This is the first part of what will be a series of guides on using the new eCommerce system, Magento. The best place to start is always the beginning, so the initial subject will be Installing Magento in your web space. This guide will include the Installation Guide, a brief Troubleshooting Section, and finally some Useful Links Continue reading

As a developer I always have in the back of my mind the importance of new technologies, and I am constantly thinking – “what should I learn next?” There is no doubt that web technologies move quickly - that’s a given - but after its initial release in 2004, why is PHP5 only just starting to take off? Well, ever since the release of our new PHP5 hosting platform I’ve been doing my research. Continue reading

While comparing our new PHP5 Magento Hosting we found this speed test site. Although UK based Magento eCommerce Hosts are, for the moment, few in number, we thought we would create a Spreadsheet Tool to use the Internet Supervision speed test to compare our speed against other Hosting providers. The calculator allows you to run speed tests on a Web Hosts Demo Magento site (most Hosts have an example Hosted Magento site, for examples see the Magento forums) and compare them against each other. Continue reading

There can be two very different schools of thought when something new comes out. On one side, you have the people who have to have the latest as soon as it arrives, and will happily be out with the old in favour of the new. Then you have their opposites, the people who cling tenaciously to the tried and tested, refusing to move on whilst clinging to an ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ mentality. Of course many of us meander somewhere in the middle, and it often takes a major event or Continue reading

I know it is at times far too easy to knock Microsoft. It might even be unfair. We all know that most people with a mind for these things prefer Firefox to Internet Explorer, use Google instead of MSN to search the web, complain about Windows and can run off lists of issues with crashes, rebuilds, security exploits, hacks, cracks… Continue reading

Don’t get me wrong. It’s great that Microsoft are offering all Windows XP users the opportunity to automatically upgrade on February the 12th. It’s great that web developers all over the world can start to see more and more users in the IE camp visiting their sites with a browser that won’t mess them up quite as badly as before. It’s just that, well, the king (and here, think of Continue reading

As anyone over the age of twelve will tell you, things just aren’t what they used to be. What can you get for a penny these days? You don’t even get penny sweets in the shops anymore. This is a cheap (ah-hah) way of introducing our new special offer which, quite frankly, is just too darn good to be true. Continue reading

So you have a great idea for an online business but you’re not sure where to start! This quick guide will show you how to avoid a few of the main pitfalls a business has when setting up online.
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Web standards is the new buzz word on the web. What are web standards? Web standards are basically the use of correct web coding standards as laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The web standards which are of most concern to modern business are XHTML and CSS . In the words of the W3C “The XHTML family is the next step in the evolution of the internet.” Continue reading

I was recommended this book by a friend a couple of months ago and what can I say, it’s definitely worth a read! The book in a sentence is about the advantages of web standards and how it improves websites.

It looks at how you can use XHTML and CSS to implement a web standard compliant web site and what the advantages of this are. Continue reading