what is the best way to learn magento?

Question

I'm starting a job soon where I will be dealing with PHP solutions and Magento , I have looked through the Magento wiki etc and played around with an install for it .

But im still quite confused by how it works. Especially the MVC side of things (most of my PHP experience comes from working with wordpress).

I would like to know if anyone has got any good resources or books etc for learning Magento .... the only alternative for me is to attend a certification course which is expensive at over 1000 $....

Answer 1

Magento is built on the Zend Framework you should probably look into that :)

Answer 2

The most important first step is to understand the Magento EAV database schema. Here is a good link: http://inchoo.net/ecommerce/magento/magento-mysql-database-structure/

Until you 'get' this part, everything else is very confusing!

I found this book "php|architect's Guide to Magento" to be reasonably good. Bit expensive for the number of pages, but it was helpful nonetheless: http://www.phparch.com/c/books/id/9780973862171

I also spent a bit of time reading the magento question and answer forums. http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/

Answer 3

The solution is not to buy the training for Zend framework. This book should be enough to get you started with Zend Framework. Assuming you read it and learn the basics you can go then and work with Magento as it's built using Zend Framework.

Good luck!

Answer 4

This PDF/E-Book from PHP Architect has been recommended before. You should also check out a few of the magento-related questions answered in stackoverflow and check out the wiki and forums here.

Answer 5

The delete button doesn't work.

Answer 6

Alan Storm can save your day sometimes: http://alanstorm.com/category/magento Developing for Magento can really be painfull.

Answer 7

Let me know how you like this :

http://magentophp.blogspot.com/2010/08/resources-to-start-off.html