Enable HTTPS for your Magento store

You have to explicitly enable HTTPS for your Magento store if you didn’t select HTTPS during installation.

In the Admin panel: System -> Configuration -> General -> Web -> Secure

1. Base URL – https://www.yoursite.com
2. Use Secure URLs in Frontend – Yes
3. Use Secure URLs in Admin – Yes

Now Magento should be using HTTPS:// for all the important frontend pages (/customer/account/, /checkout/onepage/, etc.) and across the entire backend Admin pane.

Wait, /checkout/cart/ is still not HTTPS!

Yep. You have to do one more thing to make sure /checkout/cart/ is also automatically HTTPS.

Edit app/code/core/Mage/Checkout/etc/config.xml, find this:

<frontend>
<secure_url>

And add this line immediately below:

<checkout_cart>/checkout/cart</checkout_cart>

So that it looks like this:

<frontend>
<secure_url>
<checkout_cart>/checkout/cart</checkout_cart>
<checkout_onepage>/checkout/onepage</checkout_onepage>
<checkout_multishipping>/checkout/multishipping</checkout_multishipping>
</secure_url>

Refresh all the cache and Magento should be using HTTPS on /checkout/cart/ now.

Step 1

Find file /app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Config.php and copy it to /app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Model/Config.php. Open the copied file (open it still if it already exists before the copy) and find this function.

Add the bolded line:

public function getAttributeUsedForSortByArray()
{
    $options = array(
        'position'  => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Position'),
        // This line that adds the 'Date' option to the Sort By dropdown methods.
        'created_at' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Date')
    );
    foreach ($this->getAttributesUsedForSortBy() as $attribute) {
        /* @var $attribute Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Attribute_Abstract */
        $options[$attribute->getAttributeCode()] = $attribute->getStoreLabel();
    }

    return $options;
}

Step 2

Create and upload this file /app/etc/modules/SortByDate_Catalog.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
    <SortByDate_Catalog>
        <active>true</active>
        <codePool>local</codePool>
        <depends>
            <Mage_Catalog />
        </depends>
    </SortByDate_Catalog>
</modules>
</config>

Step 3

Create and upload this file /app/code/local/SortByDate/Catalog/etc/config.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<global>
    <models>
        <catalog>
            <rewrite>
                <config>SortByDate_Catalog_Model_Config</config>
            </rewrite>
        </catalog>
    </models>
</global>

Step 4

Create and upload this file /app/code/local/SortByDate/Catalog/Model/Config.php

<?php

class SortByDate_Catalog_Model_Config extends Mage_Catalog_Model_Config {

	public function getAttributeUsedForSortByArray()
	{
		$options = parent::getAttributeUsedForSortByArray();
		if (!isset($options['created_at'])) {
			$options['created_at'] = Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Date');
		}
		return $options;
	}

}

That’s it.

Now refresh your category pages and you would see an additional sort method ‘Date’ in the ‘Sort By’ dropdown list and selecting it would make the catalog display the items by creation date. Clicking the small arrow to the right would toggle between descending order and ascending order.

Rather, it has only the “Edit” link to open up the editor to edit the product. If one has to view a frontend product page from the backend, he or she’d have to copy the SKU and then search it in frontend to arrive at the product page which is very unhandy and annoying. Sometimes the results don’t even turn out any entries at all.

WordPress and lots of other famous CMS have this feature and I’m totally at a loss why Magento doesn’t have this ready for the convenience of the backend editors.

So how to add a “View” product link beside the “Edit” link for each product record?

At the end of article, you will have something similar to this:

That is, “View” product links on each product row that you can click to open up the frontend product page. Screenshot taken from my wedding dresses store.

