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Over the past year or so, writing for Milk Your Money has led me on an impressive journey through the wide spectrum of topics surrounding personal finance, the economy and money in general. I have met some awesome people and have learned much more than I would have previously imagined. This path has led in several directions, sometimes in several at once. One of the methods that proves itself over and over in some shape or form is the idea of taking control for yourself and making money on your own terms. We can break this down even further and apply a digital twist. Meet Magento, the open source ecommerce system written primarily in PHP. Where is the best place to start? At the beginning of course! William Rice has recently (as of March 2009) written a guide that takes a beginner through the initial process of setting up and operating an online store. He doesn’t suggest that you are going to put Amazon out of business, but if you are committed and dedicate the time and resources you will be able to sell with some level of success.
General
One of the overall themes that William Rice maintains is that it is important to plan in the beginning as much as you can in order to save a great deal of time later down the road. As a reader, I can see the advantage to reading through this guide several times before even downloading the application. There are quite a few key things that need to be clarified early on in the process.
Another important tone that the author threads through the guide is thoroughness. While only a fraction of the features are covered here, the essentials are discussed in full along with common errors that people have made in the past that you should avoid. Some parts may seem tedious, but they are no less important. You will have a much deeper understanding of how the system works as well as appreciate it much more.
Pros:
– The biggest positive aspect of this book is the fact that it is so accessible. Its written for the user in terms that are easy to understand and fosters a curious attitude.
– Of course my favorite aspect of this book is the absolute thoroughness of the topics covered. Some might see this as a negative and somewhat boring, but this isn’t the latest Harry Potter book: its a guide to setting up an extremely powerful content management system for an online store.
– The topics are quite literally everything you need to know, step-by-step.
– The structure of how the information is presented is also well done, although the headers could have been a little more formal, AT the end of each chapter there is a recap and the actual steps are displayed.
– Pictures are in color (at least the copy I received is) and while that might seem trivial, I think it makes a difference. I have even seen quite a few Photoshop books that are in black and white.
Cons:
– I do have a few things about the book that I would have changed. For starters, I was somewhat disappointed at the boundaries in the scope that book carved. It might have just been a matter of having some experience with PHP (and IT in general) that I was chomping at the bit for more. This could be construed as a positive thing but it was frustrating.
– I also thought that there could have been more explanation for some of the fundamentals for a beginner. Explaining image sizing for example is an important aspect that any web designer in any capacity should understand and grasp firmly. It would have taken just a decent a paragraph or two but the author was almost too strict in sticking with the scope of the book.
– One other shortcoming I want to point out is that there a lacking in customer theory in that I would have liked to read more to get inside the customers head as to why things are the way they are and why. This could be argued that its simply a trial and error endeavor and this is just the way it is. Its also out of the scope of a beginners book and hopefully there will be a little more “user science” in an advanced version, if there is one.
– Design and customization could have been addressed more although, again, this is the beginners guide.
My Wish List for an Advanced Guide:
* Multiple pathways for payment (eg, can a payment be split in two different accounts)
* What is the patching process?
* Batch processing for products?
* What if the product is simply downloadable? Can you remove all shipping options?
* More on themes/skins/customization
* More of the features that make Magento so popular.
* What is the user thinking?
Summary:
It might seem as though I was harsh but over all I am very pleased with this book and if I were serious about setting up an online store this would be an indispensible resource to get started. Pick it up if you are committed to starting an online store.
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