Many a times in an ecommerce website, we do not wish the guest users to know the price of the catalog products. The solution to this problem is rather easy. What we just need to do is first of all figure out where the product prices are shown. Then hide them from guest users.

Attached is the source files of magento module created.

Download: Hide Price(17.28KB) Clicks: 57 Login via facebook to download the file! By logging in you agree to subscribe to our montly newsletter as well.

Override the default magento files.
Since in this case we only need to override view files (phtml). We need only a very basic module. For module development refer to module development series.
Price on various places is shown from price.phtml which is located at ‘/app/design/frontend/base/default/template/catalog/product/price.phtml’.

To override this we need to add the following code in default tags of our frontend layout file.

<default>
        <reference name="catalog_product_price_template">
        	<action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>simple</type><block>catalog/product_price</block><template>hideprice/price.phtml</template></action>
        	<action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>grouped</type><block>catalog/product_price</block><template>hideprice/price.phtml</template></action>
        	<action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>configurable</type><block>catalog/product_price</block><template>hideprice/price.phtml</template></action>
        	<action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>virtual</type><block>catalog/product_price</block><template>hideprice/price.phtml</template></action>
        	<action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>bundled</type><block>catalog/product_price</block><template>hideprice/price.phtml</template></action>
        </reference>
 </default>

Then copy the default ‘price.phtml’ and place it in the specified location (in our case ‘hideprice/price.phtml’). And the place the following code on top of it.

<?php 
if(!Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()){
	echo '<span class="login_for_price"><b>Login to See Price</b></span><br>';
	return;
}
?>

This basically hides price for guest users everywhere (since we used override in default tags).
Now to hide the ‘Add to Cart’ button on category list page. Use the following code to override the default ‘/app/design/frontend/base/default/template/catalog/product/list.phtml’. Add this to your module’s layout file.
For default

<catalog_category_default>
         <reference name="product_list">
             <action method="setTemplate"><template>hideprice/list.phtml</template></action>
         </reference>
</catalog_category_default>
And for layered navigation
<catalog_category_layered>
         <reference name="product_list">
             <action method="setTemplate"><template>hideprice/list.phtml</template></action>
         </reference>
</catalog_category_layered>

Now copy the default ‘list.phtml’ to your module. Replace the following code (around line number-109)

<?php if($_product->isSaleable()): ?>
                        <button type="button" title="<?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?>" class="button btn-cart" onclick="setLocation('<?php echo $this->getAddToCartUrl($_product) ?>')"><span><span><?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?></span></span></button>
                    <?php else: ?>
                        <p class="availability out-of-stock"><span><?php echo $this->__('Out of stock') ?></span></p>
<?php endif; ?>

With this.

                <?php 
                    	if(!Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()){
	                    	echo '<span class="login_for_details" style="float:left"><b>Login to Add to Cart</b></span>';
	                    	}
	                    	else{
                    ?>
                    <?php if($_product->isSaleable()): ?>
                        <button type="button" title="<?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?>" class="button btn-cart" onclick="setLocation('<?php echo $this->getAddToCartUrl($_product) ?>')"><span><span><?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?></span></span></button>
                    <?php else: ?>
                        <p class="availability out-of-stock"><span><?php echo $this->__('Out of stock') ?></span></p>
                    <?php endif; ?>
                    <?php 	}?>

In the above code we just check if the user is logged in. If yes the code runs normally like the default else we display a message accordingly.
Now to hide the ‘Add to Cart’ button on product detail page. Use the following code to override the default ‘/app/design/frontend/base/default/template/catalog/product/view/addtocart.phtml’. Add this to your modules layout file.

     <catalog_product_view>
         <reference name="product.info.addtocart">
     	    <action method="setTemplate"><template>hideprice/addtocart.phtml</template></action>
     	</reference>
     </catalog_product_view>

Then copy the default ‘addtocart.phtml’ to your module and add the following code on top of it.

<?php 
if(!Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()){
	echo '<span class="login_for_details" style="float:left"><b>Login to Add to Cart</b></span>';
	return;
}
?>

Similarly to hide the ‘Add to Cart’ on compare page. Default page is at ‘/app/design/frontend/base/default/template/catalog/product/compare/list.phtml’. We use following code in our module’s layout xml file.

     <catalog_product_compare_index>
         <reference name="catalog.compare.list">
             <action method="setTemplate"><template>hideprice/compare/list.phtml</template></action>
         </reference>
     </catalog_product_compare_index>

Then copy the default ‘compare/list.phtml’. look for the following code, it is found in two places line numbers (67 & 118)

                    <?php if($_item->isSaleable()): ?>
                        <p><button type="button" title="<?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?>" class="button btn-cart" onclick="setPLocation('<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/product_compare')->getAddToCartUrl($_item) ?>', true)"><span><span><?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?></span></span></button></p>
                    <?php else: ?>
                        <p class="availability out-of-stock"><span><?php echo $this->__('Out of stock') ?></span></p>
                    <?php endif; ?>

Replace it with

                <?php 
                    	if(!Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()){
	                    	echo '<span class="login_for_details" style="float:left"><b>Login to Add to Cart</b></span>';
	                    	}
	                    	else{
                    ?>
                    <?php if($_product->isSaleable()): ?>
                        <button type="button" title="<?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?>" class="button btn-cart" onclick="setLocation('<?php echo $this->getAddToCartUrl($_product) ?>')"><span><span><?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?></span></span></button>
                    <?php else: ?>
                        <p class="availability out-of-stock"><span><?php echo $this->__('Out of stock') ?></span></p>
                    <?php endif; ?>
                    <?php 	}?>

Another Way to Hide Price for Not Logged in User (Using Event to Set Price Equals to Zero) :

To do this We use two events :-

 <catalog_product_get_final_price>
	        <observers>
	          <hideprice_catalog_price_observer>
	            <type>singleton</type>
	            <class>Wsc_Postcode_Model_Observer</class>
	            <method>hidePrice</method>
	          </hideprice_catalog_price_observer>
	        </observers>
	      </catalog_product_get_final_price>

And,

     
	       <catalog_product_collection_load_after>
	        <observers>
	          <hprice_catalog_price_observer>
	            <type>singleton</type>
	            <class>Wsc_Postcode_Model_Observer</class>
	            <method>hidePriceCatalog</method>
	          </hprice_catalog_price_observer>
	        </observers>
	      </catalog_product_collection_load_after>

=> catalog_product_get_final_price event is used to set final price equal to zero on product while catalog_product_collection_load_after event is used to set final price on catalog page.

And after that we simply check if user is not logged in (Observer.php) and set final price equals to zero

public function hidePrice($observer){
            $event = $observer->getEvent();
            $product = $event->getProduct(); 
            if(!Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()){
            	$product->setFinalPrice(0);
    			$product->setPrice(0);
            }
            
    }
    
    public function hidePriceCatalog($observer){
    	$products = $observer->getCollection();
    
    	if(!Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()){
    		foreach( $products as $product )
    		{
    			$product->setFinalPrice(0);
    			$product->setPrice(0);
    		}
    	}
    }

And on phtml we can also check :

 if($_product->getFinalPrice() == 0 || $_product->getPrice() == 0){
    	echo '<span class="login_for_price"><b>Login to See Price</b><br></span>';
    	return;
    }

That’s all that is required to hide the ‘price’ and ‘add to cart’ button on most of the pages. This is just a basic customization it can be further enhanced to hide other details as well as to hide details from other group of users.

This is very and well known problem for every magento developer. So here is a simple solution for this problem Step by step explained.
We need create a magento module for this purpose, but it is not necessary.

