Magento setup cronjob for google sitemap and other tasks using SSH on unix

This post may be not for everybody, because it crosses some speciality lines. But there are many multidisciplinary admin/programmers out there doing this daily because some tasks just have to get done.

First we are going to configure the Google Sitemap in Magente Admin and then we are going to log onto a Unix system via SSH and edit the crontab. And while we are at it, we are going to configure some additional, but important cronjobs. A cronjob is something like a scheduled task. The computer will execute that task at exactly the time or date you have configured. It is an automated process that will take routine tasks out of your hands.

Configuring Google Sitemap in Magento

First setup the cronjob in Magento:
In Magento Admin > System > Configuration > Catalog > Settings and configure:

1. Enable
2. Fill in the time to run the Cronjob. I prefer after midnight.
3. Choose a frequency. Daily is best.
4. Fill in a TO address. In case the Cronjob doesn't go well an error report will be sent..
5. Fill in a  FROM address for that mail.
6. Choose a Email Template which will be used for the error report.

Now we setup the sitemap. I will keep in mind a sitemap setup for multiple stores.

1. Add sitemap
2. Filename HAS to be sitemap.xml. No variations are possible.
3. Path. Last path folder has to be writable (777). I have used /sitemap/shopa/. As you can see, within the /sitemap/ folder, each Shop will have its own folder to put the sitemap.xml in.
4. Choose the Shop View and Save.
5. You can now create a sitemap.xml for each Shop View.
6. When the Cronjob works without errors, you can see this in the Last Generated column.

Configuring Cronjob on a Linux Server using SSH.

We connect to our Linux Webservers using SSH. Login procedure can be configured in a great little application called Putty. More information can  be found on their website: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

1. Connect to the Host using a Hostname or IP address on Port 22 and connection type SSH. In the popup window you are asked for a login name and password. Great now we are on the server.
2. Type and enter: "crontab -e" to open the crontab. Most likely this will be in an app called VI.
3. Type "i" to change mode to "insert". Now you are able to edit the crontab.
4. Now paste the following line:
   */15 * * * * php -f /var/www/vhosts/PATH/TO/MAGE/cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1
   The /dev/ part means that all output (ok and errors) will be output in /dev/null/ folder.
   The 15 * * * * means that this job will be run every 15 minutes.
5. Following line will reindex the database every day at 4 AM:
   0 5 * * * php -f /var/www/vhosts/PATH/TO/MAGE/shell/indexer.php > /dev/null> 2>&1
6. Following line will clean the log files every first of the month:
   0 0 1 * * php -f /var/www/vhosts/PATH/TO/MAGE/shell/log.php clean > /dev/null 2>&1
7. Hit "ESC" to exit "insert" mode.
8. Enter "Shift+q", type "wq" and hit ENTER to exit the Crontab.
9. When successful this message appears: "crontab: installing new crontab"

This concludes how to configure a cronjob on a Linux environment and within the Magento Admin. I have used this approach for my Magento based websites http://www.ruitersport-discounter.nl (equestrian budget) and http://www.paardcare.nl (equestrian) with success.

Magento hide My Orders and My Cart from sidebar

We decided to hide the My Orders and My Cart from the sidebar. This requires minimal programming effort and only the local.xml has to be edited and can be found here:

\apps\design\frontend\default\default\layout\local.xml

Within node:

<layout version="0.1.0">
    <default>
        <remove name="catalog.compare.sidebar"/>
            <reference name="left">

Add following lines:

<remove name="cart_sidebar"></remove>
<remove name="sale.reorder.sidebar"></remove>
<remove name="catalog.compare.sidebar"></remove>

Voilà!

Magento Tutorial practical use of the footer template

If the same information on your Magento website is repeated over and over, like contact information, internal / external SEO links or a copyright block, it might be a good idea to put these in the footer template. Within the magento frontend template this file can be found at:

\app\design\frontend\default\default\template\page\html\footer.phtml

In my case, again on my equestrian project website http://www.paardcare.nl the idea was to edit the footer and add a nice trusted logo, the copyright line and some information regarding the company, FAQ, sitemap, etc, etc. This is how it turned out:

Pretty neat! But what? And how? Let's check it out:

1. A block containing all brands from this website.
2. Remove Newsletter box from Side Box to Footer
3. Add footer links on the right
4. Add footer links on the left
5. Add an image on the right
6. Expand the copyright line

A block containing all brands from this website

A block containing all brands from the website has its use for either usability and SEO, while you don't have maintain the block as every link is generated automatically.

