Store Configuration Traps & Some Critical Advice - Hervé Guétin

Your host: Joseph Maxwell, Founder and CEO of SwiftOtter, Inc.

Special Guest: Herve Guetin, Multi-Certified Magento Consultant

Herve Guetin is getting hit with some intense issues on a daily basis. As a Magento Consultant at WIDE, he has amassed an impressive list of do’s and don’ts, especially on the topic of Magento architecture and store configuration. In an effort to save us all some time and prevent us from feeling the same heartaches, he explains a few of his recent experiences and what we can do to avoid the same pitfalls.

Show Notes

2:10

Herve often jumps into projects with deep legacy; projects that have been worked on by many different developers over a long period of time. The issue is that very often, he can’t find adequate notes regarding how different components communicate with each other and what they are supposed to do. 

6:15

Herve shares his favorite solutions to these issues and how developers can be proactive to prevent issues down the road. Magento offers a lot of options, but nowhere can a proper “best practices” guide be found. Based on Herve’s experience, he says it’s hard to come up with a great “recipe”, but that the best way to properly fit everything into Magento’s framework is to……. “fit into Magento’s framework”. Allow him to explain how you can easily “find existing subsections in which you can fit your own configuration” and more.

11:30

Herve explains how to fix these issues and make sure the merchant can actually access the data when they need to. Sometimes gathering more things into the same section is good, while sometimes they need to be separated out.

13:00

What’s the difference between being lazy and being intentional with the amount of code that we write? Of course, less code means less opportunities for it to break. Herve wisely adds: “it comes down to what the client needs”. Sometimes, in order to make the client happy, we have to go around “best practices”, but we certainly have to be careful with that kind of thinking. You don’t want to avoid or get rid of something that is needed, but you also want to simplify things as much as you possibly can, for functional purposes!

18:45

When working with a legacy/inherited project, how do we jump in and assume the project without pulling the rug out from under the merchant, or other developers who are working on it? We have to “reign in” our desire to always do things the “right way” so that we can make sure and do things the “best way”, as it relates to the project and everyone involved. Don’t forget about backwards compatibility!

23:50

Closing remarks and summary.

Connect with Hervé:

LinkedIn: herveguetin

Connect with Joseph:

LinkedIn: maxwelljoseph

Twitter: swiftotter_joe

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