Attached is the source files of magento module created.

Download: wysiwyg editor module(21.10KB) Clicks: 37 Login via facebook to download the file! By logging in you agree to subscribe to our montly newsletter as well.

Step 1: Add necessary js and css files for wysiwyg editor in your module

Add necessary js and css files in app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/editor.xml

<default> 
			<reference name="head"> 
			<action method="setCanLoadExtJs"><flag>1</flag></action> 
			<action method="setCanLoadTinyMce"><flag>1</flag></action>
			<action method="addJs"><script>mage/adminhtml/variables.js</script></action> 
			<action method="addJs"><script>mage/adminhtml/wysiwyg/widget.js</script></action> 
			<action method="addJs"><script>lib/flex.js</script></action> 
			<action method="addJs"><script>lib/FABridge.js</script></action> 
			<action method="addJs"><script>mage/adminhtml/flexuploader.js</script></action> 
			<action method="addJs"><script>mage/adminhtml/browser.js</script></action> 
			<action method="addJs"><script>prototype/window.js</script></action>
			<action method="addJs"><script>prototype/prototype.js</script></action> 
			<action method="addItem"><type>js_css</type><name>prototype/windows/themes/default.css</name></action> 
			<action method="addItem"><type>js_css</type><name>prototype/windows/themes/magento.css</name></action>
			</reference> 
	</default>

Step 2: Code to create wysiwyg editor

Go to [app/code/local/YOUR_NAMESPACE/MODULE_NAME/block/Adminhtml/Editor/Edit/Tab/Form.php] and under your _prepareLayout() function add this code

protected function _prepareLayout()
	{
		$return = parent::_prepareLayout();
		if (Mage::getSingleton('cms/wysiwyg_config')->isEnabled()) {
			$this->getLayout()->getBlock('head')->setCanLoadTinyMce(true);
		}
		return $return;
	}

Now in your _prepareForm() function add this code to create wysiwyg editor

protected function _prepareForm()
{
---

$fieldset->addField('contents', 'editor', 
                		array (
                        'name' => 'contents', 
                        'label' => Mage::helper('editor')->__('Content'), 
                        'title' => Mage::helper('editor')->__('Content'), 
                        'style' => 'height:36em;',
                        'config'    => Mage::getSingleton('cms/wysiwyg_config')->getConfig(),
                        'required' => true ));

				---
				}

That’s it this will create a wysiwyg editor in your admin custom module.
Now let us see the explanation of the above code

$return = parent::_prepareLayout();
		if (Mage::getSingleton('cms/wysiwyg_config')->isEnabled()) {
			$this->getLayout()->getBlock('head')->setCanLoadTinyMce(true);
		}
		return $return;

this code will check if the wysiwyg is enabled in admin if enabled then it will load the TinyMice Js.

$fieldset->addField('contents', 'editor', 
                		array (
                        'name' => 'contents', 
                        'label' => Mage::helper('editor')->__('Content'), 
                        'title' => Mage::helper('editor')->__('Content'), 
                        'style' => 'height:36em;',
                        'config'    => Mage::getSingleton('cms/wysiwyg_config')->getConfig(),
                        'required' => true ));

From this code the editor is been created. In this in the first line it is telling to add a field of type editor which has name contents .
The line ‘config’ => Mage::getSingleton(‘cms/wysiwyg_config’)->getConfig(),

will load the config for wysiwyg editor and your editor will be created.
But it will not work for now. To make it work you need to make some changes. You need to rewrite your module’s adminurl to make your wysiwyg editor work.

Step 3: Rewriting our module admin url in config.xml

So first we need to create module which will create forms in admin as we have described In our “Admin Module Development”.
Now in your module’s config.xml Replace the admin route with an injection of your module into the existing adminhtml route.
app/code/local/Excllence/Editor/etc/config.xml

<admin>
    <routers>
        <editor>
            <use>admin</use>
            <args>
                <module> Excellence_Editor </module>
                <frontName>editor</frontName>
            </args>
        </editor>
    </routers>
</admin>

Becomes:

<admin>
        <routers>
            <adminhtml>
                <args>
                    <modules>
                        <Excellence_Editor_Adminhtml before="Mage_Adminhtml">Excellence_Editor_Adminhtml</Excellence_Editor_Adminhtml>
                    </modules>
                </args>
            </adminhtml>
        </routers>
    </admin>

And:

<adminhtml>
    <menu>
        <editor module=" editor ">
             <title>Editor</title>
             <sort_order>99</sort_order>
             <children>
                 <add module=" editor ">
                     <title>Manage Items</title>
                     <sort_order>0</sort_order>
                     <action>editor/adminhtml_editor</action>
                </add>
                ...
            </children>
        </editor>
    </menu>
</adminhtml>

Becomes:

  <adminhtml>       
        <menu>
			<editor module="editor">
				<title>Editor</title>
				<sort_order>99</sort_order>               
				<children>
					<items module="editor">
						<title>Manage Items</title>
						<sort_order>0</sort_order>
						<action>adminhtml/editor/</action>
					</items>
				</children>
			</editor>
        </menu>        

	 ---        
    </adminhtml>

Step 4: Rewriting our module admin url in editor.xml

And in app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/editor.xml

<editor_adminhtml_editor_index>
    <reference name="content">
        <block type="editor/adminhtml_editor" name="editor" />
    </reference>
</editor_adminhtml_editor_index >

Becomes:

    <adminhtml_editor_index>
        <update handle="editor_index_index"/>
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="editor/adminhtml_editor" name="myadmin" />
        </reference>
    </adminhtml_editor_index>

Now our admin url rewriting is been done..
Now our wysiwyg editor will work now.

Problem Case:

The problem we are trying to solve here is, suppose you have multiple magento website setup on different domains on the same magento instance, and you want that if a customer login’s on any one our your site he is gets logged into all other sites as well.

Solution:

The solution for this is simple, whenever a user logs in on a website ‘A’, a script needs to notify website ‘B’,'C’, etc that user has logged in and then login needs to be performed in ‘B’,'C’, etc as well. This cannot be handled automatically because session is not shared across domains so this feature is not there by default. The solution for this is to use JSONP and perform a cross domain ajax request with the session id so that session gets shared accross domains.
Attached is the source code of the module

Download: Multiple Website Login(37.29KB) Clicks: 80 Login via facebook to download the file! By logging in you agree to subscribe to our montly newsletter as well.

Implementation

First Step: Magento has a default configuration option called Share Customer Accounts located at System -> Configuration -> Customer Configuration -> Account Sharing Options, change this to Global. What this means is that when a customer creates his new account, is shared for all your websites.
Second Step:
Next we need to write code to make the JSONP calls. We are using JSONP, since normal cross domain ajax calls are not allowed. For this we are using JQuery library , details of JSONP can be found here.

So below is the codes:

First download jQuery and then place it inside /js/jquery folder, so path would be /js/jquery/jquery.js. Next create a javascript file called noconflict.js in the jquery folder (/js/jquery/noconflict.js) . Write this code inside noconflict.js file

jQuery.noConflict();

Next open that page.xml layout file in your theme folder [app/design/frontend/default/YOUR_THEME/layout/page.xml or in your default magento theme] and place this code inside tag

<reference name="head">
        	<action method="addItem"><type>js</type><name>jquery/jquery-1.6.4.min.js</name></action>
        	<action method="addItem"><type>js</type><name>jquery/noconflict.js</name></action>
</reference>

Now open home page in your magento, and through firebug or chrome inspector, see if these two jquery files are included in your page.

