Monthly Archives: September 2015

How to Configure Varnish for Magento 2

- Magento 2

Magento 2 Varnish Guide

Benchmarks show that Magento 2 is much faster than the 1.X version of the platform, but you can improve its performance with the aid of Varnish. Being an HTTP accelerator, it is often used with heavily consumed APIs and content-heavy dynamic websites. Unlike other similar solutions, Varnish is focused exclusively on HTTP. About 10% of the Top 10K websites rely on this accelerator. The most prominent Varnish users are The New York Times, Wikipedia, Vimeo, Facebook, and Twitter. Since the performance of these websites might be a great reason to use Varnish with Magento 2, we’d like to shed light on its configuration within the platform, but let’s start with the nature of the accelerator. Continue Reading

The Best JavaScript Package Managers

- Fire development

Package Managers for JavaScript

The appearance of package managers entirely changed JavaScript routine processes, since they’ve solved a set of problems and simplified the use of the language. First of all, JavaScript package managers introduced a new reliable approach to third-party software. That’s why you only need to know how a certain tool works instead of learning the algorithm of the installation process, or how the software is built, compiled, and integrates with the system. Besides, you get a dependency management solution with every JavaScript package manager. The software knows the requirements of every package, so it automatically installs all the necessary components in order to satisfy the tree of dependencies.    Continue Reading

Advanced Development with RequireJS (+ Magento 2 Tutorial)

- Fire development, Magento 2

How to set up RequireJS with Magento 2

Below, I shed light on such useful technology as RequireJS and compare it with the closest competitors. Since here on the Firebear blog we are passionate about Magento 2,  I also explain how to configure and adjust RequireJS with the second version of the ecommerce platform. The article itself combines real world coding experience, notes from the official documentation, code snippets, and materials from reliable sources. You will find a complete resource list in the end of this blog post. Continue Reading

The Best Node.js Ecommerce Platforms

- E-Commerce, Node.js

Ecommerce with Node.js

Since Node.js is an extremely powerful tool, it is widely used by developers around the world. Moreover, the environment is utilized within various spheres, including content management and ecommerce . Recently, I’ve covered all major Node.js CMSs, so now I’d like to draw your attention to some reliable ecommerce solutions based on Node.js. You can find all Firebear’s articles about the development environment listed here: The Ultimate Guide to Node.js. If you are looking for a robust ecommerce platform that offers Node-specific features, check the following article. Continue Reading

Magento 2 vs Shopify

- E-Commerce, Magento 2

Why Magento 2 is better than Shopify

Being in business since 2006, Shopify has gathered more than 50 thousand retailers around the ecommerce platform. Despite Magento is a little bit younger, it is the leading ecommerce solution. It was first introduced in 2008, and in 2011 Ebay purchased the company. Unlike Shopify with its proprietary code, Magento is an open source ecommerce platform.

On Firebear, I’ve already compared Magento and Shopify. You can find that blog post here: Magento vs Shopify. Now, it is time to pay attention to differences between Magento 2 and Sopify. The following blog post discusses pros and cons related to both platforms. Let’s start with Shopify.

The Ultimate Magento 2 Guide

Magento 2 Demo

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Viral Ecommerce as a Key to Success

- E-Commerce

Viral marketing in ecommerce

Since modern consumers are more savvy than they used to be, attempts to create new marketing approaches must be more elaborated. As you can see, even ads, considered to be a crucial tool of marketing , lose their effectiveness. Thus, marketers are faced with a new problem: old marketing approaches are no longer useful. The problem is particularly relevant for digital commerce because of its rapid development and lightning fast adoption of new features. Luckily, there is a reliable solution called viral ecommerce, and it is fully described below. Continue Reading

Magento 2 Command Line Tool (/bin/magento)

- Magento 2

Magento 2 CLI

Since Magento 2 provides a very useful implementation of Symfony’s Console component, you can easily perform tons of important actions from a command line interface. It is possible to reindex, clean cache, generate code, create database backups, and run other commands with the help of this instrument. Moreover, you can easily enhance the existing solution with your own commands aimed at your Magento 2 extensions. Below, I explain how to use Magento 2 CLI tool and what commands to run. Continue Reading

The Best Magento Hackathon Extensions (free & open source)

- E-Commerce

Magento Hackathon: the best projects

Magento Hackathon – is a series of community driven events where Real Magento community enthusiasts create amazing free open source Magento extensions and tools within just a couple of days. The core aspect of all Magento Hackathon events is intensive team collaboration: the best specialists develop top notch solutions during short periods of time. The most prominent results of such cooperation are listed below. Please note that all Hackathon extensions have been tested by a broad Magento community, so you can easily use them not only during development, but also in production (if a project is stable, of course). Continue Reading

The Power of Real Magento Community

- E-Commerce, Magento tips & tricks

Real Magento Community

The community around the Magento platform is vast. It consists of both professionals and enthusiasts, developers and merchants, geeks and sirs. In the beginning, all this mass was scattered and disconnected, but everything has been changed within last years. Magento community is not only huge, but it is also powerful, influential and not indifferent to its members. Today, it’s one of the real benefits of the platform. Don’t stay aside and try to get the maximum from the Real Magento Community. We will explain how to do this in the following post. Also, check the neu initiative – the Magento Association. It is going to organize and optimize processes that take place in the community.

UPD (11.02.16): How do I get involved in the Magento community?

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