As Meet Magento NL participants and friends of organizers, we have 5 FREE tickets available for merchants to visit Meet Magento NL.

No lottery will be conducted, ‘first come, first serve’. I remind you that there are just five of them, so hurry up to contact me with a free ticket request at tsumareva@aheadworks.com.

Worthy gentlemen from aheadWorks will be glad to shake hands with you during the meetup whirl. Don’t bypass them: aheadWorks stand is #6 and we mark it for you on the floor plan.

We’ll also bring lots of souvenirs and discount coupons, thereby, giving you one more good reason to stop by our stand #6.

There is one more thing to remember. Peter Samoilov, CTO at aheadWorks, will be at your service as Magento Doctor for a while. Feel free to schedule a meeting with him at samoilov@aheadworks.com in advance. As an authorized doctor, he will wear a white coat and provide you with answers to dev questions you would like to challenge him with.

Even more to this: those attending Guido Jansen’s Magento Introduction Workshop on May 29 will also get special treatment from aheadWorks.

About the event: The forth Meet Magento Netherlands conference is organized by Magento Dutch Community Manager, Guido Jansen, and will feature presentations on various Magento topics such as tips, tricks and the latest innovations in the Magento ecosystem. Meetup program is already defined and speakers (including Co-Founder of Magento Roy Rubin and ex CTO of Magento Yoav Kutner) are confirmed.

Over 400 Magento developers, enthusiasts, partners and professionals are expected to attend.

Good news! Being close friends with organizers, we have an opportunity to offer exclusive bonuses for aheadWorks blog readers only – one FREE 2-day ticket and a couple of €45 discount coupon codes to attend Meet Magento Germany.  

Wanna get them? Write a message on our Facebook wall or in Twitter with #aheadWorks hashtag, explaining why you are interested in the Magento Meetup in Leipzig. A free ticket will be given away according to the ‘first come, first serve’ principle.

Info about the conference: More than 500 participants from Germany and the neighboring countries will be expected for this annual conference. The event offers a unique opportunity to interchange with many enthusiastic decision makers and experts about Magento eCommerce. The target groups of the Meet Magento Germany are merchants, eCommerce leader, developers and online agencies.

Do not forget to examine your conference bags carefully and find some special offers from aheadWorks! Bis dahin wünschen wir Ihnen alles Gute!

Several big changes were brought to the Magento Connect extension marketplace and we can’t skip them while making our regular analysis. Wonder what are they?

The FIRST CHANGE is the delisting of outdated extensions on Connect. The removal of modules was based on compatibility with recent versions of Magento, and frequency of download/referral. As a result of “cleaning up”, the total quantity of extensions for all categories reduced from 11,095 (February) to 10,466 (March). 5% of extensions were delisted. This change influenced the statistics for March.

Category & Product Page Enhancements (+26)

In spite of significant delisting, the extensions from this subcategory stayed the winners. The growth was even bigger than in February (+21). Developers make us get used to this permanent leadership. The most popular module from this subcategory has score 39256. It is free, as well as 30% of all extensions here. This tool helps add informational tabs to product pages.

Reporting (+8)

This subcategory is met in our “Magento Connect Statistics” reports for the first time. Its extensions, as it’s seen from the subcategory name, provide users with different kind of reports. This data includes bestsellers, the profit loss, visits, orders, revenue, conversion %, etc. Due to this information, merchants get great summary of their business at a glance. Users can choose modules to different tastes and budgets.

39% of all modules from this subcategory are free. The leading plugin with the popularity score 5504 is free as well. It provides deeply integrated real-time ecommerce analytics for Magento merchants and displays how online business is running.

Order Management (+6)

We mention the modules from this subcategory in Magento Connect Statistics reports for the third time. And it’s not weird. Developers understand the importance of orders. That’s why new extensions from this subcategory appear regularly. Expanding the Magento functionality, these tools help simplifying order processing.

The leader is a paid module, as well as 73% of all modules here. Its popularity score is 116095. This extension transforms Magento in a complete e-commerce solution to efficiently manage stocks, purchasing and order fulfillment.

Email Marketing (+6)

Here it is the second newbie among the leaders. But nobody will deny the importance of its extensions. The modules from this subcategory help merchants stay in close touch with customers. The ratio of free and paid modules is 43% – free, 57% – paid. The leading plugin is free and has the popularity score 8545. It provides full integration with MailChimp email marketing system.

The SECOND CHANGE is 16 new subcategories for Magento Connect Themes. This new division is a part of continually Magento Connect improvement for merchants, developers, and solution partners. There are 16 subcategories that include 972 themes. Three biggest are Styles & Colors (37% of all), Fashion & Apparel (17%), Computers & Electronics (7%). All the others – 39%.