Next we need to write ajax call. The code for this should be written in header.phtml. You need to rewrite the base header.phtml in your theme [app/design/frontend/default/YOUR_THEME/page/html/header.phtml]
Here’s the added code for header.phtml

<?php
$allStores=Mage::app()->getStores(); //get list of all stores,websites
	
	foreach ($allStores as $_eachStoreId => $val)
	  {
		$_storeId = Mage::app()->getStore($_eachStoreId)->getId();
		 $urls= Mage::app()->getStore($_storeId)->getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_WEB); //get url using store id
		
		 $cururl=Mage::getStoreConfig('web/unsecure/base_url'); //get current domain url
		if($cururl!=$urls)
		{ 
			 $url=$urls;
			
		 if ($this->helper('customer')->isLoggedIn()){
		  if(Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->getLogincd()==1){ ?>
			<script type="text/javascript">
			jQuery(document).ready(function() {
			var url="<?php echo $url;?>customer/account/logincd?SID=";
			
			url = url+'<?php echo Mage::getModel("core/session")->getEncryptedSessionId(); ?>'+"&callback=?";
			var userid=<?php echo Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->getCustomer()->getId();?>;
			jQuery.ajax({
			url: url,
			crossDomain: true,
			dataType: 'jsonp',
			success: function(data) {
				//console.log("success");
			}
			});
		});
		</script>
		<?php 
		
		}
		Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->setLogincd(0);
		 }else{
		Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->setLogincd(1);
		 }
		}
	
	}

	?>

Here first we are getting all stores, then in a foreach loop we are getting the domain url of each store. Then we are checking if the current domain is not equal to the fetched url. Then we perform the jsonp call which will go to the other domain logincd Action and login the customer on the other domain. For this we are sharing the customer session id i.e. SID with other domains. We get the session id of the logged in customer with the code

Mage::getModel("core/session")->getEncryptedSessionId();

We are appending session id in the url and this will be set in other domain and the customer will be logged in.
Now let us see how ‘jsonp’ request is different from normal ajax request.

 url: "http://domain1.excellencetenchnologies.co.in/logincd/?SID=hjdsk3242shjhs&callback=?",

In this line we we are appending the session id of the customer session of the current domain, and a ‘callback’ parameter which will be generated by jQuery.
It is a unique callback name for this request (something like json1268267816). It will be received at the other domain and it will treat the request as jsonp.

Mage::getSingleton(‘core/session’)->getLogincd() parameter is set so that this jsonp call is done only once and not every time a page is opened.

Next we need to overwrite AccountController.php file in our module [app/code/local/YOUR_NAMESPACE/MODULE_NAME/controllers/AccountController.php]. The AccountController.php file will have an action ‘logincd’ which will receive the ajax call and then do all the work required to make customer login in the domain. Here’s the code for AccountController.php

<?php
require_once 'Mage/Customer/controllers/AccountController.php';
	
class Excellence_Logincd_AccountController extends Mage_Customer_AccountController
{
    public function logincdAction()
    {
	$this->getResponse()->setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');
       	$data = array('success'=>1);
    	echo $_GET['callback'] . '('.json_encode($data).')';
     }
   
}

This line designates the content to be in json format, encoded in the UTF-8 character encoding.

this->getResponse()->setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');

And then the success message has been set and sent back to the calling function.

echo $_GET['callback'] . '('.json_encode($data).')';

this will send back the response to the requesting ajax call as jsonp.

This is all that is required to make cross domain login work. The cross domain logout will work automatically in the current case.

Create Order

Below is the php code to create an order in magento. It requires a valid customer account with shipping and billing address setup.

$id=1; // get Customer Id
$customer = Mage::getModel('customer/customer')->load($id);

$transaction = Mage::getModel('core/resource_transaction');
$storeId = $customer->getStoreId();
$reservedOrderId = Mage::getSingleton('eav/config')->getEntityType('order')->fetchNewIncrementId($storeId);

$order = Mage::getModel('sales/order')
->setIncrementId($reservedOrderId)
->setStoreId($storeId)
->setQuoteId(0)
->setGlobal_currency_code('USD')
->setBase_currency_code('USD')
->setStore_currency_code('USD')
->setOrder_currency_code('USD');
//Set your store currency USD or any other

// set Customer data
$order->setCustomer_email($customer->getEmail())
->setCustomerFirstname($customer->getFirstname())
->setCustomerLastname($customer->getLastname())
->setCustomerGroupId($customer->getGroupId())
->setCustomer_is_guest(0)
->setCustomer($customer);

// set Billing Address
$billing = $customer->getDefaultBillingAddress();
$billingAddress = Mage::getModel('sales/order_address')
->setStoreId($storeId)
->setAddressType(Mage_Sales_Model_Quote_Address::TYPE_BILLING)
->setCustomerId($customer->getId())
->setCustomerAddressId($customer->getDefaultBilling())
->setCustomer_address_id($billing->getEntityId())
->setPrefix($billing->getPrefix())
->setFirstname($billing->getFirstname())
->setMiddlename($billing->getMiddlename())
->setLastname($billing->getLastname())
->setSuffix($billing->getSuffix())
->setCompany($billing->getCompany())
->setStreet($billing->getStreet())
->setCity($billing->getCity())
->setCountry_id($billing->getCountryId())
->setRegion($billing->getRegion())
->setRegion_id($billing->getRegionId())
->setPostcode($billing->getPostcode())
->setTelephone($billing->getTelephone())
->setFax($billing->getFax());
$order->setBillingAddress($billingAddress);

$shipping = $customer->getDefaultShippingAddress();
$shippingAddress = Mage::getModel('sales/order_address')
->setStoreId($storeId)
->setAddressType(Mage_Sales_Model_Quote_Address::TYPE_SHIPPING)
->setCustomerId($customer->getId())
->setCustomerAddressId($customer->getDefaultShipping())
->setCustomer_address_id($shipping->getEntityId())
->setPrefix($shipping->getPrefix())
->setFirstname($shipping->getFirstname())
->setMiddlename($shipping->getMiddlename())
->setLastname($shipping->getLastname())
->setSuffix($shipping->getSuffix())
->setCompany($shipping->getCompany())
->setStreet($shipping->getStreet())
->setCity($shipping->getCity())
->setCountry_id($shipping->getCountryId())
->setRegion($shipping->getRegion())
->setRegion_id($shipping->getRegionId())
->setPostcode($shipping->getPostcode())
->setTelephone($shipping->getTelephone())
->setFax($shipping->getFax());

$order->setShippingAddress($shippingAddress)
->setShipping_method('flatrate_flatrate');
/*->setShippingDescription($this->getCarrierName('flatrate'));*/
/*some error i am getting here need to solve further*/

//you can set your payment method name here as per your need
$orderPayment = Mage::getModel('sales/order_payment')
->setStoreId($storeId)
->setCustomerPaymentId(0)
->setMethod('purchaseorder')
->setPo_number(' – ');
$order->setPayment($orderPayment);

// let say, we have 1 product
//check that your products exists
//need to add code for configurable products if any
$subTotal = 0;
$products = array(
    '1' => array(
    'qty' => 2
    )
);

foreach ($products as $productId=>$product) {
$_product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($productId);
$rowTotal = $_product->getPrice() * $product['qty'];
$orderItem = Mage::getModel('sales/order_item')
->setStoreId($storeId)
->setQuoteItemId(0)
->setQuoteParentItemId(NULL)
->setProductId($productId)
->setProductType($_product->getTypeId())
->setQtyBackordered(NULL)
->setTotalQtyOrdered($product['rqty'])
->setQtyOrdered($product['qty'])
->setName($_product->getName())
->setSku($_product->getSku())
->setPrice($_product->getPrice())
->setBasePrice($_product->getPrice())
->setOriginalPrice($_product->getPrice())
->setRowTotal($rowTotal)
->setBaseRowTotal($rowTotal);

$subTotal += $rowTotal;
$order->addItem($orderItem);
}

$order->setSubtotal($subTotal)
->setBaseSubtotal($subTotal)
->setGrandTotal($subTotal)
->setBaseGrandTotal($subTotal);

$transaction->addObject($order);
$transaction->addCommitCallback(array($order, 'place'));
$transaction->addCommitCallback(array($order, 'save'));
$transaction->save();

Creating Customer

Below is a php code to create a customer account in magento.

