Writing Magento modules on a everyday basis can become extremely boring job when it comes to the part where you define your module directories, config file, model, block, helper, etc. What I am trying to say is that there is significant amount of repetitive work being done each time you start new module development. To compensate for this a little bit, I created this little Magento module that helps you create other modules. Hope it does not sound to much confusing.

To access the module functionality you need to install by copy-pasting the content of archive to your Magento installation and then open the http://mystore.loc/alpha url. I realize that using “alpha” for the module name is not much innovative. Basically you can look at this module as being a skeleton upon which you might build your own module generator. The code itself was done in a hasty way so it might need some refactoring if you wish to play with it. I plan on continuing my work on this module. This is just an alpha version .

There are tutorials all around the web as well as at the Inchoo website that guide you through various Google services integration with Magento eCommerce platform. I wanted to unite all of these resources on one place and also bring something new to the table.

In this guide, we’ll talk about:

1. Google Analytics integration with Magento
2. Google AdWords conversion tracking with Magento
3. Google Base integration with Magento
4. Google’s Feedburner service integration with Magento
5. Tracking conversions in numbers instead of percentage with Google Analytics custom report

Surprisingly one of the trickiest parts of “under the hood” Magento is how to create order programmatically. At least for me, this was/is the most complex area of Magento development. Reason why it is so difficult is that the order creation process is all but not straightforward. You cannot simply instantiate order model, set some data and call upon the save() method. If you ask me, this is how it should be done.

So why cannot we apply approach like generic one show below?

I was asked by Packt Publishing to review a new book entitled Magento 1.4 Development Cookbook. I was excited for the opportunity to review a recent development book, hoping I might get some new fresh perspectives.

Before I get into the details, I highly recommend avoiding this book. Unless you want a reference of how NOT to develop properly with Magento, do not buy it. Save your money and time and just spend a few hours looking through Magento’s core modules and learn by example. That to me has been the best reference in learning how to develop with Magento.