Monthly Archives: January 2021
Hello there, Magento fans!
Hey hey! It's been a while since we last shared the Magefan updates. Are you ready for the January compilation of news?
Then, let's start!
One of the most unique product types Magento 2 offers you to create is a virtual product. But what is virtual product in Magento, and why is it so special?
It stands out because you can neither feel it tangibly, set the weight, or download a virtual product in Magento 2. Some of the common examples of this product type are memberships, services, subscriptions, and warranties.
They can be sold individually or as a part of grouped or bundle products. The configuration section contains the familiar fields you can fill out easily. Today, you'll learn how to do it in more detail.
What is a Virtual
The popularity of downloadable products has increased drastically, both globally and in Magento in particular. It is not a surprising fact, though. Such products as eBooks, music, videos, Magento 2 extensions, updates, or instruction manuals are being actively sold. They don’t require additional manufacturing or shipping, which is an advantage.
Together with other Magento product types, the platform allows you to create downloadable products with free samples. The process doesn’t differ much from that of a simple product. However, you have to configure the downloadable product options before creating a downloadable product.
But
In case you use some GeoIP modules (like our Magento 2 Language and Currency Switcher Extensions) and have the Varnish installed, then you need to make some additional configurations for it.
The simplest configuration is to add the following lines to the varnish config file:
if (req.http.cookie !~ "PHPSESSID=" && req.http.User-Agent !~ "bot" && req.http.User-Agent !~ "loader") {
return (pass);
}
In this case, the first customer visit will not be cached by varnish, the php Magento will generate the right cookies, switch to the right store view and change the currency.
However,
One of the many perks of Magento 2 is the variety of products it allows you to create. Yet, Magento 2 bundle products definitely stand out. It's a unique type of product since it allows customers to customize product attributes available in a bundle.
Many of you would find a huge similarity between bundle and grouped products and there is some. However, these two types of products still have some differences you should know about.
If all these concepts confuse you a bit, you've landed on the right page. Today you'll not only learn more details about Magento bundle products but find out how to create them in Magento 2.
Difference Between Magento 2 Bundle Product and Grouped Products
When
No one likes to see their website broken during the static content deployment since it scares off the potential customers and causes them to bounce. Not exactly the prospective successful Magento 2 store owners look for.
Fortunately, there is the Magento 2 Zero Downtime Deployment extension that fixes this and reduces the downtime to zero. It allows you to run the deployment commands with no website breakage. Speaking of which, here is the list of the deployment commands you have to run to reduce the downtime to ZERO.
In order to redeploy Magento completely, you have to run
bin/magento magefan:zero-downtime:deploy
If you only want to deploy dependency injection (bin/magento
Magento 2 Zero Downtime Deployment is the extension that solves your problems with the 503 maintenance pages during deployment time. It prevents your website from breaking and you from losing potential customers even when running the static content deploy commands. Moreover, the configuration is really simple. So let's get to it.
Zero Downtime Deployment configuration has 4 different sections: General, Instance Files and Folders, Composer and Git within which you can find different options.
Following steps to configure Magento 2 Zero Downtime Deployment extension:
General
1. Navigate to Stores > Configuration
If you decided to remove Magento 2 Zero Downtime Deployment, please follow the steps below. You can contact our team for a free consultation in case you have any issues with Magefan's extension.
Remove Extension Files
Removing files instruction depends on the way the Zero Downtime Deployment extension has been installed in.
1. If you can find the extension files in the folder
app/code/Magefan/ZeroDowntimeDeploy
then remove this folder.
2. If the extension was installed via the composer and its files located in the folder
vendor/magefan/module-zero-downtime-deploy
then run composer CLI command to remove it
composer remove magefan/module-zero-downtime-deploy
If you need to update Magento 2 Zero Downtime Deployment Extension by Magefan, please follow the steps below.
Note: the updating instructions depend on the method the Zero Downtime Deployment extension was installed with.
Update using composer
If the zero downtime deployment module was installed via the composer (check if vendor/magefan/module-zero-downtime-deploy
folder exists), then you need to run these simple CLI commands in Magento 2 directory:
composer remove magefan/module-zero-downtime-deploy
composer require magefan/module-zero-downtime-deploy
^x.x.x
# replace x.x.x with the version you want to use
php bin/magento setup:upgrade
php
You can install Magento 2 Zero Downtime Deployment by Magefan, using composer or archive installation methods.
Do you want us to install and configure the Zero Downtime Deployment extension for you? Let our technical engineers do it – check out our installation service.
Installation via composer (recommended)
Please navigate to your Magefan Account > My Downloads > Install via Composer to get the composer installation instructions.
Magento 2 grouped product is one of many product types the platform offers. As you might know, it features a set of different related simple products to increase the chances of customers buying more items.
In this case, every simple product can be purchased either separately or as a group. However, every item is listed as a separate product in a shopping cart.
Since Magento grouped products are relatively easy to create you'll learn all the necessary steps in this guide.
To create Magento grouped products:
1. Navigate to Catalog > Products and choose Grouped Product from the Add Products dropdown.
A configurable product is one of the many product types Magento 2 offers. The main difference between the Magento 2 configurable products and simple products is that the former has variable options customers can choose from. It is exactly what makes it the most popular kind of product in Magento 2.
To create a Magento 2 configurable product means to create several different variations of the same simple product. Since configurable products consist of simple ones that have separate SKUs it's more convenient to track down every single product variation.
So, before you start to create configurable products make sure the configurable attributes are created and assigned to the corresponding attribute sets.
Magento 2 simple products are the most basic and essential Magento products. The simple product has no variations. It is sold individually since it has a single SKU. However, it can also be purchased as a part of a configurable, bundle or grouped product.
Following steps to create a simple product in Magento 2:
1. Navigate to Catalog > Products and choose Simple Product from the Add Product dropdown.
2.