To do this, find this file:

/app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Catalog/Product/Grid.php

And copy it to:

/app/code/local/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Catalog/Product/Grid.php

Open and edit the copied file /app/code/local/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Catalog/Product/Grid.php, find a block like this:

$this->addColumn('action',
            array(
                'header'    => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Action'),
                'width'     => '50px',
                'type'      => 'action',
                'getter'     => 'getId',
                'actions'   => array(
                    array(
                        'caption' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Edit'),
                        'url'     => array(
                            'base'=>'*/*/edit',
                            'params'=>array('store'=>$this->getRequest()->getParam('store'))
                        ),
                        'field'   => 'id'
                    )
                ),
                'filter'    => false,
                'sortable'  => false,
                'index'     => 'stores',
        ));

Which is the code for the “action” column of the products list. In the same manner, add an extra column named “view” by adding the code below immediately after “action“:

$this->addColumn('view',
            array(
                'header'    => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('View'),
                'width'     => '40px',
                'type'      => 'action',
                'getter'     => 'getId',
                'actions'   => array(
                    array(
                        'caption' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('View'),
                        'url'     => array(
                            'base'=>'catalog/product/view',
                            'params'=>array('store'=>$this->getRequest()->getParam('store'))
                        ),
                        'field'   => 'id'
                    )
                ),
                'filter'    => false,
                'sortable'  => false,
                'index'     => 'stores',
        ));

That’s it. Now refresh your Manage Products page and you should see a “View” link at the end of each product row. Clicking them would lead you to the frontend page of that particular product. I’m not sure how to force it to open in new window or new tab but I guess you can always do this yourself by holding Ctrl key in Firefox and Chrome.

Bolded part is the key difference of the “view” block from the “action” block.

What if you really need to add the code IMMEDIATELY before the page closing tags </body></html>?

Add code immediately before </body></html> in your Magento store

The best intended approach is to supply the code in your Magento System Configuration. Just go to:

System -> Configuration -> Design -> Footer.

Here you will find a textarea field that reads Miscellaneous HTML. Just put the analytics code there and it will appear immediately before the closing </body></html> on every page of your Magento store.

Similarly, add code immediately before closing </head>

Follow the configuration path:

System -> Configuration -> Design -> HTML Head

And you will find a textarea field named Miscellaneous Scripts. Just put any head meta or scripts code there and they will appear immediately before </head> on every page of your Magento store.

To reduce repeatedly wasted time and increase productivity when creating products, just edit /app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/catalog/product/edit.phtml and add the following JavaScript to the end of the file:

<script type="text/javascript">
if(document.getElementById('status').value == ""){
    document.getElementById('status').options[1].selected = true;
}
if(document.getElementById('weight').value == ""){
    document.getElementById('weight').value = "1.0";
}
if(document.getElementById('tax_class_id').value == ""){
    document.getElementById('tax_class_id').options[1].selected = true;
}
</script>

Now the Weight field will have a default value of ’1.0′, the Status field is selected ‘Enable’ by default and the Tax Class is selected as ‘None’ by default.

There is.

Open /app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/catalog/product/edit.phtml and add the following snippet to the bottom of the file:

<?php
    $dbread = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_read');
    $sql = $dbread->query("SELECT * FROM catalog_product_entity ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 1");
    $res = $sql->fetch();
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
if(document.getElementById('sku').value == ""){
    document.getElementById('sku').value = <?php echo (int)$res["sku"] + 1; ?>;
}
</script>

What this code does:

1. Read the SKU (must be an integer) of the last added product.
2. Increment the SKU by 1.
3. Pre-populate the incremented new SKU to the SKU field by JavaScript.

Therefore, you don’t have to manually enter the SKU yourself when adding the product.

You can do more with this

By adding extra JavaScript code to edit.phtml in a similar way, you can set default values for text input fields and make options selected by default for drop-down selections in the product editor.

http://www.example.com/tag/product/list/tagId/3/

While it’s perfectly static, it doesn’t look good without tag names in the URL nor does it inspire trust. We want it to be more neater as:

http://www.example.com/tag/royal/

It’s actually a very simple problem that’s ready to be solved if you are willing to spend $39 bucks. Iceberg Commerce has the exact solution: Magento SEO Product Tag Urls

Simply purchase the package, download it, uncompress and upload the app directory to your store installation. It’s upgrade-proof because they are well separated from the rest of the system. You don’t even have to overwrite any files.

Clear your Magento cache and you would see SEO-friendly tag URLs all over your store: individual product page, tags list page, etc.