$customer = Mage::getModel('customer/customer');
$password = 'test1234';
$email = 'dtest@gmail.com';
$customer->setWebsiteId(Mage::app()->getWebsite()->getId());
$customer->loadByEmail($email);
if(!$customer->getId()) {
	$groups = Mage::getResourceModel('customer/group_collection')->getData();
	$groupID = '3';

	$customer->setData( 'group_id', $groupID );
	$customer->setEmail($email);
	$customer->setFirstname('test');
	$customer->setLastname('testing');
	$customer->setPassword($password);

	$customer->setConfirmation(null);
	$customer->save();

	echo $customer->getId();
}

Creating Invoice

Below is a php code to create invoice for an order in magento.

$order = Mage::getModel('sales/order')->loadByIncrementId('100000001');
try {
if(!$order->canInvoice())
{
Mage::throwException(Mage::helper('core')->__('Cannot create an invoice.'));
}
 
$invoice = Mage::getModel('sales/service_order', $order)->prepareInvoice();
 
if (!$invoice->getTotalQty()) {
Mage::throwException(Mage::helper('core')->__('Cannot create an invoice without products.'));
}
 
$invoice->setRequestedCaptureCase(Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Invoice::CAPTURE_ONLINE);
//Or you can use 
//$invoice->setRequestedCaptureCase(Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Invoice::CAPTURE_OFFLINE);
$invoice->register();
$transactionSave = Mage::getModel('core/resource_transaction')
->addObject($invoice)
->addObject($invoice->getOrder());
 
$transactionSave->save();
}
catch (Mage_Core_Exception $e) {
 
}

Create Shipment

Below is a php code to create a shipment for an order in magento.

$order = Mage::getModel('sales/order')->loadByIncrementId('100000001');
try {
	if($order->canShip()) {
		//Create shipment
		$shipmentid = Mage::getModel('sales/order_shipment_api')
						->create($order->getIncrementId(), array());
		//Add tracking information
		$ship = Mage::getModel('sales/order_shipment_api')
						->addTrack($order->getIncrementId(), array());		
	}
}catch (Mage_Core_Exception $e) {
 print_r($e);
}

Creating Credit Memo

Below is a php code to create a credit memo for an order in magento.

$order = Mage::getModel('sales/order')->load('100000001', 'increment_id');
        if (!$order->getId()) {
            $this->_fault('order_not_exists');
        }
        if (!$order->canCreditmemo()) {
            $this->_fault('cannot_create_creditmemo');
        }
        $data = array();

        
        $service = Mage::getModel('sales/service_order', $order);
       
        $creditmemo = $service->prepareCreditmemo($data);

        // refund to Store Credit
        if ($refundToStoreCreditAmount) {
            // check if refund to Store Credit is available
            if ($order->getCustomerIsGuest()) {
                $this->_fault('cannot_refund_to_storecredit');
            }
            $refundToStoreCreditAmount = max(
                0,
                min($creditmemo->getBaseCustomerBalanceReturnMax(), $refundToStoreCreditAmount)
            );
            if ($refundToStoreCreditAmount) {
                $refundToStoreCreditAmount = $creditmemo->getStore()->roundPrice($refundToStoreCreditAmount);
                $creditmemo->setBaseCustomerBalanceTotalRefunded($refundToStoreCreditAmount);
                $refundToStoreCreditAmount = $creditmemo->getStore()->roundPrice(
                    $refundToStoreCreditAmount*$order->getStoreToOrderRate()
                );
                // this field can be used by customer balance observer
                $creditmemo->setBsCustomerBalTotalRefunded($refundToStoreCreditAmount);
                // setting flag to make actual refund to customer balance after credit memo save
                $creditmemo->setCustomerBalanceRefundFlag(true);
            }
        }
        $creditmemo->setPaymentRefundDisallowed(true)->register();
        // add comment to creditmemo
        if (!empty($comment)) {
            $creditmemo->addComment($comment, $notifyCustomer);
        }
        try {
            Mage::getModel('core/resource_transaction')
                ->addObject($creditmemo)
                ->addObject($order)
                ->save();
            // send email notification
            $creditmemo->sendEmail($notifyCustomer, ($includeComment ? $comment : ''));
        } catch (Mage_Core_Exception $e) {
            $this->_fault('data_invalid', $e->getMessage());
        }
        echo $creditmemo->getIncrementId();

Before going through this tutorial, please read the basics of setting up a payment method here. I will add-on to the previous post itself and not cover the basics of payment method setup. Also, the name of module used for the payment method is Excellence_Pay and the payment method code is ‘pay’.
Attached is the source code of the module

Download: Payment Method API Based(13.75KB) Clicks: 483 Login via facebook to download the file! By logging in you agree to subscribe to our montly newsletter as well.

Direct Credit Card

First we will see the direct payment method, i.e when credit card information is directly collected on the website and there is no redirection to payment gateway website.
To setup this, we will have to show a credit card form in the checkout page, and save all credit card information to order. Then we will to authorize or capture payment depending on the gateway api’s.

Credit Card Form
First, step is show a credit card form where customer will enter the credit card information on the checkout page. For this, magento already has an inbuilt block and template files which we can use directly in our payment method. So to include a block in payment method, we need to put in code our payment method model file i.e Excellence_Pay_Model_Pay

protected $_formBlockType = 'pay/form_pay'; 

here ‘pay/form_pay’ is path to the block class. The code written inside block class is

<?php
class Excellence_Pay_Block_Form_Pay extends Mage_Payment_Block_Form_Ccsave
{
}

This simple extends the default block class of magento which has code to display the credit card form.

Checkout Payment Step - Credit Card Info

<cctypes translate="label">
                            <label>Credit Card Types</label>
                            <frontend_type>multiselect</frontend_type>
                            <source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_payment_cctype</source_model>
                            <sort_order>4</sort_order>
                            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                            <show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
                            <can_be_empty>1</can_be_empty>
                        </cctypes>
                        <useccv translate="label">
                            <label>Request Card Security Code</label>
                            <frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
                          <source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_yesno</source_model>
                            <sort_order>5</sort_order>
                            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                            <show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
                        </useccv>

Adding this code to system.xml will add the fields as shown below

Credit Card Block System Configuration

class Excellence_Pay_Model_Pay extends Mage_Payment_Model_Method_Cc
{

All function to start the credit fields to database are already defined in the class Mage_Payment_Model_Method_Cc so you don’t need to worry about them. If you want to see how its done, simple open the class Mage_Payment_Model_Method_Cc, and look at the assignData(), prepareSave() and validate() functions.
There is just one important thing to know here, there is variable $_canSaveCc, which we can define in our payment method class. If the value of $_canSaveCc = false, then credit card information is not stored in database at all, but if $_canSaveCc = true then the credit card number is stored in ‘sales_quote_flat_payment’ table in encoded form. It’s best not to store the credit card information in database as it might be a security risk, so $_canSaveCc should be false unless required.
Not saving credit card information in db doesn’t mean you want be able to access it in your authorize and capture api’s. So you dont’ need to worry about that, magento is still able to give you the credit card number in these api calls. We will see this later how its done.
Next let us see how to implement the authorization in magento.
Payment Authorization
Authorize is the step which is there in all payment gateway api and this method is use to authorize a transaction through the credit card. You can read more details here on how a payment gateway work and what authorization actually means. In magento authorization flow works like this

