Looking for a Magento2 Developer

[dovroc]

Good morning,

We are looking to change our current eCommerce website to a Magento2 site, we would consider hiring a freelance developer to work in-house, but we are also interested to hear from UK agencies.

Feel free to send a message if this is of interest.

Thanks

 

[edmondscommerce]

Surprised you don't have any replies yet

What platform are you on at the moment?

 

[Anon4352]

Morning guys,

I have experience with Open Cart, WooCommerce and Magento 1.9.2.

I think Magento 2 is something I need to be made more familiar with, but if you don't find somebody, maybe I could help.

Regards,
Ryan

 

[antropy]

We are looking to change our current eCommerce website to a Magento2 site

Please read this first:
www.antropy.co.uk/blog/the-lure-of-magento/

 

[Anon4352]

That's just a little bit biased antropy! The code could be better on Open Cart too!! I do like the basic MVC structure but as I'm sure you're aware some companies want solutions that are regularly patched, like Magento that offer an additional layer of security.

The main developer of Open Cart does not have a good reputation for accepting code repairs from other people. If you've ever had to write bespoke product exporters with custom product ids for large online retailers with Chinese Manufacturers, and their 'testing'; you'll not want to use Open Cart.

To some developers Magento is just difficult, I know people find it difficult; Mage, etc. Using XML. Once you're familiar, you can learn to like it. Especially the better quality extensions.

That being said, Open Cart is not bad for most cases, except when you want to do something seriously challenging, ... then there's VQMod to play with. For example, I had to write something for Open Cart (now it might not be the best way to do it, but how can I find out, the docs aren't great for this kind of thing), it's 2000 lines long, it's a VQMod and allows different dashboards for different user roles. Magento offers more to big business. However, Open Cart has the easiest to understand dashboard for users, but Magento is not that difficult.

 

[antropy]

That's just a little bit biased antropy!

Not biased at all - we chose OpenCart to work with based on a thorough review of various open source PHP ecommerce platforms. So we work with OpenCart because we think it's the best, we don't say it's the best because we work with it.

The code could be better on Open Cart too!!

Everything can always be improved, but our code review of platforms found OpenCart to be the simplest and cleanest.

I do like the basic MVC structure but as I'm sure you're aware some companies want solutions that are regularly patched, like Magento that offer an additional layer of security.

Are you saying OpenCart isn't regularly patched?

The main developer of Open Cart does not have a good reputation for accepting code repairs from other people.

Of course not, he's the project owner, it's his code and he'll only add what he sees fit. That is why OpenCart is still efficient and lean, and not full of spaghetti code.

If you've ever had to write bespoke product exporters with custom product ids for large online retailers with Chinese Manufacturers, and their 'testing'; you'll not want to use Open Cart.

Total nonsense, we write all sorts of complex functionality with OpenCart all the time.

To some developers Magento is just difficult, I know people find it difficult; Mage, etc. Using XML. Once you're familiar, you can learn to like it. Especially the better quality extensions.

As you can see from my article, it's difficult because it's complex. And complexity applies to every developer. I take your point that some OpenCart extensions are poor though.

That being said, Open Cart is not bad for most cases, except when you want to do something seriously challenging, ... then there's VQMod to play with. For example, I had to write something for Open Cart (now it might not be the best way to do it, but how can I find out, the docs aren't great for this kind of thing), it's 2000 lines long, it's a VQMod and allows different dashboards for different user roles.

vQmod is better for smaller adjustments. For new dashboard areas you could create new controllers and templates.

Magento offers more to big business.

Agreed but they must be willing to spend a lot. Like £20k+

However, Open Cart has the easiest to understand dashboard for users, but Magento is not that difficult.

Sure, the dashboard isn't that bad in Magento, it's the underlying complexity of the code.

 

[Anon4352]

First of all, I develop for and like Open Cart, Woocommerce and Magento. Actually, perhaps humorously, I prefer WooCommerce out of all the platforms I've listed! The main disadvantage with Woocommerce I find is having to use Wordpress Taxonomies to build any custom queries and occasionally writing plugins that don't exist.

Sorry, what do you consider regularly patched?

It's not a good thing to have one person oversee a project, or is it?

Using Trellis as a mediator here. trellis.co /blog/magento-community-vs-opencart/. You can make complex code for Open Cart, but it's uncomfortable. At least for me personally it's better to use Magento, even Woocommerce for anything complex, over Open Cart.

