Finally, users can now begin using the newest open-source eCommerce software and latest platform to hit the market, Magento. We have reported about it before and also had the privilege to interview their CEO, Roy Rubin. To date, that interview has generated the most traffic to our blog than any other interview, or article for that matter. Many of us have been eagerly anticipating the release of this software since, quite frankly, it’s really the only other open-source solution, other than osCommerce. By the looks of things, others have also been frothing at the bit to get their chance to test and ultimately use Magento’s platform.

If you just can’t wait any longer, jump over to Magento and grab the download of their first beta release!

System Requirements:

• Linux or another UNIX-compatible operating system (Windows is also supported, but see the Known Issues section below)
• Apache Web Server (1.x or 2.x)
• PHP 5.2.0 or newer, with the following extensions/addons:
• PDO/MySQL
• MySQLi
• mcrypt
• mhash
• simplexml
• DOM
• MySQL 4.1.20 or newer
• A Sendmail-compatible Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) – Magento will connect directly to an SMTP server if you don’t have an MTA

Installation:

• Please refer to Magento’s system requirements to ensure you have the appropriate platform and environment set up.
• Download the .zip or .tar.gz file from the Magento website and decompress it.
• Upload the Magento web files to your web server via FTP
• Create a MySQL database and user/password for Magento This step varies by hosting provider and is out of the scope of this document. Consult your provider’s support/documentation for instructions on how to do this.
• Ensure that the file magento/var/.htaccess, the directories magento/app/etc, magento/var, and all the directories under magento/media are writable by the web server. To do so, navigate to the directory with your FTP client. Then locate the function “Change Permissions” or “Change Mode” in your FTP client and select it. Once you find the function, you must set the permissions so the web server can write to this file. There are two typical ways of representing file permissions in Linux:
• As a number (eg, 755)
• As a series of permissions categorized into user, group, and other
• Image Use your web browser to surf to the Magento installation wizard. If you’ve uploaded the Magento files to http://www.example.com/magento/, then the wizard will be located here: http://www.example.com/magento/install/.
• Once in the wizard, you can configure various system-level settings that are required for Magento to function. Most options will be intelligently guessed for you, but you’re free to override any settings that don’t look right. At the very least, change the database parameters in the first box “Database connection” to match those of the database you set up in Step 3.
• Success! You’ve completed a basic Magento install. You can now visit the administration backend and begin configuring your new online store.

Help Documentation & Support:

• Forums
• Knowledge Base
• Wiki
• Screencasts
• Report a Bug
• Contact

Magento Demo Store:

In the demo’s frontend, explore how a Magento-driven store might look to your customer and test some of the features. Get a feel for it by going through the checkout process, tagging a product or leaving a review. In the backend, see how easy it is to do things like add product attributes, set up promotions or manage a catalog.

Magento Frontend Demo

Magento Backend Demo (username: admin / password: 123123)

Incase you missed it above, head over to Magento and grab the download of their first beta release!

I plan on installing and testing out their platform this weekend. I will provide thorough coverage and a review as soon as I can. Until then, enjoy!