Have you ever needed to include a javascript file to the home page only to run that sweet slideshow you have displayed (or any other reason)? Fortunately, you don’t have to modify any of the layout files, or add it to your head.phtml file. CMS pages in Magento allow you to modify the layout XML specific to that page. So, all you need to do is open up the CMS page in Magento that you want to add the javascript to, click on the “Custom Design” tab on the left, and in the “Layout Update XML” field add the following:

<reference name="head">
  <action method="addItem">
    <type>skin_js</type><script>yourfile.js</script>
  </action>
</reference>

Or, if you want to just put the javascript in the /js/ directory of your app, you can change the “skin_js” to just “js”.

Yet another thing that would be nice if Magento allowed you to import through the admin interface. But, at least there is the API to utilize, and fortunately importing Tier Pricing for products is quite easy. I will provide you with a script and CSV format to get started quickly.

Important Note: Be sure that wherever you are running the script, you have SOAP installed/enabled. You can run it from anywhere that has it, as you are providing the script with a URL of a Magento installation. If your server doesn’t have it, you can install PHP and SOAP on your local machine and run it off of there if you’d like.

First thing you are going to need to do, if you haven’t done it already, is to setup an API user in your installation of Magento. Go to System >> Web Services >> Users and setup an account. Be sure that the role you give that user has access to tier pricing.

Next, create a PHP file where ever you want. I chose to put it in /api-scripts/ and I called it “tier-pricing-import.php”. Be sure to replace the four values I’ve highlighted with your own values:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');
 
$proxy = new SoapClient('http://[YOUR-WEBSITE-URL]/api/soap/?wsdl');
$sessionId = $proxy->login('[YOUR-WEBSERVICE-USERNAME]', '[YOUR-WEBSERVICE-PASSWORD]');
 
$row = 1;
 
$handle = fopen('[YOUR-CSV-FILENAME].csv', 'r');
 
while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 30, ',')) !== false) {
    if ($row != 1) {
        $tierPrices = '';
        $sku = $data[2];
 
        $tierPrices[] = array(
            'website'           => $data[0],
            'customer_group_id' => $data[1],
            'qty'               => $data[3],
            'price'             => $data[4]
        );
 
        try {
            $proxy->call($sessionId, 'product_tier_price.update', array($sku, $tierPrices));
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            $errors .= 'Error for SKU ' . $sku . ': ' . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
        }
    }
    $row++;
}

Finally, create your CSV. You’ll want 5 columns:

• website_id: Integer value for your website id. Use ‘all’ for all websites
• cust_group: Integer value for the customer group it will be applied to. Use ‘all’ to apply it to all groups
• sku: The product sku that the tier pricing will be applied to
• price_qty: The quantity the price is applied to (x and above)
• price: The price

Be sure to include the header row. Here is an example of how the csv should look:

Just include the csv in the same directory as your php file, then in your browser, type in the URL of the php file and run it. It will import your tier pricing very quickly. I haven’t built in any sort of messages that let you know when it’s done, or if there were any errors or anything. This is as bare-bones as it gets, but it works as needed. I hope you find it useful.

It’s a bit late to be posting this, as 1.4 was released at least a couple weeks ago now. But, I just wanted to at least comment on it. I am extremely thrilled at some of the improvements. There are too many to list and discuss now, so if you want a full list, you can check it out on Magento’s website.

Perhaps the best improvement has been done with the addition of the WYSIWYG built-in to Magento (we finally don’t have to use the Fontis or Bouncing Orange extensions!). The widgets are also awesome, and really extends the usability and flexibility for clients.

Another much appreciated, but small fix, is the ability for Magento to remember what you were trying to do in the backend. Pre-1.4, if your admin session timed out and you had to log back in, you would be sent to the dashboard, no matter where you were at before. 1.4 now knows what you were clicking on, and sends you there after you login.

They also finally added what they call “custom variables”. This allows you to create variables such as a company phone number or address. You can then use the variable call on your transactional email templates and if you ever need to edit the phone number or address, you only have to do it in one place, instead of on every email.

There will always be a list of things that the community wishes Magento had that 1.4 still doesn’t have. But, let’s look at what it does have (which is quite impressive), remember that it just keeps getting better over time, and also remember that the price tag is $0. Don’t forget that you don’t have to use OSCommerce or ZenCart anymore too.

I was recently invited by a friend to join Google Voice. I am quite shocked at how cool this service is, and how easy it is to use. Perhaps I just haven’t experienced something like this before (well, I haven’t), but it seemed like I jumped 10 years into the future as far as the process in setting it up.

I won’t go into detail now about it, as I’m still learning the ropes. Maybe another post later. But, I have a few people that I know that could really use it, and I know there are plenty of unused invites out there still. So, if you would be willing to part with one or two, please let me know!

If you want an easy way to add and manage todo lists templates for your projects (if they tend to have the same type of checklists – such as website pre-launch checklists), then this script is for you. It’s a simple method of maintaining todo list templates, and adding them to any of the projects in your Basecamp account, with ease.

What you do is simply create a new project specifically for keeping your todo lists under your company in Basecamp. You then supply the script with that project id, and your Basecamp login information, and you are set to go. Simply add some todo lists and items, then navigate to the script on your server, and it is dynamically populated for you.

You can check out the details by clicking the link above in the page navigation or click the following to read more details and download the Basecamp Todo List Template script.

If you have any questions, or if you have any feature requests, please post a comment. I hope you will find it a useful tool!