Add static block in magento

Add extra blocks in magento: 

Step 1: Create static block login your dashboard

Go to cms/Static Blocks

Step 2: Click on add new Block

Step 3: calling on frontend

Static blocks are very important part in magento for calling different blocks to change your look and feel of magento site

use this code in your template file(.phtml files)

echo $this->getLayout()->createBlock('cms/block')->setBlockId('identifire')->toHtml();

Explanation: 

1.suppose we want to add a banner in our magento store  for 

special offers on sidebar so we can use static block. 

2. If we want to add social media in my magento store in footer 

then we can use static block.

3.if we want to add links in my site then we can use static blocks 

Adding Categories in magento

   Adding Categories:  

Step 1: first login to Magento Dashboard  (yourdomain .com/admin)
          Catalog->Manage Categories
         

Step 2:  Select Default root category (Because root category define your store.)
       

Step 3:  After Selecting root category(Default By magento when adding fresh)
   
           Add Subcategory

After filling all information save.

Magento Directory Structure..

After completing installation we are able to understand directory structure..

The root directory structure

You are free to set your local Apache virtual host and host file to any domain you prefer, as long as you keep this in mind. If you're hearing about virtual host terminology for the first time, please refer to the Apache Virtual Host documentation at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/.

Here is a quick summary of each of those files and folders:

    .htaccess: This file is a directory-level configuration file supported by several web servers, most notably the Apache web server. It controls mod_rewrite for fancy URLs and sets configuration server variables (such as memory limit) and PHP maximum execution time.

   .htaccess.sample: This is basically a .htaccess template file used for creating new stores within subfolders.

    api.php: This is primarily used for the Magento REST API, but can be used for SOAP and XML-RPC API server functionality as well.

 app: This is where you will find Magento core code files for the backend and for the frontend. This folder is basically the heart of the Magento platform. Later on, we will dive into this folder for more details, given that this is the folder that you as an extension developer will spend most of your time on.

 cron.php: This file, when triggered via URL or via console PHP, will trigger certain Magento cron jobs logic.

 cron.sh: This file is a Unix shell script version of cron.php.

 downloader: This folder is used by the Magento Connect Manager, which is the functionality you access from the Magento administration area by navigating to System | Magento Connect | Magento Connect Manager.

                       

errors: This folder is a host for a slightly separate Magento functionality, the one that jumps in with error handling when your Magento store gets an exception during code execution.

                     

   favicon.ico: This is your standard 16 x 16 px website icon.

                        get.php: This file hosts a feature that allows core media files to be stored and served from the database. With the Database File Storage system in place, Magento would redirect requests for media files to get.php.

                   

     includes: This folder is used by the Mage_Compiler extension whose functionality can be accessed via Magento administration System | Tools | Compilation. The idea behind the Magento compiler feature is that you end up with a PHP system that pulls all of its classes from one folder, thus, giving it a massive performance boost.

                        

index.php: This is a main entry point to your application, the main loader file for Magento, and the file that initializes everything. Every request for every Magento page goes through this file.

                        

index.php.sample: This file is just a backup copy of the index.php file.

                        js: This folder holds the core Magento JavaScript libraries, such as Prototype, scriptaculous.js, ExtJS, and a few others, some of which are from Magento itself.

                        lib: This folder holds the core Magento PHP libraries, such as 3DSecure, Google Checkout, phpseclib, Zend, and a few others, some of which are from Magento itself.

                        

LICENSE*: These are the Magento licence files in various formats (LICENSE_ AFL.txt, LICENSE.html, and LICENSE.txt).

                      

  mage: This is a Magento Connect command-line tool. It allows you to add/ remove channels, install and uninstall packages (extensions), and various other package-related tasks.

                     

   media: This folder contains all the media files, mostly just images from various products, categories, and CMS pages.

                       

php.ini.sample: This file is a sample php.ini file for PHP CGI/FastCGI installations. Sample files are not actually used by the Magento application.

                       

pkginfo: This folder contains text files that largely operate as debug files to inform us about changes when extensions are upgraded in any way.

 RELEASE_NOTES.txt: This file contains the release notes and changes for various Magento versions, starting from version 1.4.0.0 and later.

  shell: This folder contains several PHP-based shell tools, such as compiler, indexer, and logger.

                       

skin: This folder contains various CSS and JavaScript files specific for individual Magento themes. Files in this folder and its subfolder go hand in hand with files in app/design folder, as these two locations actually result in one fully featured Magento theme or package.

