Magento design, development and suport :: sonassi Latest press releases, tutorials and thoughts on the world can be found here 2012-01-18T14:06:23Z http://www.sonassi.com/feed/atom/ WordPress Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[We’re against PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) – are you?]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2152 2012-01-18T14:06:23Z 2012-01-18T14:06:23Z Continue reading ]]>

Try having a look around the internet today (Wednesday 18th January) and you’ll soon run into a few roadblocks; especially if you’re trying to reach one of the most popular and arguably best encyclopaedic resource around, WikiPedia.

Big media and its allies in Congress are billing the Internet blacklist legislation as a new way to battle online infringement. But innovation and free speech advocates know that this initiative will do little to stop infringement online. What it will do is compromise Internet security, inhibit online expression, and slow growth in the technology sector.

As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet’s underlying infrastructure. The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to block users’ attempts to reach certain websites’ URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the Internet grows increasingly balkanized.

And don’t think that its just the US that will be affected by this – business worldwide is going to be strangled by this US Internet Sanction, read more and show your support here https://blacklists.eff.org/

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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[A view from our new office]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2138 2012-01-13T17:18:05Z 2012-01-13T17:18:05Z Continue reading ]]>

The Dock Office

Manchester has been looking pretty impressive at nights recently; all the more so now we’re looking at it from our new office. After three years at Exchange Quay, we said farewell and have now moved on to a bigger and better premises, the Dock Office.

We’ve got enough room here to swing a lot of cats; all the more space to fill up with additional staff. Which leads us on to say,

we’re hiring again …

So if you are a developer with a good working knowledge of PHP, eager to learn more and work with a creative, smart and talented team – then get in touch!

http://www.sonassi.com/you-me-and-sonassi/recruitment/recruitment-manchester-web-developer-wanted/

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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Recruitment: Manchester Web Developer / Designer – PHP]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=1088 2012-01-13T17:10:59Z 2012-01-13T17:10:40Z Continue reading ]]> The level of enquiries and new business has been substantial and we are keen to find the right people to continue to capitalise on the activity that we are currently seeing.

We have an enthusiastic team and we are looking for another developer to join us!

Role

• Construct new standard compliant websites for our customer based on existing/bespoke designs
• Assist in the visual and interface design of sites that we develop
• To keep abreast of current best practices and emerging web technologies
• Assist in maintaining and enhancing existing customer websites

Proficiencies

• Proven experience in Web Development and Design
• Good Object Oriented PHP5 knowledge
• MVC frameworks (particularly Magento)
• Excellent (X)HTML and CSS knowledge, with an eye for web standards
• Good PHP knowledge (ideally OO PHP5)
• Good JavaScript knowledge (ideally jQuery and/or Prototype)
• Working knowledge of Photoshop

Key Skills

• Enthusiasm for Web Development and Design
• Excellent attention to detail
• A flair for graphical and interface design
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
• Ability to build and maintain effective customer relationships
• Able to work effectively as an individual and also within the team

Experience

A minimum of 1 years experience and able to produce a strong portfolio of work.

Salary

Negotiable salary plus benefits

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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Change of bank account details]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2129 2011-09-17T13:25:28Z 2011-09-17T13:17:08Z Continue reading ]]> We have recently undergone a bit of a migration from an LLP to a LTD company and as a result, we have changed our bank account details.

We have contacted all our customers individually to alert them of the change of account number and sort code, it will also be reflected on the bottom of all invoices sent out.

The old details will continue to be available for 6 months from today, after which the account will be permanently closed.

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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Magento batch update category quick script]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2123 2011-09-09T17:50:19Z 2011-09-09T17:48:28Z Continue reading ]]> Just to supplement another post we made on bulk creating categories, below is a script used for bulk updating and attaching images to categories based on a specific CSV.

There is no documentation to go with this code, I’m simply posting it because a subscriber has requested it.