Magento Authorization Flow

 <payment_action translate="label">
                            <label>Payment Action</label>
                            <frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
                            <source_model>paygate/authorizenet_source_paymentAction</source_model>
                            <sort_order>15</sort_order>
                            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                        </payment_action>

After adding this you see a drop in System -> Configuration to select the payment action, select Authorize from there. Attached is screenshot of how it will look

Payment Action

protected $_canCapture              = true;

Then define the capture function in our payment method class

public function capture(Varien_Object $payment, $amount)
	{
		$order = $payment->getOrder();
		$result = $this->callApi($payment,$amount,'authorize');
		if($result === false) {
			$errorCode = 'Invalid Data';
			$errorMsg = $this->_getHelper()->__('Error Processing the request');
		} else {
			Mage::log($result, null, $this->getCode().'.log');
			//process result here to check status etc as per payment gateway.
			// if invalid status throw exception

			if($result['status'] == 1){
				$payment->setTransactionId($result['transaction_id']);
				$payment->setIsTransactionClosed(0);
				$payment->setTransactionAdditionalInfo(Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Payment_Transaction::RAW_DETAILS,array('key1'=>'value1','key2'=>'value2')); //use this in case you want to add some extra information
			}else{
				Mage::throwException($errorMsg);
			}

			// Add the comment and save the order
		}
		if($errorMsg){
			Mage::throwException($errorMsg);
		}

		return $this;
	}

//right now this function has sample code only, you need put code here as per your api.
private function callApi(Varien_Object $payment, $amount,$type){

		//call your authorize api here, incase of error throw exception.
		//only example code written below to show flow of code

		/*
		 $order = $payment->getOrder();
		$types = Mage::getSingleton('payment/config')->getCcTypes();
		if (isset($types[$payment->getCcType()])) {
		$type = $types[$payment->getCcType()];
		}
		$billingaddress = $order->getBillingAddress();
		$totals = number_format($amount, 2, '.', '');
		$orderId = $order->getIncrementId();
		$currencyDesc = $order->getBaseCurrencyCode();

		$url = $this->getConfigData('gateway_url');
		$fields = array(
				'api_username'=> $this->getConfigData('api_username'),
				'api_password'=> $this->getConfigData('api_password'),
				'customer_firstname'=> $billingaddress->getData('firstname'),
				'customer_lastname'=> $billingaddress->getData('lastname'),
				'customer_phone'=> $billingaddress->getData('telephone'),
				'customer_email'=> $billingaddress->getData('email'),
				'customer_ipaddress'=> $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'],
				'bill_firstname'=> $billingaddress->getData('firstname'),
				'bill_lastname'=> $billingaddress->getData('lastname'),
				'Bill_address1'=> $billingaddress->getData('street'),
				'bill_city'=> $billingaddress->getData('city'),
				'bill_country'=> $billingaddress->getData('country_id'),
				'bill_state'=> $billingaddress->getData('region'),
				'bill_zip'=> $billingaddress->getData('postcode'),
				'customer_cc_expmo'=> $payment->getCcExpMonth(),
				'customer_cc_expyr'=> $payment->getCcExpYear(),
				'customer_cc_number'=> $payment->getCcNumber(),
				'customer_cc_type'=> strtoupper($type),
				'customer_cc_cvc'=> $payment->getCcCid(),
				'merchant_ref_number'=> $order->getIncrementId(),
				'currencydesc'=>$currencyDesc,
				'amount'=>$totals
		);

		$fields_string="";
		foreach($fields as $key=>$value) {
		$fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&';
		}
		$fields_string = substr($fields_string,0,-1);
		//open connection
		$ch = curl_init($url);
		//set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST,1);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION ,1);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER ,0); // DO NOT RETURN HTTP HEADERS
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER ,1); // RETURN THE CONTENTS OF THE CALL
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 120); // Timeout on connect (2 minutes)
		//execute post
		$result = curl_exec($ch);
		curl_close($ch);
		*/

		return array('status'=>1,'transaction_id' => time() , 'fraud' => rand(0,1));
	}

As you can see above, what happens in the authorize function is
1. call the authorize api from payment gateway
2. check if transaction was successful or rejected
3. if transaction is rejected, throw exception
4. if transaction is successful, create order and save transaction id.

Calling the authorize function creates an order in magento with status = Processing. Plus transaction is registered into magento with the transaction id. Order comment is added automatically for authorization. No invoice is created.

Payment Capture
Some payment gateways, offer direct authorize and capture itself. So to implement that in magento we need to make the following changes. First from System -> Configuration, in the settings for the payment method you need to select the ‘Authorize and Capture’ option.
Next in your payment gateway model file you need to add this code

protected $_canCapture              = true;

this tell magento that the payment gateway can do capture. Next we need to add the capture() function in the payment gateway where we can call the capture api.

/** For capture **/
	public function capture(Varien_Object $payment, $amount)
	{
		$order = $payment->getOrder();
		$result = $this->callApi($payment,$amount,'authorize');
		if($result === false) {
			$errorCode = 'Invalid Data';
			$errorMsg = $this->_getHelper()->__('Error Processing the request');
		} else {
			Mage::log($result, null, $this->getCode().'.log');
			//process result here to check status etc as per payment gateway.
			// if invalid status throw exception

			if($result['status'] == 1){
				$payment->setTransactionId($result['transaction_id']);
				$payment->setIsTransactionClosed(1);
				$payment->setTransactionAdditionalInfo(Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Payment_Transaction::RAW_DETAILS,array('key1'=>'value1','key2'=>'value2'));
			}else{
				Mage::throwException($errorMsg);
			}

			// Add the comment and save the order
		}
		if($errorMsg){
			Mage::throwException($errorMsg);
		}

		return $this;
	}

Calling the capture function creates an order in magento with status = Processing. Plus transaction is registered into magento with the transaction id. Order comment is added automatically for authorization. Invoice is also created with status = Paid.

Refund
If you payment gateway supports refunds, you can integrate online refunds through magento. Online refund is possible through magento if invoice has been paid through magento itself, which means in technical terms: Transaction object exists for that invoice with a transaction id. You can do refunds only on invoices in magento, to do refund open an invoice and the click on Credit Memo button. You can do both partial refund and full refund in magento, but for now lets see how to do full refund.