                        

var: This folder contains sessions, logs, reports, configuration cache, lock files for application processes, and possible various other files distributed among individual subfolders. During development, you can freely select all the subfolders and delete them, as Magento will recreate all of them on the next page request. From a standpoint of a Magento extension developer, you might find yourself looking into the var/log and var/report folders every now and then.

How to install Magento Manualy ?

                                Magento Installation

Before Magento installation  you have to some basic Knowledge of PHP and Mysql

Please visit for PHP and MySql

Step 1 : Download Magento community version (magento-1.9.0.1.zip)

Step 2 : Unzip the zip folder and save it into your local server

Ex: D:\xampp\htdocs

Step 3: Before Installation Goto Phpmyadmin and Create New Database As seen below.

Step 4: Enter the URL in your browser and Type http://localhost/yourfolder(magento). one page display as seen below.

Step 5 : To click Check Box I Agree to the terms and conditions and Click Continue Button

Step 6 :Here To Change local,timezone currency(optional) and Click Continue Button

Step 7 : Here to Enter Database Type,Database Name,Host,username and Click Continue Button

Step 8 : Here Enter Your Personal Information and Login Information and Click Continue Button

Step 9: Here To Save Encryption Key and Click Goto Frontend page as seen below

What is Magento ?

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.

1.  What is magento?

Magento is the most powerful online eCommerce platform in the universe. Especially, it’s open source which was developed by Varien with help of programmers. But it’s owned by Magento Inc.

2.  History of Magento

• Magento officially began to improve in July, 2007
•  Beta version was published on 31^st , August, 2007
•  Magento ver 1.0 was released on 31^st , March , 2008
•  Magento ver 1.1 was released on 25^th, July, 2008. This version fixed many errors which helped Magento quicker and satisfied a lot of users.

3.  Basic Features of Magento

Magento is an open ecommerce source platform which is powerful and has many applications. It provides all features and tools to build ecommerce website as quick as possible.

There are features which Magento Tutorial for Beginners summarized:

•  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, e-mail 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 e-mails.
• 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.

4.  The advantages and disadvantages of Magento

Today, Magento is a popular ecommerce shopping cart on the market. Since its inception a lot has been talked and written about it. And the questions that are discussed over and over again are – Is Magento the right platform for me? What are the advantages and disadvantages of Magento compared to other ecommerce platforms?

Magento came out to be as one of the most robust, flexible and scalable open source ecommerce platforms on the market. Magento offers an extensive array of powerful tools for building and managing your online store. Like any other shopping cart it has its own advantages and disadvantages. Magento Tutorial for Beginners will give you ideas which Magento users comment most.

+  Advantages of Magento

• It is open source, so it’s easy to be popular and everyone can use it.
• Since Magento is 100% open source platform, lots of Magento extensions including free and paid ones are available to enhance of the power of Magento Ecommerce on your store. Extensions can be found from many well-known providers such as Magestore, Aheadworks, Amasty…
• Magento is built to scale from 1 to a million, avoiding common pitfalls for developers. Code re-use, maintainability, debugging, support, etc. are all huge, expensive problems that eCommerce solutions providers must tackle. Magento makes them all a breeze. Magento is powerful and effective.
• Magento handles concepts properly and in an organized manner. Stock Magento comes with Simple, Configurable, Grouped, Bundled, Virtual and Digital Products. You can use it to sell amusement park tickets and digital music at the same time, without any extensions.
• Magento can have many extensions which support for the development of the online store.

+  The disadvantages of Magento

• Magento runs PHP. Magento is architected like an enterprise java application, but its codebase is written in PHP. Users have complained that the Magento is relatively slow than other ecommerce solutions.
• It is a complex system and not one that is easy to work with. If it does not use object-oriented programming or other best practices because it has a heavy layered and complicated code that takes a lot of time to learn and make changes accordingly. Therefore, to get a job done properly and efficiently, you need to have a proper budget in order to work with Magento.
• You need to have a good hosting environment and store management in order for Magento to run. If proper hosting environment is not set-up, you can experience problems with speed.  Unlike simpler systems which can work anywhere, such as WordPress, Magento performs poorly if the website services are not as required, which means you need to have good server along with a good team to set and maintain server.
• Magento is intensive resource and requires much space and memory.
• Installation is not as intuitive as it should be in admin area. You should use the option of safe mode during installation