Adventures in Magentoland

Posts from a Magento Geek

[laurent35240]

I use your plugin with a new magento theme 1.8. Is it work on magento 1.8 ? Do you know why in my media/sass folder, all css files are empty (0 bytes) ?

I just checked and yes this extension is compatible with Magento 1.8. I updated the page on Magento website: http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/sass-8891.html

For your problem of empty css files, are you using the extension with phpsass or with sass in command line? You can configure it in the back office in developer section.

Check also if you have some errors in your log files.

Tell me if you still have some trouble with this extension.

[laurent35240]

My magento admin stop working when I install any extension pls help

Hi,

Check first content of your log and report files in var/log and var/report.

You will probably find there some clue about the problem.

[laurent35240]

Hi, I installed the Order Tickets application into Magento, however this doesn't show in the frontend for my customer? Is there any particular file I should edit to make sure it shows correctly on the frontend?

Hi,

Normally you just need to refresh the cache for seeing it on frontend.

There is maybe a problem if your are using a custom design. You can try to copy file app/design/frontend/base/default/layout/ordertickets.xml and folder app/design/frontend/base/default/template/ordertickets in your design folder.

RegardsLaurent 

[laurent35240]

†

[laurent35240]

Summary of élaboratoires sudweb 2012

I was yesterday in workshop organised by sudweb. Here are the different notes I took:

But what is a lead dev? (Workshop by Brice Favre)

It was interesting open chat with different actors of the web: developers, lead developers from different companies.

- lead dev is not necessarily the one who does the most line of codes but he must have a good technology background - He must quality constraint in his mind but it is not him that must introduce quality processes. It is better for that to have a quality manager. - It is a good idea to organize code review at the end of each sprint. - The lead dev must see troubles coming and help finding solutions for avoiding them. - In small structure it is more important to use best part of everybody instead to try to force an organisation - A lead dev = values, methods and vision for a team - He must help to keep on using best practices - He must softly lead developers to new interesting techniques - Good practice for fixing bugs is to acknowledge people who fix the bug instead of blaming people who created the bug - Pessimist developers are great for estimation -> they are closer to reality 

CasperJS (workshop by Nicolas Perriault)

It was interesting coding session that shows me the power of javascript that can be used as program language not only in a web page.

- It is base on phantomJS which is incompatible with nodeJS - It is useful for site testing and site scraping - I felt myself that it is a little too much complicated for its purpose especially in comparison of other functional test framework but I must surely keep an eye on it. 

CSS yesterday, today and tomorrow (workshop by Bert Bos)

It was great to have here in Toulouse Bert Bos who participated in the creation of CSS. It helped a lot to understand how W3C validation process works.

- CSS was born in 93/94 and was based on CHSS and SSP - CSS1 was mostly all was Netscape was able to do in term of rendering in 96 when CSS2 was all what they wanted for CSS at this time. - CSS was not planned for web application because at this time there was Java that was doing this part. - It is written by one working group in W3C - It will have an ISO certification in its future - Validation process is a long road with snakes and ladders - CSS has around 40 modules that follow their own specification process - CSS of level 4 already started for some modules - There is a snapshot of CSS every 2 years for modules with level RC or better - Next snapshot is planned for the end of 2012 - There is no CSS certification for the moment but it is on the topic.

For future of CSS, we mostly check printed newspaper layout and asked ourselves it will possible / easy to reproduce the same with CSS. A lot of problems naturally appears then (columns / grid display, vertical centering, text following shape of a transparent image ...). One of the biggest problem we had was how to reproduce middle age manuscrit.

[laurent35240]

Brigitte bug or how to check email address

I recently had a weird bug on email validation part that did not work on a specific email address.

Usually when you want to check that an email address can be used you check first if it passes regular expression and then check if there is an email server responding on the domain name with this code:

$emailValid = checkdnsrr('domain.com',  'MX');

It works great in 99% of the time, but it can happen that somebody with a wrong configured mail server can fail this test but still send and receive email.

My hosting colleague found then that the normal fallback for sending email if email server is not responding is then to query DNS of type A (address record). Checking email becomes then

$emailValid = checkdnsrr('domain.com',  'MX') || checkdnsrr('domain.com',  'A');

I named this trick "the Brigitte bug" because first email adresse where this bug appears was for a german girl named Brigitte.

[laurent35240]

PDF file by Andrey Tserkus and Vladimir Pelipenko explaining PHP garbage collector and how it is handled in Magento

[laurent35240]

[laurent35240]

[laurent35240]

Very interesting post about Magento Index by Ivan Chepurnyi. Do not forget to watch video at the end. 

[laurent35240]

My advent calendars

Interesting advent calendars to follow waiting for Xmas:

24 Ways: advent calendar for Web Geeks

PHP advent: for PHP Geeks

WebGuys: Magento advent calendar (in German unfortunately :-( )

[laurent35240]

All information about current state of Magento 2 project. Documentation about changes between Magento 1.x and 2.x Description of different milestones of the project 

[laurent35240]

Steps for re-installing my printer

Notes to stop looking for hours next time I want to install my printer (HP laserjet 1018) on Ubuntu

Download last version of hplip: http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/install/index.html

Install hplip

Run hp-setup

If it does not find plugin by itself download it here: http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/plugin/hplip-3.11.10-plugin.run (maybe change version number to match the one from hplip)

You can sst plugin manually by using hp-plugin

Print

[laurent35240]

For next kubuntu upgrade

/!\ Do a backup of /home before upgrading!

If after upgrade there is no more Grub, use boot-repair and set Grub options as no graphic mode.

If after restoring Grub there is no graphic interface, remove nvidia package

apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates

Restart and reinstall nvidia package with jockey.

[laurent35240]

In Magento 1.6.1.0 you can use Shift-Click in order to select quickly several rows in BO grids.

This feature is also available on Magento PE and EE 1.11.1.0

[laurent35240]

New in Magento EE 1.11.1.0: two-step password reset flow

One new feature of Magento Enterprise Edition 1.11.1.0 is the two-step password reset flow.

In previous version of Magento, when you forget your password you will provide your email address to Magento who will send you by email a new one. It means that anybody who knows your email address can then reset your password. This is kind of annoying ...

In last version of Magento reseting password will be done in two steps. After you gave your email address to Magento you will first receive an email with link for changing your password. In second step, you will then click on this link and change your password on Magento site.

Let's see it with some screenshots

You first indicate your email address in "Forgot your password" page

You receive then an email with link for resetting your password.

You click on the link and can then change your password

You can define email and expiration period for the link in back office configuration (System > Configuration > Customer Configuration > Password Options)

This feature is also available in Magento Community Edition 1.6.1.0 and Professional Edition 1.11.1.0

[laurent35240]

Titan the Robot, place du Capitole @ Toulouse

http://www.titantherobot.com/