1. Magento Tutorial Olu Akinsatimi BEng MSc

2. Introduction
Magento is an open source eCommerce solution. It is based on one of the most popular PHP Designing Pattern MVC (Module, View, Controller). It comes with a variety of tools, necessarily for building a successful online shop. Magento offers a lot of built-in capabilities, such as promo pricing and coupon codes, detailed statistics, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) options.

3. INSTALLATION ON WAMP OR XAMPP
Installing Magento on WAMP was longer than expected and took me an hour so you might grab a cup of coffee while you do this
1) Download and Install (For WAMP, place in the www folder)
2) Setup Database using phpmyadmin (using phpmyadmin, create a new database “We can call it Magento”)
3) Edit apache/conf/httpd.conf change line:
#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so to
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
(just remove the # )

4. INSTALLATION ON WAMP OR XAMPP
4) Edit apache/bin/php.ini and php/php.ini (same changes on both files - note, as of XAMPP 1.7.1, you will only have to change php/php.ini) change lines (the first change is not necessary on xampp):
;extension=php_mcrypt.dll to
extension=php_mcrypt.dll
and changes lines:
;extension=php_curl.dll
extension=php_curl.dll
(just remove the ; )
4a) On WAMP you must also change the following line in apache2/bin/php.ini and php/php.ini changes lines:
;extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll
extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll
In addition to php_pdo_mysql.dll, you may also need to make sure you are loading:
extension=php_pdo.dll

5. INSTALLATION ON WAMP OR XAMPP
6) Restart all servers
7) Goto: (replace the above “magento” with where your installation was extracted to)
8) On page 2 “Configuration” change database as needed (Preferably choose Magento)
Note you will get a database connection error if you haven’t created the database or if your mysql connection details is wrong. My Mysql connection details are:
Username = root
password = [empty]
database = magento
Secure Host: localhost (could be different) Secure Base Path: /magento/ (also could be different) Secure Protocol: http Secure Port: 80
9) Continue with install, all should be good!

6. INSTALLATION PROBLEM FIXING
NOTE:
Magento requires itself to be installed on a host name with at least one period ‘.’ in it, therefore installing to might not work. (Having installed to //localhost, I was unable to get it running even after the following changes. In the end I had to reinstall using the new host name which then worked fine.)
If you can’t login to the administration panel after installation, that’s because there’s a cookie problem. Open the host file at C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts and add these lines:
segun.com
Open a new browser and type segun.com in the URL

7. INSTALLATION PROBLEM FIXING

8. MAGENTO ENCRYPTION KEY
The Magento Encryption Key is generated during the Magento Installation. It is used for the encryption and the security storage of the sensitive data in the script's database.

9. MAGENTO ENCRYPTION KEY
The Magento Encryption Key is kept in the app/etc/local.xml file.
The code which you should look for is:
<crypt><key><! [CDATA[5b9ade855cbac283d7c94da5ae4243f0]]></key></crypt>

10. MAGENTO ENCRYPTION KEY
You need it if want to move your store data to a new Magento site. The Encryption key is used to recover the encrypted data.
When you migrate your database content to a new Magento installation, make sure that the encryption key from the existing installation is written in the new web site's local.xml file. Otherwise the encrypted data, stored in the new database will not work.

11. MAGENTO FEATURES
The large array of the Magento features is one of the main benefits of Magento. Through them you can easily develop and manage a successful online store. Magento features like different payment engines and shipping options along with the international support and high security using a private SSL certificate will make your shop an attractive place for e-commerce.

12. MAGENTO FEATURES
Analytics and Reporting - the script is integrated with Google Analytics and offers many different reports.
Product Browsing - multiple images for products, options for extensive reviews, wishlists and much more.
Catalog Browsing - easy navigation, advanced product filtering system, product comparison.
Catalog Management - inventory management, batch import and export of products, different tax rates per location, additional product attributes.
Customer Accounts - order status and history, and RSS feeds for products in the wishlist, newsletter subscription, default billing and shipping address.
Customer Service - enhanced features for customers' accounts, Contact Us form, comprehensive order tracking and history, customizable order s.

13. MAGENTO FEATURES
Order Management - create orders through admin area, create multiple invoices shipments and credit memos, call center order creation option.
Payment - different payment methods: credit cards, PayPal, Authorize.net, Google Checkout, checks, money orders, support of external payment modules like Cybersource, ePay, eWAY and many more.
Shipping - shipping to multiple addresses, flat rating shipping, supports UPS, UPS XML (account rates), FedEx (account rates), USPS and DHL.
Checkout - one page checkout, SSL support, checkout without having an account.
Search Engine Optimization - 100% Search Engine Friendly, Google SiteMap support.
International Support - multiple languages and currencies, list of allowed countries for registration, purchasing and shipping, localization.
Marketing Promotions and Tools - coupons, discounts and different promotion options.
Site Management - control of multiple web sites, multiple languages, tax rate with support for US and International markets, customizable outlook through templates.

14. CHANGE THE STANDARD MESSAGE
Log in to Admin-> System->Configuration->Design
Under the Header Tab: You can change the Logo, Website Name, and Welcome Text
Under the footer section: You can change the copyright information

15. CHANGE THE STANDARD MESSAGE

16. Create a Magento Web Store
Once you have completed the Magento installation, you can proceed with the configuration of your web site. In this article we have briefed the basic options in Magento, which will help you set up your web store. Below you can find the following topics:
Log into Magento;
Magento System Configuration;
Manage categories in Magento;
Manage products in Magento;
Magento catalog;
Promotions in Magento;
Magento reports;
Magento Base URL;

17. Create a Magento Web Store
By default the main page looks as follows:

18. Log into Magento Admin Area
In order to start populating your web site with content, you need to navigate to the Magento's admin area e.g.

19. System Configuration
Log in with the details entered during the script installation and navigate to System -> Configuration. Here you can configure the script options per your personal needs. Most options are self-explanatory:

20. Magento Catalog
From the Catalog category you can also manage the attributes, rewrite URLs for the products, perform searches, edit tags, generate a GoogleMap and manage reviews and ratings:

21. Promotions in Magento
From the Promotions section you can set promotions, define the rules for them and the customers' groups for which the promotions are valid:

22. Magento Reports
Multiple comprehensive statistics and reports can be obtained at the Magento admin area -> Reports.

23. Magento Base URL
If you want to configure Magento to work with another domain, you can do this by changing the Magento Base URL option in the admin area. To do this, go to your Magento admin area > System > Configuration and click Web on the left menu. Click the Unsecure option and then edit the Base URL field to configure the URL that will be used for normal (HTTP) connections.
To configure the URL for secure (HTTPS) connections, click the Secure option and then edit the Base URL field. Note that in order to use HTTPS connections for  your domain without receiving a warning about the SSL, you need to buy a private SSL certificate.