointed as official migration partner to transition former Go customers to. If you are looking for other alternatives, Tamebay compiled a list with useful insights.
• Craig Hayman is the new head of eBay Enterprise and thus that of Magento.
• During DPC Ben Marks discovered a Zend 2 based ecommerce solution called SpeckCommerce. Not much is known, but looks like an interesting project to dive into during spare hours. Especially how it compares with Magento.
• It looks like writing season has started. Phil Winkle, Allan MacGregor, Vinai Kopp and Ben Marks seem to be working on new Magento books.
• It took some time, but Tim Bezhashvyly’s “The Harsh Truth of Magento Enterprise” talk from MM14DE has been put online. We interviewed him about this controversial session a while ago.
• On a related note, the briteskies blog published an article listing 8 reasons to switch from Magento Community to Enterprise. Don’t let Tim know! :-)

And that concludes this round of Magento news. As always, if you have anything to add, give us a nudge in the comment section or mention us on Twitter. Faded header image background by Whiteghost.ink / CC BY-SA 3.0