This article is sponsored by SSLmatic which sells SSL certificates (RapidSSL, Geotrust, Verisign) for much cheaper prices & offers great support. Check their site to get the cheap SSL certificates.

In the first part of the Ultimate Magento Guide, we covered the back-end features of this open source e-commerce software. We also created a simple product and displayed it in our e-store.

Today we will focus on "customizing the basic layout of our e-store",  "what Magento Connect is” and "how we can install themes + extensions".

Let's Turn Off The Cache

Before heading to the customization, we will turn off the cache mode of Magento so that we can see our changes. Otherwise, Magento will keep showing the cached pages.

We can turn off the cache from our back-end. Go to System>Cache Management. Choose "disable" from the drop down menu which is an option in "All Cache". Follow the screenshot below if you are having some problem.

After disabling the cache, we will now change the name of our e-store which appears on many places (like after a new user registration). We can change it by going to System> Manage Stores, click the "Default Store View" and put the actual name of the store there just like “WRD E-Store”.

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This article is sponsored by SSLmatic which sells SSL certificates (RapidSSL, Geotrust, Verisign) for much cheaper prices & offers great support. Check their site to get the cheap SSL certificates.

In the process of launching an e-store, when it comes to choosing the right solution, you will get puzzled by the hundreds of solutions available.

The options range from simple and free shopping cart systems to complex and paid e-commerce softwares which can charge you for both getting and “keeping” your shop online.

However, there are some applications which offer great features but still free.

One of the best and open source e-commerce solutions available for free is Magento.

In the following comprehensive tutorial, we will see what are the benefits and drawbacks of using Magento as your e-commerce application. We will make a demo store and take a look on some basic and intermediate features of Magento. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get started.

Why use Magento?

Pros:

• free (absolutely free, no charges at all for community version)
• open source (you can even make it better by writing your own code)
• easy upgrades (automatic upgrades without loosing your customizations)
• extensions, plugins (enhance your Magento installation with plugins just like WordPress)
• very comprehensive theming system (custom themes for your store similar to WordPress)
• downloadable goodies support

Cons:

• resource intensive (yes, Magento needs a lot of memory in order to work efficiently but don’t worry, we will also learn how to fix it up to run Magento in low cost hosting solutions.)
• latest version of PHP not supported (Magento only works with PHP 5.2)

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SlimStat is an open source web analytics application that collects & presents statistics information about your website.

It is built with PHP-MySQL & can be integrated into websites with JavaScript (like Google Analytics) or PHP.

For  the given period, the application can display:

• the number of visitors/pageviews
• referrer URLs, domains
• search terms
• browsers, OSs, countries, screen sizes

There is also a "paths" feature that shows a user's browsing path page-by-page.

You may be asking, "why to use SlimStat instead of Google Analytics?" The best answer would be "live stats".

Phpns is an open source news/content management system that will enable you to add dynamic content to any website with one line of code.

The application is not a complicated or a full-featured CMS. Rather, it is a simpler one which is very suitable for managing basic websites.

It comes with variables like adding pagination, displaying summary or the full content, RSS generation & much more.

Phpns is multi-user, can create SEO-friendly URLs & optionally, helps you create/manage templates.

The application is built with PHP, uses MySQL for storing the data & comes with a web-based installer.

Ajax Availability Calendar is an open source PHP application for displaying the availability of an item (hotel room, appointment, etc.).

It comes with an Ajaxed administration panel (multiple admin users are supported) to manage the calendar.

The application is multilingual & unlimited number of items can be added under multiple languages.

Months displayed are changed with Ajax requests where no refreshes are required & it can be totally styled via CSS.

chive is an open source & web-based MySQL management application that is built with PHP.

It can achieve the most common tasks like creating, editing & executing:

• databases
• tables
• indices, keys, triggers, views, routines
• privileges management
• import/export

The application has a built-in editor with syntax-highlighting which is nice when running complex queries & an easy-to-use interface that makes browsing fast.

chive has one major fallback (which may pr may not effect you): it only supports MySQL 5+.

todoyu is an open source task/project management, time tracking & collaboration application that is built with PHP.

The application has a modern, Ajaxed interface where both users & clients can have roles on projects.

Using todoyu, projects can be divided into multiple milestones with sub-tasks that are assigned to users.

The time worked on every task is recorded which can be used in future analysis or billing purposes.

Optionally, todoyu can auto-generate invoices after completion of a project & export them as PDFs.

The application also has a built-in calendar for managing appointments.

PHP RSS Reader is an application which can crawl an unlimited number of feeds & presents them with an easy-to-use interface.

For an organized navigation, It is possible to create categories & place feeds inside them.

A handy feature is "keyword-based" categories which can auto-move items with the keywords mentioned into the related categories which is great for anyone who follows multiple feeds but hunts for specific keywords.

PHP RSS Reader comes with a complete admin panel where every setting can be controlled.

The application creates SEO-friendly URLs for every category & article which is important for anyone who will use PHP RSS Reader for creating a feed-based website rather than using it as a personal feed-reader.

It is possible to change the look & feel of the interface by simply playing with the CSS files.

There is a web-based installer that help making the application online in a few minutes.

PHP RSS Reader comes with 2 versions:

• free version (has some limitations like no keyword-categorization & unlimited sub-categories)
• complete, paid version which includes all the features.

The application is a must-check for anyone looking for an advanced RSS reader, planning to create a feed-based website or integrate feeds into an application (where PHP RSS Reader can be used only as the backend engine).

P.S. This post is a sponsored review.

AeroSQL is an open source web application, for managing MySQL databases.

It can control databases from different servers in a single, desktop-like interface where records can be easily browsed or edited within a grid.

The application displays every query executed & can run a batch of sql queries to save you time.

It is possible to select the columns to be displayed while editing a table which will help reaching the data in an organized way.

AeroSQL is built with PHP & uses ExtJS to provide the desktop-like functionality.

OTRS is an open source trouble ticket system for easily managing support requests in a multi-agent interface.

The application can auto-convert e-mails into tickets (e-mail piping) which "eliminates the need of using the web interface" for customers.

OTRS is used by large organizations like Opera, MySQL AB, BitDefender, Suse & has very nice features like:

• transfer of tickets between agents
• auto-calculation of hours worked on a ticket
• powerful reporting
• canned responses
• multilanguage support
• themable web interface
• role-based user management
• & much more..

OTRS is built with Perl & can work with different databases (e. g. MySQL, PostgeSQL, Oracle, DB2 and MSSQL).

It has one-click installers for multiple operating systems (including Windows).