The THIRD CHANGE is a new Ratings & Reviews system. Now users can leave the overall and three additional ratings for extensions (Developer Support, Functions as Described, and Usefulness). The main one is displayed in the form of stars near the popularity score. Reviews and additional ratings can be found in the “Reviews” tab when the product page is viewed. On the one hand, this system eases the evaluation of extensions for merchants.On the other hand, it helps improve support and promotion of products for developers.

It should be noted that the Ratings & Reviews system neither influences the positions of extensions in categories nor causes any changes in Magento Connect statistics. Positions of modules in subcategories are still defined by the popularity score.

There were no additional significant factors that influenced Magento Connect statistics in April.

Administration (+20)

Representatives of the winning subcategory help controlling stock, order processing, drop ship, accounts; add customizable features to the admin product management grid; etc. Nobody will deny how useful they are. It is also proved by the popularity score of their leader, which reaches 222935. This extension is paid, as well as 63% modules for this subcategory. Its functionality allows acting as a bridge between Magento and the well-known price-comparison site.

Catalog (+17)

As many as 909 extensions are comprised in this subcategory. It is the biggest number among all. These modules provide Magento store owners with the new tools to improve their stores functionality & usability. 23% of them are free, 76% – paid. The leading module is the same as in the previous subcategory.

Category&Product Page Enhancements (+17)

The modules from this subcategory lost the winning position in April, but stay in the leading group.

Ease of Use (+11)

Here we can see the tools that help convert site visitors to customers and increase sales considerably. 29% of extensions from this subcategory are free, 71% – paid. The leader has the popularity score 50549. With this extension you’re able to design your own vertical category navigation with subcategories and product count display. The module is free.

A small growth was observed in subcategories for Magento Connect Themes. Fashion & Apparel (+3 in comparison with March), Health & Beauty (+2), Computers & Electronics (+1).

It seems that developers never have rest, releasing numerous extensions. aheadWorks also makes its valuable contribution to the list and introduced 5 new extensions in March and April: Shop By Brand, Shipping Price, Activity Stream, Customer Attributes, Store Locator.

It’s really great that you follow Magento Connect statistics. I suppose, you would like to argue with me? You are welcome to address me in comments! See you in June.

I want to start this newsletter with the awesome news – aheadWorks leveled up to Magento Platinum Industry Partner! This transition to a new partnership level is anticipated since at present more than 25,000 Magento merchants and 40+ official partners in 100 countries are using our high-grade extensions and themes.

‘Platinum Partnership means a lot to us. It acknowledges our expertise in Magento extensions and themes development and provides guarantees that our customer service is top notch.

It was a long way to go to become leading players in Magento universe and it looks like we made it‘, – Artyom Rabzonov, the CEO at aheadWorks, states.

New Extensions April happened to be a really productive month – we released 4 new Magento modules! No wonder as our developers team was inspired by adding 3 more Magento and Zend PHP certificates to their achievements collection
Shipping Price With the FREE Shipping Price module, you can use any Magento shipping method and inform your customers about shipping price of every product. The price is displayed on product, category, or product and category pages. Inform your visitors how much they should pay for the product shipping, so they can decide whether the price suits them before making a purchase. Download Shipping Price right now!
Activity Stream With the Activity Stream extension for Magento, you can let your customers see what is happening at the current moment. Recent actions are displayed in the block that can be easily added to any place of your site and doesn’t affect any elements of the page. Moreover, you have a possibility to hide some activities from your visitors and focus their attention on the required ones. The effectiveness of the extension is clear: visitors are influenced by activities of other people; they take the situation as a recommendation for further behavior and start experimenting and discovering your store. Find the Activity Stream features on the plugin page.
Customer Attributes With the Customer Attributes Magento extension, you are able to get any information about new customers and already existed ones. The extension gives you a possibility to create additional customer attributes and display them on the registration form or in the customer account area to allow logged in visitors to manage their data. The Customer Attributes Magento module makes it possible to create different types of attributes such as image, attachment, dropdown, etc. All attributes parameters are located at one place, so the process of collecting info about your clients starts in several simple steps. Learn more about this module on the Customer Attributes page.
Store Locator The Store Locator Magento extension is an amazing tool for merchants who have physical locations of retailers. The module gives you help in adding store addresses to the website and navigating visitors to the required one. You can create as many locations as you need – they will be displayed in a pleasant vertical presentation on a separate page. Just specify the address of your store and see how it will be automatically detected on the map. Let your customers easily find the page with addresses by adding store locations URL to the top Magento links. Customers get to know all existed locations on the map and view the detailed information about them by clicking the store icon. Try the demo on the Store Locator page

New Service

We have been bombarded with requests to develop a comprehensive and easy-to-use analytics tool for online stores. And we did it! aheadMetrics, currently in beta version, will give you all-round analytics of eCommerce stores real-time with sales, customers and products data measurable in any dimensions.