Within the <div class="footer-container"> - the outer DIV container - I have placed another DIV container:

<div class="footer-container">
    <div class="footer-brand">
        <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('footer_brand_callout') ?> <!-- cms > static page-->
    </div>

As you can see in the above code, it just echoes the content from the CMS Static Block "footer_brand_callout" (identifier), made in Magento Admin. This is the code from the CMS Static Block:

{{block type="catalog/product" template="catalog/product/brand.phtml"}}

I have decided to place this code in a Static Block because I now have control in what Shop View this code will be shown.
Ok, all the real coding happens in file (create file if it does not exist):

\app\design\frontend\default\default\template\catalog\product\brand.html

Copy and paste the code:


<?php
    $product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product');
    $attributes = Mage::getResourceModel('eav/entity_attribute_collection')
->setEntityTypeFilter($product->getResource()->getTypeId())
->addFieldToFilter('attribute_code', 'manufacturer');
    $attribute = $attributes->getFirstItem()->setEntity($product->getResource());
    $manufacturers = $attribute->getSource()->getAllOptions(false);

   $array_size = count($manufacturers);
?>

<div>
    <div>
        <h4><span><?php echo $this->__('Our Brands:') ?></span></h4>
    </div>
    <div style="padding-left:8px;">
        <ul id="manufacturer_list">
    <?php for ($i = 0; $i < $array_size; ++$i): ?>
            <li <?php if($i == ($array_size-1)){ print "class=\"last\""; }?>>
                <a href="<?php echo Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_WEB)?>catalogsearch/advanced/result/?manufacturer[]=<?php echo $manufacturers[$i]['value']; ?>">
<?php echo $manufacturers[$i]['label'] ?></a>
            </li>
<?php endfor; ?>
    </ul>
</div>
<div>
</div></div>

NOTE: not all of the above code is ours. Please contact me for credits if you care.

Remove Newsletter box from Side Box to Footer

This step is pretty basic. After removing the Newsletter from the Side Box, or disabling the Side Box, just put the following code in a DIV block:

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('footer.newsletter') ?>

Add footer links on the right 
Get default Magento Footer links:

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('cms_footer_links') ?>

Get contents from a Static CMS Block:

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('footer_links') ?>

The above snippet refers to a Static CMS Block called by its identifier "footer_links". The contents of this block:

<ul>
    <li><a href="{{store direct_url="over-paardcare"}}">Over Paardcare.nl</a></li>
    <li><a href="{{store direct_url="klantenservice"}}">Klantenservice</a></li>
</ul>

As you can see. All ahrefs refer to their CMS Page and are called by default HTML code where "store direct_url" will print the Website Domain with a slash (/).

Add footer links on the left
For diversity sakes, instead of a Static CMS Block I will show you how to code this in the footer.phtml directly:

<div class="footer-voorwaarden">
    <a href="<?php echo Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_WEB);?>klantenservice/algemene-voorwaarden/">Algemene Voorwaarden</a>&nbsp|&nbsp
    <a href="<?php echo Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_WEB);?>disclaimer/">Disclaimer</a>&nbsp|&nbsp
    <a href="<?php echo Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_WEB);?>privacy-verklaring/">Privacy Verklaring</a>
</div>

 To get the Website Domain I have used the built in Magento Core snippet.:

Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_WEB);

Add an image on the right

Again, hardcoded only in the footer.phtml:

<div class="standards">
    <img src="<?php echo $this->getSkinUrl('images/exad-trading-geotrust-ssl.png'); ?>" />
</div>

The function $this->getSkinUrl retrieves the first part of the URL (Website Domain & Path to configured skin package): http://DOMAIN/skin/frontend/default/default/ and concatenates the patch given as variable in the function.

Expand the copyright line

The Copyright message was a bit on the light side so we decided to expand the line with additional information. To make the code reusable for other Shop Views, it is necessary to generate the Shop Name instead of putting the Shop Name as a static. This can be done by the following snippet:

<?php echo  Mage::app()->getStore()->getGroup()->getName(); ?>

With this I conclude the tutorial. If you feel this was helpful, click on a banner or +1 to spread the word.

