THE STORY OF SIMPLIFIEDSAFETY.COMIntegrating Expression Engine & Magento

For Starters

Code Igniter? PatternTap.com – Design pattern collection

site developed with Matthew Smith of Squared Eye

For Starters

Interaction – Got a Question? Ask It! Happy to get into the really technical bits –

meet up after. Not the Final Word on Integration

My approach, not necessarily the “Best” approach.

Back Story

Ecommerce since 1998 (with ASP) 2005 started simplifiedbuilding.com on

OSCommerce and a $65 Template

Back Story

100% Sweat equity investment 3 yrs later

2 partners and 2 employees Grossing over 1 Million in Sales

Back Story

From 2005 built SBC and worked as independent developer building sites for myself and others.

January 1, 2009 – Acquired by global company to replicate lessons in International network of sites

Building a Global Network of Sites Which Tools? What architecture? What was Important

Content Heavy Site – robust CMS. Speed – Launch timeline was Summer/Fall.

Didn’t want to spend time redeveloping Flexibility – wanted to have the ability to customize

everything. Minimize Maintenance – small operation, large

network Scalability – spin of additional sites with nominal

efforts Cost! - Wanted to leverage affordable technologies

Our Approach

EE & Magneto Integration is principally for the user.

Not trying to do what EECommerce is doing Wasn’t concerned with integrating the

template engines Using multi-store and multi-site

capabilities for each system allows us to minimize our code base and easily expand.

TECHNICAL NITTY GRITTY

Underneath the Hood

General Architecture

Expression EngineTriggers through path.phpLG .htaccess Uses Inclusion Method

MagentoStored in subdirectory “store”Triggers through index.php

Consistent Look & Feel

Goals Seemless User Experience Minimize Changes to Magento CSS Minimize Redundancies

Redundancies reduced to: Header Footer 404 Page

Consistent Look & Feel

Expression EngineTemplates for CMSReferences Magento Skin directory

MagentoStores CSS / JS / Image FilesOverride the existing Magento templates/css ** agility/speed vs. bandwidth/load

Exchanging Content

Expression Engine

Magento

Need to be able to display Magento content in Expression Engine and Visa Versa

Semi-Static: CMS, Cron, Cache

Magento – CMS HTML Snippet

Expression Engine

Server Cron

ProcessCached File

cURL

Example: http://simplifiedsafety.com - product strip on home page

Dynamic Content: CMS, Ajax

Magento – CMS Custom Block

Expression Engine jQuery

True/False or Content

Login with “eeci@example.com” and “eeci2009” Go to home page - logout button after you log in

Can’t get there from here... Redirection

Static BlockWith URL for EEContent

Expression Engine

RedirectionXML Layout

Magento CategoryBased on Static Blockand Redirect Layout

Go to http://simplifiedsafety.com/store/fall-protection/passive.htmlClick on “Rooftop Fall Protection”

Single Sign On – Starting Simple

Expression Engine

Magento

All user information stored in Magento

No EE LoginVisual Sync through Ajax Content Sharing

Single Sign On – Getting Complex

Expression Engine

Magento

User information stored and synced in both systems

EE LoginSession Syncing

Single Sign On – Getting Complex Want to be able to utilize EE modules

such as the forums Want to build other EE modules that

utilize login based information (our secret weapon )

Principals here valid for integrating EE with just about an Third Party system.

Note: this portion is working dev. environment and is scheduled for launch in Nov./Dec. (post Euro-Tour)

Single Sign On – User CreationExpression Engine Magento

User Created

EE HookMagento API

User Created

Magento Controller HackCustom EE Module called via cURL

Single Sign On – User Login

Expression Engine Magento

User LoginLogin via Email (solspace)Credentials Passed via Ajax (https) on Login Landing Page

User LoginMagento Controller HackCustom EE Module called via cURL(passing cookies back to browser)

Session Created

Session Created

Single Sign On – User MaintenanceExpression Engine Magento

Critical AccountChanges

Username PasswordResets

Magento Controller HackCustom EE Module called via cURL

ChangesPropagated

Redirect

EXTRAS

Extensions Used

Expression Engine Custom Module User Module from Solspace LG htaccess File Field Frame Playa

QUESTIONS?