Magento permissions can be an absolute pain! Use one of the solutions below to setup Magento permissions easily.

1. SSH Script

#!/bin/bash
find www -name .htaccess -exec chmod 604 {} ;
find www -name *.php -exec chmod 644 {} ;
find www -type d -exec chmod 705 {} ;

2. SSH Command Line

find ./ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \; && find ./ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

3. PHP Permissions Script

<?php
system(‘chmod -R 744 *’);
system(‘find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;’);
?>

If you need to migrate Magento from one server to another here’s how to do it.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

Login to admin panel > System > Configuration > Web and set both the secure and insecure base urls to this:  {{base_url}}

Then change the base url back once migrated across.

BEGIN:

1. Upload a fresh copy of Magento onto the new server (don’t run the installer yet)
2. Copy over your Themes/Templates, Skins, Images, and Custom Modules folders.
3. Export the old database and import it in to the new database. (phpmyadmin export/import works well)
4. Run the installer as usual.
5. Go into the Magento Connect Manager, and install this Magento extension: magento-core/Mage_All_Latest

That should be all you need. If you have other ways / experiences please let us know in the comments!

If you’re wondering if your server is going to support MagentoCommerce then this utility will be of use.

Simply download, extract and upload the magento-check.php file to your server and head to the URL to see if anything needs enabling, upgrading etc.

You can find the full server requirements here.

Download: Magento Requirements Checker

2 weeks running!

If you don’t know already 2 weeks ago saw the launch of OSETemplates.com and things have been heating up! We’ve instantly gone from a 0 to 100 /day visits from Google alone, on terms such as Magento Templates, Free Magento Templates and Magento Open Source Ecommerce Templates.

So… whats next?

Well we plan to release a new Magento template (theme) over the next couple of weeks named Inspire Blue, which is a follow on to the previous Free Magento Template Eco Fashion.

Here you’ll find all of our Free Magento Templates, Themes & Plugins downloads. As downloads come in we will add them to this page.

If you have something you would like to add, please contact us.

Free Templates

Recommended Editors

EditPlus

For me (Stefan), EditPlus has to be the best editor on the market for Magento development. Even the guys and gals over at Magento use it!

I’m a fan of having 3 editors open at once. 1-Layout.xml files, 2-Template.phtml files and 3-CSS files.

Get EditPlus here!

You may have landed here and ask, what is Magento and what can it do for me? Well here’s a couple of Youtube videos which give a great overview.

Magento – Frontend Tour

Magento – Backend Tour

If a Blue Magento Theme is what you’re looking for then this may just be the one. A nice clean design with web 2.0′ish look really shows what is possible with a few subtle changes to the Magento default install.

When you compare the default Magento theme to this blue theme you’ll see that only a few images are replaced  with some minor CSS updates, yet this Magento template is stunning.

If you need any help with activating the theme please see the Magento Designers Guide

How To Use

• Unzip the downloaded archive (download below).
• Copy extracted files in to your store directory structure.
• Navigate to the Magento admin panel (ie.www.mydomain.com/admin), then the Design configuration tab (System » Configuration » Design tab).
• Select the name of your website from the (Current Configuration Scope) dropdown.
• In Default (under Themes heading), enter blue and click save config.
• Remember to disable page caching (System » Cache Management) whilst testing!
• Have fun!

Futher installation instructions are available on the Magento website.

Download: Blue Magento Theme (984KB)

Learn CSS here

Here’s a great blank Magento starter template to get you going on creating your own custom Magento design.

The CSS, Layout and Template files are stripped to the core and perfect for developing your own custom Magento template (theme).

This is a great theme to use for wire-framing or as a base for developing a custom Magento theme! A lot of work has gone in to slimming down the HTML and CSS, which makes it much easier to work with compared to the default theme.

How To Use

• Unzip the downloaded archive (download below).
• Copy extracted files in to your store directory structure.
• Navigate to the Magento admin panel (ie.www.mydomain.com/admin), then the Design configuration tab (System » Configuration » Design tab).
• Select the name of your website from the (Current Configuration Scope) dropdown.
• In Default (under Themes heading), enter blank and click save config.
• Remember to disable page caching (System » Cache Management) whilst testing!
• Have fun!

Futher installation instructions are available on the Magento website.
Download: Magento Blank Theme (866KB)

Magento templates are split in to two areas:

• Directory 1: app/design/frontend/default/default/ — This directory contains the layout, translation (locale) and template materials.
• Directory 2: skin/frontend/default/default/ — This directory contains the images, CSS and block-specific Javascripts.

You’ll notice the structure in our template .zip files is:

• /app/design/frontend/default/template_name
• /skin/frontend/default/template_name

To use our Magento Templates you simply need to do the following:

• Unzip the downloaded archive. (WinRar required)
• Copy extracted files in to your store directory structure.
• Navigate to the Magento admin panel (ie.www.mydomain.com/admin), then the Design configuration tab (System » Configuration » Design tab).
• Select the name of your website from the (Current Configuration Scope) dropdown.
• In Default (under Themes heading), enter template_name and click save config.
• Remember to disable page caching (System » Cache Management) whilst testing!

If you have any questions or problems enabling your Magento templates & themes, please post in the comments and we’ll do our best to help.

Alternatively if you require an indepth knowledge please see the Magento Designer’s Guide.

For selling products, especially online, one thing is very imporant. Listening to your clients. If you listen to your clients and know exactly what they want, you can target your ecommerce website to their needs and sell more products.

A great way to do this is by using a blog inside your Magento ecommerce store.  Magento offers plugins that allows you to integrate a WordPress blog inside your store very easily. By doing this you can offer customers a place where they can review your products, give feedback and begin to build a community from your ecommerce store. Ofcourse blogging is also a great way to promote your products aswell as letting your clients know how to use certain products, with how-to’s, tutorials and reviews being the main areas.

Lazzymonks Blog Extension for Magento does this for you. All you need to do is follow a few simple steps which may be found here:

http://chasesagum.com/setup-a-blog-inside-your-magento-store