Magento Add Home button to horizontal Top Navigation

In this post I will show you how to add a Home button to your Horizontal Top Navigation like on this website www.ruitersport-discounter.nl

Home button on the left side of the Horizontal Top Navigation Bar

We are going to edit the following file:

\app\design\frontend\default\default\template\catalog\navigation\top.phtml

 Within the <div class="nav-container"><ul id="nav">, but above the <?php echo $_menu ?>, paste the following code snippet:

<?php $_anyActive = false; foreach ($this->getStoreCategories() as $_category) { $_anyActive = $_anyActive || $this->isCategoryActive($_category); } ?>
<li class="<?php echo !$_anyActive ? 'active' : '' ?>"><a href="<?php echo $this->getUrl('')?>"><?php echo $this->__('Home') ?></a></li>

Magento hide Callouts from every page in catalog.xml

To hide the Callout blocks from every page on your website, we are going to edit the following file:

\app\design\frontend\default\default\layout\catalog.xml

In this file the behaviour of various default blocks are handled.
To hide the Callouts we have to comment or delete the whole code block:

<block type="core/template"> ... </block>

Now you are all set. You may have to Flush Cache from Magento Admin.

Magento hide Recently Compared Products Block and Recently Viewed Products Block

To hide the Recently Viewed Products Block and Recently Compared Products Block on ALL pages on the website, we are going to edit the file:

\app\design\frontend\default\default\layout\reports.xml

Comment out the two block types within the <reference> tag like:

<!-- <block type="reports/product_viewed" before="right.permanent.callout" name="right.reports.product.viewed" template="reports/product_viewed.phtml" /> -->
<!-- <block type="reports/product_compared" before="right.permanent.callout" name="right.reports.product.compared" template="reports/product_compared.phtml" /> -->

Now you are all set. You may have to Flush Cache from Magento Admin.

Magento show custom static block only on homepage

In this post I will show how to create a custom static block in Magento and show the contents from this block on the Homepage. So in short, show a Static Block in a CMS Page.

The easy part is that we can do this in Magento Admin only. This is an example taken from one of my e-commerce websites www.paardcare.nl :

Content from the Static Block is highlighted. 

1. First, create a Static Block: CMS > Static Block > Create new Static Block. The Block identifier is important as we are going to call this block by this ID. You can put anything in the contents from this Block. We've created a <div> container with a <a href><img> construction.
2. Next, edit the Homepage in CMS > Pages > [Homepage] > Custom Design > Layout update XML. Within the <reference name="left"> ... </reference> tag paste the following syntax/snippet:
   
   <block type="cms/block" name="[RANDOMNAME]" before="-">
       <action method="setBlockId"><block_id>[YOUR_BLOCK_IDENTIFIER]</block_id></action>
   </block>

That is all to it. Feel free to +1 this post to spread the word or click on a random banner on this site.

Magento add sku or product number to shopping cart item in the checkout page

It is not difficult in Magento to add a sku, product number or any other product attribute to the shopping cart item on the checkout page. On our e-commerce website, http://www.paardcare.nl , our wish was to add the Sku number to the shopping cart. This can be done using:

$this->getChildProduct()->getAttribute();

The following file must be edited:

\app\design\frontend\default\default\template\checkout\cart\item\default.phtml

Around Line 36 place the this block:

<span style="color: #AAAAAA; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic;">- Art.

<?php

    if(is_object($this->getChildProduct())): 

        echo $this->getChildProduct()->getSku();

    else: 

        echo $_item->getSku();

    endif; ?>

</span>

This will look like:

Our snipped within the default code

Magento remove Paypal logo or other things from static page

A basic Magento template comes with default blocks you probably do not want. For my project at http://www.paardcare.nl (an equestrian horseriding e-commerce website) I had to remove all standard blocks.

To remove the Paypal logo from a static page (hompage) no programming is required. Simply login the admin panel and browse to:

CMS > Static Pages > Home Page > Design

In the layout update XML just paste within <reference> tags:
<reference name="left">
    <remove name="paypal.partner.right.logo"/>
</reference>

This trick works for the following as well:

• Popular Tags block
• Sidebar Cart block
• Sidebar Compare block
• Viewed Products block

Remove the blocks by putting them within the <reference> tag like:

<reference name="left">
    <remove name="paypal.partner.right.logo"/>
    <remove name="tags_popular"></remove>
    <remove name="cart_sidebar"></remove>
    <remove name="catalog.compare.sidebar"></remove>
    <remove name="right.reports.product.viewed"></remove>
    <remove name="sale.reorder.sidebar"></remove>
</reference>