The UI is difficult to customise in Open Cart as I said. What I wrote did also require some involvement with MVC, but I didn't want to rewrite a lot once I gave users roles, it was just for user experience, I just wanted to hide and block access to anything irrelevant as all authenticated back end users were trusted ones. I could have done the hiding part with CSS. Obviously the easiest platform for this is WooCommerce anyway, as Wordpress has a fully feature ACL.

Each to their own though. I haven't a preference. Neither of us know what dovroc is looking for , so there's no need to really debate which platform is best.

 

[antropy]

Actually, perhaps humorously, I prefer WooCommerce out of all the platforms I've listed!

Yikes!

Sorry, what do you consider regularly patched?

Well if there's a legitimate vulnerability, it will be patched pretty much instantly. Sure bug fixes aren't always so forthcoming.

It's not a good thing to have one person oversee a project, or is it?

Yes! Look at Linux.

At least for me personally it's better to use Magento, even Woocommerce for anything complex, over Open Cart.

This makes me wonder how much you've worked with Magento? Building complex on top of complex is usually harder than building complex on top of simple.[/QUOTE]

Wordpress has a fully feature ACL.

Perhaps but that's the only Enterprise Level feature it has. Instead Concrete5 and Silverstripe are much better suited to use as a CMS. WordPress is a blog platform.

Neither of us know what dovroc is looking for , so there's no need to really debate which platform is best.

True, we could debate platforms endlessly and there is no right answer which is best, but I do think the OP should really think hard about why they want Magento and whether it is the right choice for them.

 

[Anon4352]

In terms of what I've done with Magento:

I've written themes for many different online companies that have retailers which include in the UK alone, Argos, Asda, Clas Ohlson, Home Bargains, TOFS, Pound Stretcher, QD Stores, Robert Dyas, Tesco Direct, Wilko and Ozaroo. This includes configuring the system.

I have written software that links Magento to Syteline ERP.

I have made many different modules for websites that do all kinds of tasks from adding small changes to product attributes, and all they need is a config.xml and a PHP script to initialise the DB and provide the functionality. Layout manipulations. Extensions to provide additional features and upsells. Modules to manipulate the entire output of the HTML. I apply patches on a regular basis. It's usually as simple as applying the patch, testing.

Written software that allows securely all of the recent purchases to be exported by date range for Manufacturers to access and distribute products in multiple output formats.

It's really just another MVC.

I mostly write product configurators, some have up to 18,000 product configurations (including unique images) and they hook up to Google Analytics to show what is most popular. And systems for OEMs to make deals with companies behind the scenes.

I can't comment on Concrete5 or Silverstripe because I don't use them.

Have you made any sites in Magento?

Sorry that I can't show you anything, I was working for a local company until last November; everything is under an NDA, trying to establish myself as a Freelancer.

Forgot to mention I've been a Linux user since 2003 when nothing worked.

 

[edmondscommerce]

Meanwhile - the OP is long gone..

 

[antropy]

I've written themes for many different online companies that have retailers which include in the UK alone, Argos, Asda, Clas Ohlson, Home Bargains, TOFS, Pound Stretcher, QD Stores, Robert Dyas, Tesco Direct, Wilko and Ozaroo. This includes configuring the system.

Are you saying all the above use Magento and you built their themes?

It's really just another MVC.

And EAV

Have you made any sites in Magento?

A couple but we try not to.

Forgot to mention I've been a Linux user since 2003 when nothing worked.

Haha yes, I think I started using it in 2001 with Redhat 5. Now some things work

 

[Anon4352]

Just to clarify, that's not what I said. The company websites I've worked on, they have products in those stores. All of the above don't use Magento, I haven't worked on their websites, they're just the retailers of some of the company websites I've worked on.

And gnewsense still doesn't work

 

[Anon4352]

Sorry edmondscommerce. You're right. We shouldn't be having this discussion here.

 

[edmondscommerce]

You fell into a trap I'm afraid

 

[antropy]

Just to clarify, that's not what I said. The company websites I've worked on, they have products in those stores

Ah okay, well sounds like impressive experience all the same.

You fell into a trap I'm afraid

Not a deliberate trap here, just trying to understand the decision making process behind selecting Magento?

 

[edmondscommerce]

You do seem to get quite enthusiastic in these threads... just saying...

 

[antropy]

Apologies, not trying to troll, or offend Magento enthusiasts.

As it says in my blog article, there is a place for Magento when the company using it is big enough to understand the implications and has a sensible budget for it.

 

[edmondscommerce]

The OP came here with a very clear question

 

[antropy]

Sure, and it should be in the Tenders forum really but it seems that this business is at the point where they're considering a move to Magento and I was just hoping to understand the decision, so I don't think that's off-topic tbh.