First to enable refunds in your payment method, you need to add this code

protected $_canRefund               = true;

There are two types of refunds in magento, Online Refund and Refund. You need to do online refund for doing refund from payment gateway. When refund is done from admin 3 functions are called in your payment method model class in order

public function processBeforeRefund($invoice, $payment){} //before refund
public function refund(Varien_Object $payment, $amount){} //refund api
public function processCreditmemo($creditmemo, $payment){} //after refund

In the refund() you need to call your payment gateways refund api, here is a sample code.

public function refund(Varien_Object $payment, $amount){
		$order = $payment->getOrder();
		$result = $this->callApi($payment,$amount,'refund');
		if($result === false) {
			$errorCode = 'Invalid Data';
			$errorMsg = $this->_getHelper()->__('Error Processing the request');
			Mage::throwException($errorMsg);
		} 
		return $this;

	}

Redirect Based Method

This is another way in which payment gateway’s offer integration, i.e when user click on checkout he is redirected to they payment gateway website where he completes the payment. Usually in such method what happens is that, payment gateway give a form code which needs to be submitted to a payment gateway url. To accomplish this what needs to be done is in the payment method model file you need to add the function

public function getOrderPlaceRedirectUrl()
{
		if((int)$this->_getAmount() > 0){
			return Mage::getUrl('pay/index/index', array('_secure' => true));
		}else{
			return false;
		}
}

what this does is return’s the url to the controller pay/index/index. When the checkout process is a sucess, magento will automatically redirect the page pay/index/index. In this page you need to load a phtml file with the form code as given by you payment gateway and prefil it using the order details. This prefilled form needs to be automatically submitted using javascript. When the form is submitted it will automatically redirect to the payment gateway and there payment can be completed. After payment is completed or reject, it comes back to sucess or error page where we update the order status appropriately.

These are all the basics related to payment gateway integration in magento. I have attached module will full source code, in the module attached an example of CC-Avenue gateway has been taken for the Redirect Based Method (It’s only a sample code).

In the previous tutorial we saw how to create and publish custom user defined actions, please go through the previous tutorial before reading this one.

Built in Objects and Actions

Facebook provides some built-in actions which we can use in our application. The advantage of using these built-in actions and objects in my opinion is that, these have a different UI customized to each object type, where as all custom actions,objects have same pre-defined UI. Also these built-in action can be read of a user profile using open graph. Here is a list of built-in actions and objects.

To show how to publish these i will taken a example of read action with article object. As written in the previous tutorial objects can be publish only with a valid access token, so we need to integrate facebook login in our page. Also to publish actions we need to add the facebook-php sdk.
Of course we need to add the actions and object which we will use in our facebook app -> Open Graph.

Facebook App Open Graph

The code publish action read is

<?php
require_once 'src/facebook.php';
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
		'appId'  => 'XXXX',
		'secret' => 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
));
$user = $facebook->getUser();
if ($user) {
	try {
		// Proceed knowing you have a logged in user who's authenticated.
		$user_profile = $facebook->api('/me');
			try{
				$params = array('article'=>'http://excellencetechnologies.co.in/fb/article.php?id='.rand(0,100));
				$out = $facebook->api('/me/news.reads','post',$params);
				print_r($out);
			}catch(Exception $e){
				echo $e->getMessage().'<br>';
			}
	}catch(Exception $e){
		echo $e->getMessage().'<br>';
	}
}

and code inside the file article.php is

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns# fb: http://ogp.me/ns/fb# article: http://ogp.me/ns/article#">
  
  <meta property="fb:app_id"      content="182741145117428" /> 
  <meta property="og:type"        content="article" /> 
  <meta property="og:url"         content="http://excellencetechnologies.co.in/fb/article.php?id=<?php echo $_REQUEST['id'] ?>" /> 
  <meta property="og:title"       content="Test Article Title2" /> 
  <meta property="og:description" content="Test Article Description2" /> 
  <meta property="og:image"       content="https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/yj/r/nsnBUoPJHHW.png" /> 
  <meta property="article:published_time"  content="<?php echo strtotime('now'); ?>" /> 
  <meta property="article:modified_time"  content="<?php echo strtotime('+30min'); ?>" /> 
  <meta property="article:expiration_time"  content="<?php echo strtotime('+30min'); ?>" /> 
  <meta property="article:author"  content="529981003" /> 
  <meta property="article:section"  content="Technology Blog2" /> 
  <meta property="article:tag"  content="Facebook" /> 
  <meta property="article:tag"  content="Advanced" /> 
</head>
<body class="index">
</body>
</html>

article.php has all the meta tags required for publishing an article.

The output of publishing articles looks like

Facebook Article

There are few error i encountered when publishing the article first time
Error1: (#3501) User is already associated to a article10150656304499272 object on a unique action type Read. Original Action ID: 354912064550990
Solution: It seems facebook doesn’t allow multiple article’s to be published for a single user. To identify an unique article, facebook does it on the basis of article url we pass. That’s why i have added the rand(0,100) function in the article publish url to fix this error.

Error2: The action you’re trying to publish is invalid because it does not specify any reference objects. At least one of the following properties must be specified: article.
Solution: This error comes up when there is an error in the api call. i.e if the parameters passed are misspelled

$params = array('article'=>'http://excellencetechnologies.co.in/fb/article.php?id='.rand(0,100));

the key ‘article’ here, if misspelled generates this error.

Now lets see another example of an built in action type ‘watch’ and built in object ‘movie’.
The code to publish action is

try{
$params = array('movie'=>'http://excellencetechnologies.co.in/fb/movie.php?id='.rand(0,100));
$out = $facebook->api('/me/video.watches','post',$params);
print_r($out);
}catch(Exception $e){
 echo $e->getMessage().'<br>';
}

And the code to write in the file movie.php is

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns# fb: http://ogp.me/ns/fb# article: http://ogp.me/ns/article#">
  
  <meta property="fb:app_id"      content="182741145117428" /> 
  <meta property="og:type"        content="movie" /> 
  <meta property="og:url"         content="http://excellencetechnologies.co.in/fb/movie.php?id=<?php echo $_REQUEST['id'] ?>" /> 
  <meta property="og:image"                content="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTc3NzQ3OTg3NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjk5OTcxNw@@._V1._SY317_.jpg">
  <meta property="og:title"                content="21 Jump Street">
  <meta property="og:description"          content="21 Jump Street">
  <meta property="video:release_date"      content="<?php echo strtotime('now'); ?>">
  <meta property="video:actor"             content="113615648714404">
  <meta property="video:actor:role"        content="Lead">
  <meta property="video:actor"             content="9964154115">
  <meta property="video:actor:role"        content="Lead2">
  <meta property="video:duration"          content="<?php echo 109 * 60 ;?>">
  <meta property="video:director"          content="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0588087/">
  <meta property="video:writer"            content="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0588087/">
  <meta property="video:tag"               content="action">
 
</head>
<body class="index">
</body>
</html>

The output that we see in facebook is

Facebook Timeline Movie

Facebook Timeline Movie

Achievement and Scores API

Facebook provides with some special timeline api’s for game app’s. If your app category is selected as ‘Game’, then you can use these 2 api’s in your app.

Here is the office blog provided by facebook on publishing scores and achievements.