They’ve got also a lot of other interesting and useful extensions for your Magento store.

Of course you do. Me too. Look at this:

So how to delete spam search terms from Popular Search Terms page?

What I’ve done is to edit the /app/design/frontend/default/your_theme/template/catalogsearch/term.phtml until it looks something like this:

		<?php
		$princessly_search_term = $this->htmlEscape($_term->getName());
		if (strpos($princessly_search_term, '%') !== false
			|| strpos($princessly_search_term, "'") !== false
			|| strpos($princessly_search_term, '`') !== false
			|| strpos($princessly_search_term, '=') !== false) {
			continue;
		}
		?>
            <li><a href="<?php echo $this->getSearchUrl($_term) ?>" style="font-size:<?php echo $_term->getRatio()*70+75 ?>%;"><?php echo $princessly_search_term ?></a></li>

The PHP function strpos() checks if a specific character is existent in the string $princessly_search_term which contains the originally raw search phrase. If it does, it’s not displayed (continue to the next phrase and check it to see if it does).

Most malicious / spam search attempts contain ‘%’, “‘”, or ‘=’ which normal users wouldn’t use in a legitimate search for your products. Now the Popular Search Terms page is a lot more clean and user friendly.

I prefer the old way which would actually engage the visitors.

However, by default Magento has only narrowly arranged thumbnails of the product images, the visitor has to click those thumbnails to see the large version – waste of user attention and they could leave because it costs more to get what they want (to see a larger picture). What we want to do is to simply display all the product images in large versions on the product page where the visitors are instantly satisfied.

Display all product images WITHOUT watermarks

To do this, find /app/design/frontend/default/your_theme/template/catalog/product/view.phtml and add this snippet anywhere appropriate (change the bold part to your own theme path):

<div class="product_images_exhibit">
	<h2><?php echo $this->__('Product Images') ?></h2>
	<?php $_images = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($_product->getId())->getMediaGalleryImages(); ?>
	<?php if($_images) {?>            
		<?php foreach($_images as $_image) {?>
			<p><img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'image', $_image->getFile())->constrainOnly(TRUE)->keepAspectRatio(TRUE)->keepFrame(FALSE)->setWatermarkImageOpacity(0)->resize(848, null);?>" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_image->getLabel());?>" title="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_image->getLabel());?>" /></p>
		<?php } ?>
	<?php } ?>
</div>

That’s it! See what I’ve done for my store: http://www.princessly.com/trumpet-a-line-v-neck-asym-drop-waist-sleeveless-straps-wedding-dress-w-court-train.html

Display all product images WITH watermarks

With “->setWatermarkImageOpacity(0)” the displayed images will not have watermarks on them. This is better for user experience but may enable image stealing. To add the watermarks, just get rid of “->setWatermarkImageOpacity(0)“:

<div class="product_images_exhibit">
	<h2><?php echo $this->__('Product Images') ?></h2>
	<?php $_images = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($_product->getId())->getMediaGalleryImages(); ?>
	<?php if($_images) {?>            
		<?php foreach($_images as $_image) {?>
			<p><img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'image', $_image->getFile())->constrainOnly(TRUE)->keepAspectRatio(TRUE)->keepFrame(FALSE)->resize(848, null);?>" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_image->getLabel());?>" title="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_image->getLabel());?>" /></p>
		<?php } ?>
	<?php } ?>
</div>

You would still need to configure watermarks in System -> Configuration -> Design to make this work.

When you are adding social buttons, it may not be enough to just add the button and let it detect the current page URL itself. For example, when the user clicks “Edit” of a cart item and gets to the edit page of that item, it’s almost the same as the canonical item page.

If you have social buttons on that page then chances are they won’t be useful at all because they would be promoting the edit page rather than the canonical page. Thus, we need to feed canonical URL rather than the current page URL to them.

How to get the canonical URL of a product programmatically?

It’s as simple as this:

echo $product->getUrlModel()->getUrl($product, array('_ignore_category'=>true));

Make sure you change $product to whatever you are using for the product in your PHTML template.