We charge nothing for aheadMetrics. Start using the service and collect reports indicating your profit rates by moving to aheadMetrics website and creating your account in a couple of minutes.

Browse through aheadMetrics features, try it for your webstore and get back to us with your opinion.

Updated Extensions

Shop By Brand v.1.1 2 features Try demo

AJAX Cart Pro v.3.1 4 features / 8 bugfixes See changelog

Refer a Friend v.2.0.2 1 bugfix View features

This module is extremely useful for merchants who want to display the activity of customers in the store. Visitors will see what actions other clients carry out. Special customizable block shows who has registered, logged in, what product has been viewed and so on.

Seeing what is happening on the website at the present moment, customers get additional recommendations for further discovering of the store. It’s evident that the more time people spend on the website, the greater is the probability of purchase.

The following features are implemented in the Activity Stream extension:

• Activity Stream block is automatically inserted on all store pages
• Six predefined positions for the overlay
• Overlay customization
• Hide activity streams from unregistered customers
• Numerous types of events
• Limit the quantity of activities displayed in block
• Select specific customers’ activities to appear
• Use predefined templates for activities or edit them up to your taste
• Define time interval for activity stream overlay updating
• Insert activity stream widget in any CMS block or page

Need more information about this module or want to buy it? Visit the Activity Stream page right now.

When a high popularity of Magento in Europe and both American continents is no longer questioned, Asia is still perceived as a tidbit by rival eCommerce platforms. It’s especially true for a tech tycoon Japan.

Common understanding of Magento state in the Land of the Rising Sun is vague. If you also wonder what’s going on in Japanese Magento market, meet Hirokazu Nishi for a brief talk. Currently he works as CTO at Celtic Corporation (which appears to be aheadWorks Official Partner!) and is in charge of Magento Meetup Tokyo organization.

Hirokazu, you provide Magento technical support and extension development service in Japan. How did you get interested in Magento in the first place?

H.N.: At the end of September 2007 I found the article about a new eCommerce software. It was an early version of Magento and I felt it would become a great platform. Then I started using Magento.

Is Magento popular in Japan? Are there any features typical for Magento in your region?

H.N.: Not yet. Not long ago a lot of Japanese merchants demanded Magento to suit a specific Japanese mobile theme (it’s not actually a theme, but also an extension). To meet their request, we had to rewrite many classes and test many various devices. But now they do not need such features anymore, so we can propose them to use Magento.

Would you recommend starting a new eCommerce business in Japan, for instance, opening online store? What difficulties may beginners encounter?

H.N.: Yes, I would recommend. But I don’t think that Magento is a good idea as the first platform for beginners, because most of newbies don’t possess enough knowledge to manage their websites and eCommerce businesses.

Many merchants open their own eCommerce websites in Japan and some of them getting bigger over time. In general, I think it’s a good opportunity for you to open your website in Japan, using Magento.

Magento Meetup Tokyo. How did the idea of organizing this event come to your mind?

H.N.: In Japan plenty of technical events are held (like Wordbench and WordCamp), so it was natural for me to go with Meet Magento Japan.

H.N.: Honestly, the most difficult issue was to reserve a hall for a big event. In Tokyo such places are very expensive and Japanese people are not accustomed to pay money for meeting someone knowledgeable enough to tell them what they want to know.

H.N.: My goal is to make Magento more prominent in Japan and increase the number of active people in Japanese community.

Thanks for our conversation, Hirokazu. We all wish you good luck with your endeavors and hope to get more news from you about Magento in Japan soon!

Let’s give salutations to our developers, Ilia Sokolov, Sergey Ostapchik, Michael Valushko, for achieving the statuses of Magento Certified Developer Plus and Zend PHP 5.3 Certified Engineers!

Starting from the left are Ilia, Sergey and Michael

I believe there are a bunch of developers among our readers who are also pursuing the goal of becoming certified Magento or Zend PHP engineers. That’s what our guys have to say them about the certification process and how useful certificates might be.

Expect Questions with Tricks

Ilia Sokolov, Zend PHP 5.3 Certified Developer, “This certification is a qualification exam meaning that whoever passes it can proudly call himself a PHP master. Examinees with high scores receive the certificate testifying that they are engineers recognized by Zend Technologies company.

It’s difficult to define how long you should work to become familiar with PHP, since programming in PHP and dealing with various tasks, a coder constantly discovers new solutions. If we talk about the certification preparation, it took a month for me.

Keep in mind that Zend Technologies provide materials to get acquainted with certification requirements – short and concise notes about its structure. Info about the Zend PHP 5.3 Certification is available here. To download the Zend PHP Certification Study Guide, register on Zend official website. 

I have ambivalent impression about questions. Some of them were outrageously simple while others included “tricks”, let alone they were rarely used in daily practice.