To publish it the code is explain below

1. You need generated an app access token

$app_id = 'XXXX';
$app_secret = 'XXXXXX';
// Get an App Access Token
$token_url = 'https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?'
	. 'client_id=' .$app_id
	. '&client_secret='.$app_secret
	. '&grant_type=client_credentials';

 $token_response = file_get_contents($token_url);
 $params = null;
 parse_str($token_response, $params);
 $app_access_token = $params['access_token'];

2. You need to register an achievement. You can read more details about achievements here as it has many restrictions.

$achievement = 'http://excellencetechnologies.co.in/fb/achievement.php?id='.rand(0,100);
print('Register a User Achievement<br/>');
$achievement_display_order = 1;
$achievement_registration_URL = 'https://graph.facebook.com/'.$app_id.'/achievements';
$achievement_registration_result=https_post($achievement_registration_URL,
	'achievement=' . $achievement
        . '&display_order=' . $achievement_display_order
	. '&access_token=' . $app_access_token
 );

3. In the achievement.php file you need add this code

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns# fb: http://ogp.me/ns/fb# article: http://ogp.me/ns/article#">
  
  <meta property="fb:app_id"      content="APP_ID" /> 
  <meta property="og:type"        content="game.achievement" /> 
  <meta property="og:url"         content="http://excellencetechnologies.co.in/fb/achievement.php?id=<?php echo $_REQUEST['id'] ?>" /> 
  <meta property="og:image"                content="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTc3NzQ3OTg3NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjk5OTcxNw@@._V1._SY317_.jpg">
  <meta property="og:title"                content="Game Points Test">
  <meta property="og:description"          content="Game Points Test">
  <meta property="game:points" content="100" />
 
</head>
<body class="index">
</body>
</html>

4. Finally publish a user achievement

print('Publish a User Achievement<br/>');
$achievement_URL = 'https://graph.facebook.com/'.$user_profile['id'].'/achievements';
	  $achievement_result = https_post($achievement_URL,
	'achievement=' . $achievement
	. '&access_token=' . $app_access_token
  );
 print('<br/><br/>');

This is how an achievement looks when published

Facebook Achievements

Facebook Achievements

I got few errors before i was able to publish achievements
Error1: (#3) Method allowed only for games
Solution: Your app should have category as ‘Game’

Error2: This method must be called with an app access_token.
Solution: A valid app access token should be generated using the above method. App access token is different from the normal access token.

Error3:
{“error”:{“message”:”(#3502) Object at achievement URL is not of type game.achievement”,”type”:”OAuthException”,”code”:3502}}
Solution: the og:type property is set wrongly in achievement.php file. it should be game.achievement

If you want to publish score for a user you need do the below.

$score = 1;
 // POST a user score
 print('Publish a User Score<br/>');
  $score_URL = 'https://graph.facebook.com/' . $user_profile['id'] . '/scores';
  $score_result = https_post($score_URL,
'score=' . $score . '&access_token=' . $app_access_token
 );
 print('<br/><br/>');

you can create more about scores here.

Attached is the source code

Download: Facebook Timeline PHP(19.47KB) Clicks: 172 Login via facebook to download the file! By logging in you agree to subscribe to our montly newsletter as well.

This is a very powerful feature which facebook has provided and is very useful to virally spread your application.

This is an advanced facebook tutorial, so you should be familiar with based facebook integration first.
To given an idea of what you can do with timeline integration read below

• Any action performed by user on your can be published to his timeline e.g if a user reads a blog, using app it can be published in the user timeline that he read a blog post.
• You can create custom action’s and object’s depending on your website e.g User voted for a College, User read a Article, User participated in a Quiz. Here text written in italics are actions and objects respectively, and we can custom action,object as many as we want.

Attached is a screenshot of the it look on timeline, this was published on timeline by an app created by me on www.collegekhabar.com/ranking

Timeline App Integration

There are few terms which are used when doing timeline integration. I will just explain them in brief here, using the sentences below
User voted for a College
User read a Article
User participated in a Quiz
Action:: Action is basically an adjective like in above cases vote, read, participated are actions. Read more here
Object: The entity on which actions are performed are called objects, like in above sentences College, Article, Quiz are objects. Read more here
Aggregation: This basically is used to define the display of how it will look in a user timeline when a user performs multiple actions on a object. Read more here

Now lets see in detail what are all the steps to follow to develop a timeline application.

First step is to create a basic facebook app and set it up on your domain.

Next you need to add this app to your website so that user can authenticate your app to publish actions to their timeline. To do this you need to put the facebook login button, as discussed in the previous tutorial.
But this time in our app permission we will add ‘publish_actions’ permission to our app scope. So basically our app scope would look like

{scope:'email,publish_actions'}

Only after user has given permission to our app with ‘publish_actions’ scope can we publish actions to his profile.

Next we we need to define our custom actions and object to use in our application. To do this open your app in facebook developer website, and click on Edit Open Graph.

Facebook App Edit Open Graph

After you click on edit open graph, you will get a message from facebook to setup the app namespace.

Facebook Set App Namespace

Now again go back to the ‘Edit Open Graph’ page, here you need to setup your action and object. Now you will see a page where facebook asks you enter the action and object in a sentence. In my case, i have take action = ‘download’ and object = ‘module’.

Facebook Create Action

Facebook Action, Object and Aggregation

Next lets see how to publish user actions to his timeline from our website.
Its important to note here that the custom action you created cannot be directly published to users timeline. What i mean is that before being able to publish user actions, you need to approve your actions from facebook. But to initially to test your actions, the action will get published on your personal facebook account only from where you have created the app.

To submit your action to facebook for approval you need to click on the ‘Submit’ link in front of the action and follow their submission process. It took me about 2weeks time to get by action approved so please bear this in mind during development.

Facebook Submit Action

Now to publish an action, it can be done through php, javascript, facebook php-sdk and many other ways. But its important to remember that you should have a authenticated user access token to publish the actions, this basically means user should have approved your app for timeline access.

Code to publish through facebook php-sdk

try{
$params = array('module'=>'www.websiteurl.com/page.php?id=3');
$out = $facebook->api('/me/etechblog:download','post',$params);
}catch(Exception $e){
echo $e->getMessage();
}

Code to publish through facebook javascript-sdk

FB.api('/me/etechblog:download', 'post', 
  { module : 'www.websiteurl.com/page.php?id=3' });

You can see more details of the above code here

Next important part, the url which we passed www.websiteurl.com/page.php?id=3. We need to setup meta tags in this page to set all properties of the object. In the file page.php you need add code like this

<head prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns# fb: http://ogp.me/ns/fb# collegekhabar_etech: http://ogp.me/ns/fb/collegekhabar_etech#">
  <?php if(isset($_REQUEST['id'])) { 
  $info = $my_obj->getCompleteDetails($_REQUEST['collage']); ?>
  <meta property="fb:app_id"      content="XXXX" />  <!-- APP ID -->
  <meta property="og:type"        content="etechblog:module" />  <!-- app namespace:object --> 
  <meta property="og:url"         content="www.websiteurl.com/page.php?id=<?php echo $_REQUEST['id'] ?>" /> <!-- same as the url passed while publishing the action -->
  <meta property="og:title"       content="<?php echo $info[0]['collage_short']?>" /> <!-- get title from database -->
  <meta property="og:description" content="<?php echo $info[0]['collage_name']?>" /> <!-- get description from database -->
  <meta property="og:image"       content="http://www.collegekhabar.com/ranking/ranking/<?php echo $info[0]['logo']?>" /> 
<!-- get image from database -->
  <?php } else { ?>  <!-- Else condition required to prevent any errors -->
  <meta property="fb:app_id"      content="XXXXX" /> 
  <meta property="og:type"        content="etechblog:module" /> 
  <meta property="og:url"         content="www.websiteurl.com" /> 
  <meta property="og:title"       content="title" /> 
  <meta property="og:description" content="description" /> 
  <meta property="og:image"       content="images/logo.png" /> 
  <?php } ?>

The meta properties that you need to define comes from the object properties which you define when creating an object. Attached here is the screenshot from where you can add properties, also get the meta property name and value.

Facebook Timeline Object Properties

Here there is a very important thing to notice, the url given in <meta property=”og:url” /> is from where facebook will read the meta tags and not from the url given when publishing an action. You can also check the meta tags facebook is reading from your URL from http://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug. Just put your page URL in the debugger and press debug, it will show the tags facebook is able to read.

Facebook Debugger

Facebook debugger is generally a useful tool, it can also be used to refersh the facebook cache for a particular url.

