Leesbian

I’m not sure exactly what the point of asking for community suggestions regarding Magento Connect 2.0 is - way back in April last year - at Mage::Camp, I was shown a demo - which seemed pretty much complete at the time.

We already know it features (optional) code encryption, license generation (with free trials possible), and a business model along the same lines as the AppStore. However, no details yet on the profit share between vendor and Varien - let’s hope it’s nowhere nearly as high as the AppStore - after all, we all know it’s not too difficult to create something similar ourselves using Magento ;)

Anyway, back on track - My personal thoughts on SUGGESTIONS for Magento Connect 2.0 don’t really have anything to do with the service Varien should offer per se - what I’ve already seen really excited me, and I reckon it’s spot on - with the caveat of the aforementioned financials being fair and sane.

My suggestions are more centered around HOW Magento Connect 2.0 was built - that is, the best practices that should be followed for creating a store with a “large” amount of products, straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. Rather than a single massive article, it could be a multipart tutorial… why not something along the lines of the Symfony advent calendar? (better still, make the content accessible to registered users only - get some leads for possible Enterprise customers out of it)

There’s currently no such documentation - not from Varien, not from Enterprise partners, and not from the few books that are currently available…

This presents a great opportunity for Varien to kill several birds with a single stone - to address the fact that documentation is still inadequate, that knowledge from Varien to the Magento community as a whole is fragmented, and often not even existent. As a Enterprise customer, I can also inform those that aren’t that it’s no better under Enterprise support (sorry, but that’s the truth). I know from experience that this lack of documentation and particularly examples of best practices for larger stores has meant that ultimately Magento was not selected for these projects - and paradoxically, it’s large scale, successful projects that sway the decision makers in smaller enterprises - if you’re touting Magento as a “platform for growth”, you (and partners, or anybody else selling Magento services) needs to be able to justify that.

Specifically, I believe these issues would interest everybody:

1) details of the websites, stores, storeviews structure used - if more than 1 website or store was used, why? how does this aid (or hinder) management of products and prices?

2) if multiple storeviews were used, why was this? translations? taxes? currencies? and how were these dealt with effectively? how was VAT configured with all the different Euro-zone VAT rates?

3) how were attributes chosen? and how was it decided if these would be used in layered navigation or should be searchable? what scope did they have, and why?

4) how were the attribute sets designed? did you use an OO approach to attribute sets? or were attribute sets minimised for performance reasons?

5) which product types were chosen and why? were there any compromises made here due to performance considerations? what were they?

6) how was the category hierarchy decided? and how does this relate to attributes? is there any duplication? did you use any tricks to treat attributes (or attribute-sets) as categories or vice-versa?

7) was there any specific customisations or development required for this project? why was this required?

Obviously, such a tutorial is also going to be the best possible promotion for the new Magento Connect store too - it’s not rocket science, go do it.

Let me tell you about a recent visit I had to Apple;

I was lucky enough to see a demonstration of the next range of MacBook Pro’s, which make use of Apple’s new Object Oriented Hardware (OOH) technology. OOH is essentially the same concept as Object Oriented Software, but as the name suggests, applied to hardware.

The new MBP is AWESOME. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. For starters, it’s pretty much an empty shell - a screen, a keyboard, a “bus-board” (replacing a traditional motherboard), a battery and a (universal) power supply. No hard disk, no CPU, no RAM.

WTF!? have they gone INSANE!?

No - this is where it starts to blow your mind.

EVERYTHING is pluggable. So, when you buy your shiny new Mac, initially, the only decision you need to make is which screen size and which keyboard layout you want. After that, every single component is exactly the same regardless of whether it’s going in a 13 inch MBP or a 15” MBP or a 17” MBP (or for that matter an iMac, or a Mac Mini…)

After you’ve selected the screen size, you next choose which CPU you want, which GFX card, which hard disk, RAM etc.

The Mac comes in the regular and familiar box, but also with a bunch of “accessory” boxes containing your CPU module, hard disk, GFX card, RAM card etc. You have to plug it all together yourself (don’t worry, it’s EASY). Every new MacBook Pro is custom built, by you, to your spec - but because YOU built it, because every component is now a “commodity” component, it’s also CHEAPER (yay!).

That new multitouch trackpad is cool, right? but… that’s gone!

Instead of the trackpad itself, there’s the familiar ipod connection dock. You dock your iPhone (or iPod Touch), and use that as a trackpad. Not just that, but the iPhone also provides WIFI connectivity, 3G connectivity, GPS… as well as removable storage. Your trackpad has become MORE than just a trackpad - it’s extended the overall capabilties of the MacBook, whilst also being a discreet, reusable component in it’s own right.

How cool is that!? a programmable, graphical trackpad! kinda like the Nintendo DS. I wish I had pictures of this thing to show you, but sadly, I don’t.

This doesn’t just work at a HARDWARE level - it also works at the SOFTWARE level. Your iPhone has in it stored the settings for various WIFI networks that you use with your laptop - when you undock the iPhone, obviously it’s already synced with your mail, photos, videos, itunes etc - but it’s also synced with all of your network settings - it can be used on these networks, just as your laptop - without changing any settings.

That’s the whole concept behind the new Object Oriented Hardware technology - to create discreet reusable components that serve more than a single purpose. In this case, adding the iPhone to the MacBook provides the laptop with ALL of the features of the iPhone, and because the functionality provided by the iPhone doesn’t need to be a feature of the MacBook/iMac/Mac Mini itself, it’s cheaper.

The best bit for the consumer? when 3G is outdated and we’re all using 7G, just dock a 7G iPhone onto your laptop. No need to change the laptop! Don’t want 3G and GPS? or can’t afford an iPhone? no probs - use a (cheaper) iPod Touch instead!

Same goes for GFX card, CPU, RAM, Hard disk… the things that you really probably won’t change very often (screen, keyboard, case) you don’t need to. Incremental hardware upgrades become more frequent and less expensive as a result. Which works better for everybody to maintain an affordable yet current level of computing.

Ofcourse, none of this actually happened.

How long will it be until such a reuse of hardware is realised?

Screw tablets, THIS is what we really want need.

Talking of GSes, that’s one hell of a sexy R80 - somebody show Grant what _HIS_ should look like!

Often, simplest is best.

Oh wait. This isn’t Digg.

Also, I forgot that currently, I’m the only person that knows this is here, and therefore also the only person that could make the first post.

Even so - I got first post!

Losers.