<?php
 
 define('MAGENTO', realpath(dirname(__FILE__)."/.."));
 require_once MAGENTO . '/app/Mage.php';
 
 umask(0);
 Mage::app()->setCurrentStore(Mage_Core_Model_App::ADMIN_STORE_ID);
 $write = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');
 $count = 0;
 $headers = array();
 
 $file = fopen(MAGENTO . '/var/import/importcats.csv', 'r');
 
 $_category = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/category');
 
 while (($line = fgetcsv($file)) !== FALSE) { $count++;
 
 // First header row
 if ($count == 1) {
 foreach ($line as $id=>$col)
 $headers[$col] = $id;
 
 continue;
 }
 
 $_category->load($line[$headers['ID']]);
 
 $_category->setMetaTitle($line[$headers['meta_title']]);
 $_category->setMetaDescription($line[$headers['meta_description']]);
 $_category->setDescription($line[$headers['additional_description']]);
 $_category->setUrlKey($line[$headers['url_key']]);
 
 $sql = "INSERT INTO catalog_category_entity_varchar
 (entity_type_id, attribute_id, store_id, entity_id, value)
 VALUES
 (9, 113, 0, ".$line[$headers['ID']].", '".$line[$headers['image']]."')
 ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE value = '".$line[$headers['image']]."';
 ";
 
 $write->query($sql);
 
 $src = '../media/import/cat_imgs/'.$line[$headers['image']];
 $dest = '../media/catalog/category/'.$line[$headers['image']];
 
 copy($src, $dest);
 
 $_category->save();
 
 echo "Completed ".$line[$headers['name']]."<br />";
 
 }
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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Magento My Imeta Bug fix on category save]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2116 2011-09-02T13:19:41Z 2011-09-02T13:19:41Z Continue reading ]]> A customer recently came to us stating their categories were not saving correctly, it turned out to be a bit of erroneous code in a 3rd party extension they were using.

If you are using My_Imeta and are experiencing difficulties saving your categories, it will be due to this. It is a quick an easy fix.

Open ./app/code/community/My/Imeta/Model/Catalog/Category/Observer.php

Then replace

$_object = isset($observer['data_object']) ? $observer['data_object'] : $observer['object'];

With

$_object = $observer->getEvent()->getCategory();
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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Magento category children count fix]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2111 2011-08-31T13:53:16Z 2011-08-31T13:52:59Z Continue reading ]]> The children_count field in Magento can sometimes become inaccurate if you have created a category via the PHP API and set an entity_id whilst doing so. It is due to part of the after_save mechanism which overrides the children_count parameter (even if explicitly set via $_category->setChildrenCount()).

For the majority of the admin area, an inaccurate children count won’t normally pose an issue, however, upon using the AJAX category tree (Eg. in product edit, promotional rules etc.) – any category with an inaccurate children count may not display the expand icon.

It can quickly and easily be reset, albeit with a bit of quick and dirty SQL.

CREATE TABLE catalog_category_entity_tmp LIKE catalog_category_entity;
INSERT INTO catalog_category_entity_tmp SELECT * FROM catalog_category_entity;
UPDATE catalog_category_entity cce
SET children_count =
(
SELECT count(cce2.entity_id) as children_county
FROM catalog_category_entity_tmp cce2
WHERE PATH LIKE CONCAT(cce.path,'%')
);
DROP TABLE catalog_category_entity_tmp;
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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Mums Mall]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2103 2011-08-17T12:00:48Z 2011-08-17T12:00:48Z Continue reading ]]> Mums Mall presented a very complex technical challenge, whilst not an active e-commerce store per-se; Mums Mall is a shopping portal – a window into the world of child toys, parenting aids and guides. Sonassi branded, designed, developed and host Mums Mall.

Based on Magento, we extended its functionality with a series of custom extensions to offer automated conditional feed processing, translation and import. This allowed our client to enter conditional rules to parse affiliate CSV/XML documents and allow import with the correct categories and attributes in Magento. Other features include detailed click-through tracking and reporting, WordPress integration, eligible coupon-code display and a lot, lot more.

With a soft-launch catalogue size of just under 100,000 SKUs, Mums Mall expects to offer 250,000 SKUs in coming months and stands to be one of our best Magento technical achievements.

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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Reduced opening hours due to Manchester riots]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2099 2011-08-10T16:07:44Z 2011-08-10T16:07:44Z Continue reading ]]> Unfortunately, due to the recent criminal activity in Manchester we regret to announce we are closing earlier than usual, to ensure the safety of staff members returning home.

Due to the unpredictable nature of these events, we cannot confirm opening hours at this point.

We aim to be open between 10am and 4pm every day – should we be unavailable and you have an emergency request – please use the facility in http://theclientarea.info

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Benjamin http://www.sonassi.com <![CDATA[Fred Aldous]]> http://www.sonassi.com/?p=2064 2011-06-28T17:10:28Z 2011-06-28T16:19:19Z Continue reading ]]> After a very time critical build to coincide with their 125th anniversary, we re-launched Fred Aldous’s new Magento store.

This feature rich store features a lot of advanced functionality including full EPOS integration (products, orders and stock levels), Zen Desk integration, YouTube integration and more.

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