This tutorial is not related to magento, but rather just focuses on facebook api’s. There are many tutorial’s available online on this topic, but i personally had a tough time figuring out the correct method to use. So i am writing down here the best method which i found out.

Facebook provides an authentication api which you can use as an alternate for the traditional login system or also to import facebook user profile information to your website. Basically how this works is you create a facebook app, ask user to grant permission to your app to access his profile information, after he has granted access you can create account on your website using his profile information.
This is the workflow which gets followed when integrating facebook login on your site (helpful for a beginner)

• Create a facebook app for your domain
• Place a login button on your website
• When user clicks on the login button there conditions are possible.
  1. User is Not Logged In: Facebook dialog pop’s up and asks user to login.

  

  Facebook Login Box

  
  2. User is Logged In, but has not authorized the app: Facebook pop’s up a dialog asking user to give permission to your app.

  

  Facebook Authorization Dialog

  
  3. User is Logged In and has already authorized the app
  In this case, facebook will directly redirect to a page specified by us.
• On the page where facebook redirects, we retrieve user information like name, email, facebook id etc and create his account on our website.

The entire code is divided in two part
1. javascript
2. php

Below is the java script code to be applied

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
   FB.init({
     appId      : 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXX', // App ID
     channelURL : '', // Channel File, not required so leave empty
     status     : true, // check login status
     cookie     : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session
     oauth      : true, // enable OAuth 2.0
     xfbml      : false  // parse XFBML
   });
};
// logs the user in the application and facebook
function login(){
FB.getLoginStatus(function(r){
	 if(r.status === 'connected'){
        	window.location.href = 'fbconnect.php';
	 }else{
		FB.login(function(response) {
	        	if(response.authResponse) {
			  //if (response.perms) 
		        	window.location.href = 'fbconnect.php';
			} else {
			  // user is not logged in
			}
	 },{scope:'email'}); // which data to access from user profile
 }
});
}
// Load the SDK Asynchronously
(function() {
   var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;
   e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';  		       
   document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
}());
//]]>
</script>

The above code is divided in three parts
Part1

<div id="fb-root"></div>

// Load the SDK Asynchronously
(function() {
   var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;
   e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';  		       
   document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
}());

This code simply add the facebook library javascript to the page, it appends it to the ‘fb-root’ element.
Part2

<script type="text/javascript">

window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
   FB.init({
     appId      : 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXX', // App ID
     channelURL : '', // Channel File, not required so leave empty
     status     : true, // check login status
     cookie     : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session
     oauth      : true, // enable OAuth 2.0
     xfbml      : false  // parse XFBML
   });
};

This code initializes FB object. In the appID you need to provide your application id of the app you created on facebook.
Keep the parameters ‘status’ = true. On making this false, i have noticed in the internet explorer that problem arises with popup blocker.
Part3

function login(){
FB.getLoginStatus(function(r){ //check if user already authorized the app
	 if(r.status === 'connected'){
        	window.location.href = 'fbconnect.php';
	 }else{
		FB.login(function(response) { // opens the login dialog
	        	if(response.authResponse) { // check if user authorized the app
			  //if (response.perms) {
		        	window.location.href = 'fbconnect.php';
			} else {
			  // user is not logged in
			}
	 },{scope:'email'}); //permission required by the app
 }
});
}

This function needs to be added to an onclick event on any html element. e.g you can have an image and on clicking on that image you want the facebook login box to open. In that case you need to call the login() function on its on click event.

<a href='#' onclick='login();'>Facebook Login</a>

Next in the php file i.e fbconnect.php we need to add code to retrieve facebook user profile details. We need facebook php-sdk for this purpose which can be downloaded from https://github.com/facebook/php-sdk

require_once 'src/facebook.php'; //include the facebook php sdk
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
		'appId'  => 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXX',    //app id
		'secret' => 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX', // app secret
));
$user = $facebook->getUser(); 
if ($user) { // check if current user is authenticated
	try {
		// Proceed knowing you have a logged in user who's authenticated.
		$user_profile = $facebook->api('/me');  //get current user's profile information using open graph
            }
         catch(Exception $e){}
}

The varaible $user_profile will contain the profile information of the user like firstname, lastname, email, facebook id etc. You can use this information to create his account on your website.

The content of the $user_profile depends on the permission which we have asked in the app. There permission are set in ‘scope’ parameter in our javascript code. A full list of all facebook permissions are given here

In the current tutorial we will create a facebook page which will display a different content for like page and unlike page, the content of the like/unlike page will come from a magento module.
This is easy to implement, we don’t need to have any knowledge of facebook api’s. Facebook provides an interface through which we can simply integrate any iframe page in a facebook page tab. We are going to use the iframe based system to show magento page inside the iframe. To implement this first we need to create a facebook page, register a developer account and then create a facebook app. I will explain here in detail what are all the steps to follow.

Creating a new page is very easy in facebook. Just login with your facebook account and open this URL to create a page. Here you can find more details about a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/learn.php.

After you have created a facebook page, you need to create a facebook app. For creating a facebook app you need first have a developer account in facebook. Developer account is very easy to create just open the URL and then click on “Apps” in the top menu. After clicking on “Apps” your are asked to authorize the “Developer App”. After you authorize this your developer account is created (attached is screenshot of the same)

Facebook Developer App

Facebook Create App

Facebook Empty App

Facebook App Settings

Download: FB Module(18.48KB) Clicks: 244 Login via facebook to download the file! By logging in you agree to subscribe to our montly newsletter as well.

In this step we will attach the facebook app we created to a facebook page tab. What this means is that, when a person opens the facebook like page our facebook app will load on that page instead of the default page tabs. To do this first we need to assign the app created to a facebook page, for that you need to open this URL

https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&next=YOUR_URL

here you need to replace “YOUR_APP_ID” with your app id which can be found the edit app page, and replace “YOUR_URL” with the application site url. After you do this you will get a screen like this

Facebook Add App To Page

Facebook Page

Facebook App Name

Facebook Page New Tab

Facebook Page Default Tab

Above we have seen what all is required to be done on facebook side, now we will see what needs to be done in magneto. I am again attaching here the module used.

Download: FB Module(18.48KB) Clicks: 244 Login via facebook to download the file! By logging in you agree to subscribe to our montly newsletter as well.

<?php
class Excellence_Fb_Block_Fb extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
{
	protected function _construct()
	{
		parent::_construct();
		$signed_request =$this->parsePageSignedRequest();// Call function

		/*The signed_request on iframe tabs has a "pages" object, which holds a "liked" variable. If the user    viewing your tab has Liked your page, it is set to TRUE. If they have not, it is set to FALSE. So:
		 */
		if($signed_request['page']['liked']){
			$this->setTemplate('fb/like.phtml');
		} else{
			$this->setTemplate('fb/unlike.phtml');
		}
	}
	public function parsePageSignedRequest() {  //The signed request is encoded for security
		$facebook = Mage::getModel('fb/api_facebook');
		$signed_request = $facebook->getSignedRequest();
		return $signed_request;
	}
}

Here i am using the php facebook sdk in magento, and based the api finding out if the facebook user has liked the page or not. If the page is liked, the fb/like.php is set as template or else fb/unlike.phtml is set as the template.

If you have long content inside the facebook like.phtml or unlike.phtml, you will see that scrollbars show up in the facebook page tab. To fix the problem of vertical scroll bar showing up you need to put in this code the template files

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
      FB.init({
        appId  : 'YOUR_APPLICATION_ID',
        oauth  : true,
      });
 
      FB.Canvas.setAutoGrow();
 
</script> 

this will fix the vertical scroll bar problem.