Magento is a renowned open source shopping cart solution that has equally facilitated merchants and retailers around the globe. This platform allows merchants to instantly go live with their products and services to reach a target audience. For developers, Magento is one of the impressive tools to set up a web-shop according to the needs of a merchant. The user-friendly interface has attracted the common man to own and manage an online store without acquiring technical expertise.
The increasing demand in setting up an easy to manage web shop has created lots of opportunities for developers. There is a wide variety of resources available so that they can sharpen their skills and secure a competitive position in the industry.
Learning Magento is among one of the primary skills that a computer science graduate has to acquire before searching for jobs or bidding over relevant projects. Though, it is not a programming language, but the varying business needs may require an individual to code for customization, developing a theme or plugin, or carrying major changes in the web structure. In short, the more an individual is fluent in coding, the more career prospects are waiting. We have collected some of the useful resources that may help you in your learning endeavors. These are listed as follows.
1. The Open Source Code
The Magento application is developed in PHP language. Being an open source e-commerce application, developers can access, use and alter the code, which serves as a major learning resource. A beginner can observe how different areas and modules of the gigantic platform are written in PHP, and what are the functionality outputs of each code pattern.
The computer science graduates, who are taught PHP and other programming languages, can easily get through the code and sort things out. They might have studied a lot about coding, but have never explored it practically. Accessing the written code of a website is a treasure for them to observe how the text and special characters to woven to make it function.
2. Magento Documentation
https://magento.com/resources/technical
The technical resources section of Magento is an official toolkit for developers as well the site owners. Beginners can learn the basics of coding with simple and easy to understand tutorials and browse the official documentation. It allows the developers to know how each component of the Magento platform is developed for a proposed functionality. The documentation provides all the information and learning material a developer may need to learn how to excel in this field.
If you are thinking to start a career with Magento, the official documentation provides you the entire details you need to know about this stunning platform. Explore the release details of each version that are updated for enhancing safety and security of the online stores. You can dig deeper to differentiate between the enterprise and community editions as well. And, also get to know about the recent achievement of bringing in the Magento cloud-based solution.
3. Magento for Developers
http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/m1x/magefordev/mage-for-dev-1.html
It is one of the useful resources that are designed specifically for developers. It facilitates the webmasters as well, who have little knowledge about the code and want to expand their knowledge further. They can start with this simple guide and succeed by studying the 8 chapters one by one. Learning outcomes include the skills of syncing different tools and getting familiar with the recommended practices of coding in Magento.
The step by step guide is quite helpful for starters to improve Magento website development skills. It starts with a basic introduction of the platform and how it is empowering more than 250,000 online stores across the globe. Users get familiar with the configuration and learn to code different layouts, templates, and blocks, etc. Each chapter serves a comprehensive lesson and is counted as building blocks to the career of professional developers.
4. Reading Blogs and News Articles
The blogs that are written by senior developers are considered scholarly articles. They document their knowledge and expertise through valuable content and make it publicly available for the learners to study. These may include coding guides, case studies, planning a theme or plugin, and the open source code of the tools they develop.
In addition to the instructional blogs, learners can follow news by the official Magento partners to get updates about the advancements in the fields. Some of the worth mentioning names are, FME’s blog, Practical eCommerce, Inchoo, DLTR, Understandinge, etc. Visit them and sign up for their subscriptions to get a notification in your email every time they post a fresh piece of content. The key to success in your domain is to keep yourself aware of the major as well as minor advancements in the industry.
5. Free Themes and Plugins
At the start of a career, a developer can hardly afford to purchase the third party tools to experience installation and integration. Being working in the field, you might be asked to develop any business specific tool that you might have never heard of. It will make you unanswerable to the client and show that you are not mature enough to take on the instructions and understand their needs. You can find free and extensions and theme directly from Magento marketplace.
A quick fix to this problem is trying the freely available themes and plugins on any dummy website. Most of the web development companies have a free version for most of their plugins and extensions. These free versions are a part of their marketing strategy to let the merchants try the application and opt for the premium one that offers enhanced features. This goes in your favor. You can download, install and configure them, and continue with customization that goes in line with the code.
6. Asking the Community
Magento is known for its vast, active and helpful community of developers, retailers, merchants, and agencies. It is a hub of technical support that makes it distinct from other e-commerce applications like PrestaShop, WooCommerce, etc. The community help has become the strength of Magento learners, developers, and key stakeholders.
It is the only community that is housed with professionals who keep on helping freshers even with their regular and common questions as they are relevant. Beginners are encouraged to post valid questions on the forum and get a quick response. Most of the eCommerce platforms have live chat feature which is often powered with a robot and the learners could only get bookish replies and nothing practical at all.
7. Meet Magento Events
Magento holds annual and bi-annual events around the year in different cities around the globe. These meet-ups provide stunning opportunities for young entrepreneurs, developers to interact with the successful businessmen of the locality. The people doing businesses within a city are often unaware of valuable human beings working in the same capacity. The official meeting is a wonderful event to listen to the success stories and the challenges faced by the locals. You can find the detail of upcoming events from here.
Visit Meet-Magento.com to find upcoming events nearest to your home city. Do not forget to check out the Developers’ Paradise Conference, which is arranged annually to compel the entire community of developers to leave their computer screens to interact with each other in a fun loving way. The event takes on a series of lectures and some entertaining activities. Indeed, one of the major resources of a programmer to learn while relaxing with peers.
8. Training and internships
At the start of a career, every individual comes to know that he or she still needs to learn a lot and spend more on trainings. The simplest way is to get free training at the cost of a Magento website development company by applying for their sponsored courses and get enrolled as interns. They create internship opportunities to contribute towards the humanity by educating the fresh graduates to learn the basics and then practice to lead further.
If you are zealous to learn in a sprint, but lack a reliable platform to shape up your dreams, it is the time to search for internship opportunities. Learn as much as you can under the supervision of experience and brilliant executives, and pay your way for a bright future.
9. Professional Discussion Forums
The question and answer websites that are focused on certain programming languages and platforms are known as the goldmines of knowledge. After studying tutorials, getting training and completing courses, candidates still have ambiguities about different coding components. To get the ambiguities clear, they can log on to Stack exchange, Quora, and Reddit, and ask without any hesitation. Learn from the valuable answers of the expert and discuss the matter until it is resolved.
In addition to the professional networking platforms, the common social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, G+ and LinkedIn can also connect the learners with trainers, developers, and successful entrepreneurs. You can seek inspiration from the technology geeks by following their tweets and posts about Magento.
Final Thoughts
Magento is high in demand because of its recently launched version of the e-commerce platform. The Magento 2.0 is equipped with all the useful tools a merchant may need to carry a business safely. We hope the above-discussed resources will prove useful for any developer to get started, learn the basic and pursue for advancements. Magento web development is a continuous learning experience, where you have to keep your knowledge and skills abreast with the latest industry trends and varying business needs.
