The following is a guide for people using the Yoast Canonical Links module on their Magento site, but are also using a custom theme. Using the Magento Connect Manager to install this module works fine if you are using Magento’s default theme, but if not it will not install correctly and you’ll likely see errors involving the permalinks to your pages. This because the required template files have not been inserted into the right folder.

The best course of action is to download the files from the official site, and upload them manually via ftp. This way you can be sure everything is in the correct folder.

The webpage download is here: http://yoast.com/tools/magento/canonical/

Being a hugely complex system of files and functions, when Magento suddenly goes into error mode – that dreaded page that we are all aware of – it can sometimes be difficult to identify what’s gone wrong. One which I came across recently came completely out of the blue and was related to XML files in the layout folder.

The error appeared like this:

The error output read:

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: Entity: line 106: parser error :
StartTag: invalid element name
in /var/www/vhosts/mywebsite.co.uk/httpdocs/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Layout/Update.php on line 294

The main reason why I wanted to post about this error is that there is absolutely no solution to it anywhere on the Internet, so it requires addressing. As I said, the error relates to modifications made in the /layouts folder as the function in Update.php: ‘public function fetchFileLayoutUpdates()’.

If this error appears you need to restore your layout XML files to their original states – then I would suggest re-inserting your edits one at a time, ensuring that no mistakes are made.

It has recently become apparent to me that the Layered Navigation and Static Block solutions that I have previously covered do not work well together. There are two outcomes:

1. If you call the subcategory_listing static block rather than displaying products, the layered navigation will not work as it is searching through objects that don’t exist on the page. Therefore, if using this method you want to set ‘Is Anchor’ to ‘No’. This will prevent the layered avigation from showing meaning your customers won’t be frustrated by a non-working link.

2. If you would like the layered navigation to remain in use then you will have to remove the static block listing and just display products. You still get all the subcategories listed in the left hand menu, but it may not be as eye catching as the visual subcategories. If you decide to use this option you need to set ‘Is Anchor’ to ‘Yes’.

Ultimately, whichever you choose you’ll have a decent method of navigating the site. I’m more inclined to go with the layered navigation method due to the extra options it provides. Amazon is also a user of this method of navigation and it hasn’t done them any harm…

The Fontis reCAPTCHA extension for Magento is a great way of adding protection to the contact form you are provided for your e-commerce shop. Those familiar with reCAPTCHA will know that it isn’t the best captcha program available on the Internet as it is sometimes frustratingly difficult to read, and the soundbyte is a complete waste of time. However, the spam protection that it provides makes it very worthwhile. The steps to install it are simple:

1. Copy the extension key from: http://www.magentocommerce.com/extension/1169 and paste it into Magento Connect Manager.

2.  Logout and then log back in to your Magento Admin panel. Go to System > Configuration > Recaptcha. Here you’ll find that you require an Public Key and Private Key.

3. You’ll now need to sign up for a reCAPTCHA account. You need to do this for each domain you want to add the captcha form to. Once done you’ll be provided with the Public and Private Key that you require, then you can simply copy and paste it into the fields in your Magento admin panel. You can now set the extension to ‘Enabled’.

4. You’ll find that your existing form on /contacts has been replaced by the Fontis one in:

app/design/frontend/default/default/fontis/recaptcha

5. You can choose between several different themes or customise your own which is a nice touch. As it’s open source, you can remove elements that you don’t want. For example if you don’t like the sound function you can completely remove it. You can find more information about the extension on the official Fontis extension page: http://www.fontis.com.au/magento/extension/recaptcha

Something that may go unnoticed for many Magento developers is the layered navigation section that appears in the <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('left') ?> call. The information that this provides should be very prominent on the page as it makes your site much easier to browse through for a customer, meaning they’ll reach the product they want faster, meaning you’re more likely to make a sale.

The script reads important information about your products such a:

• The sub-categories they’re in
• The price ranges they fit in to
• Attributes that separate them such as colour and manufacture

This means it’s very worthwhile creating as many attributes for your products as you can so that a browsing customer can narrow their search even further as the attributes of all the products filter down. This also increases a product’s prominence in a store search. For example if you add the attribute manufacturer and give a section of your products the value ‘Sony’, this will provide pretty much a new sub-category called ‘Sony’ in your layered navigation, as well as make all those items come up in a search for Sony in the store search.

For more about how to use Layered Navigation, watch this video and start enjoying its benefits.