I am very happy I am now a certified PHP engineer. Preparing for the certification, I have adopted certain skills I will surely apply.”

Real Preparation Lasts Years

Sergey Ostapchik, Magento Certified Developer Plus, “I wouldn’t say it was hard to pass the exam. I had been preparing myself for it since I started coding for Magento (in my case one year and a half).

The test is not about facts to memorize, so you’d better learn Magento architecture and system functionality as a whole.

The certificate gives me a feeling that I am on a new level of Magento extension development, it obviously increases my self-esteem and respect of colleagues. From a programmer’s viewpoint, Magento is a very ‘pure’ system with clear structuring tools. This fact and understanding that trade is my cup of tea motivate me to simplify and automate processes related to Magento development.”

Certificate Benefits Are Overestimated

Michael Valushko, Zend PHP 5.3 Certified Developer, “I don’t think that certification was that easy. There were questions about documentation and no one usually learns it because documentation is always at hand.

As for me, I spent 4 days to prepare for the test: read the second edition of the Zend PHP Certification Study Guide mostly. It is not very useful in terms of knowledge, but is good for a general idea about the exam.

To my mind, benefits of the certificate are largely overestimated. The scheme “if you remember details by heart – you’ll pass ” works quite well.  

As far as I know, the Zend PHP Certification is not in high demand in Belarus. In the US, however, it helps getting a job anywhere you want. Freelancers will also take advantage of it.”


Our developers share different opinions regarding certificate ability to check real knowledge decently. Have you already passed any of these certifications? Are you planning to do it someday? Do you believe in the power of certificates? We would like to hear from you in the comments!

Online store visitors, on the contrary, are left alone. Nothing reminds there about peer clients giving users one little push to dispel their hesitations and doubts.

Our Activity Stream Magento extension will bring a fresh breath of reality to your store, letting users see actions of others and the way they interact with your products.

Activity Stream displays recent activities of the Magento store visitors in the form of the activity stream block. Your clients will see who has recently registered, what pages have been visited, which products have been added to a wishlist or a shopping cart, and many other activities.

Time to pre-order Activity Stream right now for only $74! After the official release its price will jump 25% higher to $99.

Look at the features this extension possesses.

Activity stream is automatically added to all store pages
The module maintains one global activity stream overlay that appears on the frontend.

Ability to insert the activity stream block as a widget
The activity stream can be shown as one of frontend blocks with the predefined set of configuration options.

Six predefined positions for the overlay
You have the ability to choose any of the following overlay positions: top-left, top-center, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-center, and bottom-right.

Overlay customization
Configure the activity stream block width, background color and opacity, text and link color to suit your website design.

Hide activity streams from unregistered customers
You are free to decide whether the block will be shown to unregistered customers.

Numerous types of activities
There are 14 available activity types. It’s possible to use them with predefined templates or create your own patterns.

Hurry up to pre-order the Activity Stream Magento extension with 25% off!

Still have questions regarding the extension features? Move to Activity Stream product page and find out the details.

This module is a truly must-have solution for merchants operating brick and mortar shops alongside with a Magento-based store. If you are this lucky businessman, you certainly know what gives folks a real pain – the locations of your physical stores hidden deep among neighboring buildings. And while you are thinking over shrewd marketing moves to hit your customers with, they literally get lost on the way to you.

The result wouldn’t be the same if customers saw the map of the area with your stores on it. Many merchants approached us with requests to develop such an extension and we promised them to figure it out. So said, so done.

Today is the day when the Store Locator extension finally appears in our virtual stock to help your clients find the nearest stores with your products. Display your locations on the map and inform customers about places where your offline shops are positioned.

Here is the list of the extension features:

• Quick store location defining
• Ability to use Google Maps API Key
• Map and Satellite views are supported
• Add URL to the Top Magento Links
• User-friendly URL of the store locations page
• Use static block on the store locations page
• Prioritize store locations
• Store location images
• Define description of any location
• Multistore support

Not sure what some of these features mean? Visit the product page of the extension – read full description, view screenshots and play with the frontend and backend demos there.

Good news for merchants who want their visitors to be aware of shipping price beforehand! We have released FREE Shipping Price extension that allows using any Magento shipping method and inform customers about shipping price of every product.

Merchants will tell clients how much they should pay for the product shipping, so users can decide whether the price suits them before making a purchase. The following features were implemented in the Shipping Price extension.

Ability to calculate price dynamically with AJAX
Calculation of shipping price is a long-term operation. AJAX is used only once to calculate product shipping price when this info is not cached. If this data is saved in the cache, it helps preventing slow page loads during the second and subsequent generations.

Ability to set default shipping method
It brings you the possibility to choose any shipping Magento method as the default one.

Display shipping price on the category page

Display shipping price on the product page

Find more about Shipping Price in our Magento extensions store.