MageBridge Pre-sales FAQ

Is MageBridge open source?

MageBridge is fully open-source - except for the free ionCube-encrypted trial-version we offer -, but uses dual-licensing: For Joomla!, the GNU/GPL is applied. As required by Joomla! and/or the GPL, we offer Subversion-access to the Joomla! sources.

However, under Magento, we apply our own custom Yireo EULA - which states that our Magento source-code is only available to paying customers. This guarantees all the benefits of open-source, while we still make money with it.

You need both parts of MageBridge (both Joomla! as Magento) for the bridge to work. So, actually the GPL used on the Joomla! part doesn't give you free usage of the MageBridge solution.

Is Magento extension xyz supported by MageBridge?

In general, every Magento extension that works under Magento also works in MageBridge. Note that MageBridge is not a different platform, but it is Magento wrapped inside Joomla!. Any Magento extension works in MageBridge, just like it would in Magento standalone. However, the bridging brings along some specific problems, if the Magento extension is badly coded.

For instance, MageBridge makes heavy use of the difference between the Base URL, the Base Skin URL and other Base URLs. If a Magento extension is not following standards, this might lead to 404 errors. The extension developer should fix these bugs.

Also, many Magento extensions make use of ProtoType/Scriptaculous (actually Magento itself does as well), which does not work together with MooTools (used by a lot of Joomla! extensions). MageBridge is not able to solve this conflict, but gives you all the tools to avoid such a conflict.

Is MageBridge free?

This depends on what you want. All the MageBridge PHP-sources are made available under the GNU/GPL and are available for free on our Subversion server. However, you will need to construct your own packages from source and if you're not a PHP-developer, this is not ment for you.

If you want to receive MageBridge packages and support, you are required to purchase a support-subscription.

More information on purchasing MageBridge

Can I get a development license?

Please check our licensing scheme, because it probably already answers your question: For every MageBridge license, we provide the licensing of 6 domains: 2 for production, 2 for testing, 2 for licensing.

What kind of tax do you charge?

The tax that is charged for our Yireo extensions is dependent on the address details you enter during checkout. People from outside the EU are not charged any tax at all, but this is only apparent during the checkout.

For people within the EU, the situation is a bit complicated: We charge you tax, even though there is a EU regulation that excludes businesses from paying tax. Because tax should still be paid in European business-to-consumer transactions, the EU has setup very strict rules regarding the checking of tax-numbers and book-keeping.

Unfortunately we have concluded it is nearly impossible to implement these strict rules. Therefor we will charge tax - regardless whether it's a B2B or B2C transaction: Correctly said, we do not reckognize B2B transactions within the EU, we all treat them as B2C transactions because we are unable to confirm that it's a B2B transaction. We do not make exceptions in this. However, you can deduct the paid tax through your local tax agency. See the European Commission site for more information, or contact your local tax agency for instructions.

Does MageBridge work with Magento Go?

Magento Go is a platform of Magento that should not be compared to Magento Community, Magento Professional or Magento Enterprise. It only supports a limited set of third party extensions, and does not support extensions that offer dramatic changes like MageBridge does. Please refer to the Magento Go FAQ for information on what kind of extensions you can actually use.

Can I still use MageBridge after the license expires?

Yes, you can. A valid MageBridge license gives you the right for support and the right to download all MageBridge extensions for usage with the domains beings licensed. This means that you can download or upgrade the MageBridge extensions until the license expires. After this, you can still use the software but updates will not be available anymore. Nothing stops working on your site, when your license expires.

Can I upgrade the trial to a full version?

Yes, you can: The MageBridge Trial version contains no upgrade facility, but once you enter the full license-key, it will allow you to upgrade to the full open source version. If the trial period has expired, the ionCube-encrypted files will stop functioning - and therefor the upgrade page will be unavailable. Instead, use the filepatch available under the MageBridge downloads to upgrade the files manually to the open source version.

For how many domains can I use MageBridge?

MageBridge is a suite of multiple extensions, which can be used on either Joomla! or Magento. One MageBridge license allows you to install MageBridge (either the Joomla! or Magento extension) on either 2 or 6 different domains - depending on the package you choose.

The MageBridge Enterprise package ships with 6 domains: Our recommendation is to use this licensing scheme to setup one pair (Magento, Joomla!) for a production environment, testing environment and development environment. But you're also allowed to setup 5 different Joomla! sites pointing to 1 Magento instance. You're free to decide this yourself.

If you need more domains to be licensed, you can just purchase a new MageBridge license. If you require for the new set of domains the same license-key to be used - for instance when building a Magento parent with 20 Joomla! childs - just drop us an email and we'll set things up.

Is Magento Enterprise Edition supported?

Yes, it is. Magento Enterprise Edition uses the same code-base as Magento Community Edition plus some extra additional Enterprise-modules. We fully support the usage of Magento Enterprise Edition and actively test MageBridge with it. Please note that you can only manually install MageBridge in Magento Enterprise (through a file-patch) because the downloader-application is not available in Magento Enterprise.

Can I change the source code of MageBridge?

The Joomla! extensions of MageBridge are distributed under the GNU/GPL, and the source code is accessible through our Subversion server. Downloadable packages of the Joomla! extensions are only made available to paying customers. The Magento extensions of MageBridge are only available to paying customers. 

All of our source code includes our Yireo copyright. Neither under the GNU/GPL nor the OSL, can this copyright be removed. The MageBridge trial-version is not open-source, but encrypted with ionCube.

Is MageBridge supported under Joomla! 1.7?

MageBridge is fully compatible with Joomla! 1.6 and Joomla! 1.7. MageBridge also runs on Nooku Server.

Can I remove the MageBridge copyright?

The MageBridge copyright is mentioned in the backend of both Joomla! as Magento, and it is not permitted to remove this copyright notice. Also the source code of all extensions includes a copyright notice, which can also not be removed. In the frontend of both Joomla! and Magento the name MageBridge is not mentioned, so you can integrate Magento in Joomla! without people knowing that MageBridge was used for this.

Is it possible to upgrade MageBridge Standard to Enterprise?

Yes, it is possible that we upgrade your current MageBridge Standard membership (2 domains, 3 months) to a MageBridge Enterprise membership (6 domains, 12 months). Just send us an email and we'll send you a payment request for the remainder of the membership fee (the difference between the Standard-fee and the Enterprise-fee). Once the payment is done, we will upgrade your membership. Please note that the start-date of your MageBridge membership will remain the same. 

Does MageBridge support multiple stores?

Yes and no, it depends if we are talking about the same thing. Within Magento the multi-site mechanism is implemented through three different store-types: websites, store groups and store views.

MageBridge itself only allows you to configure one Magento website in one Joomla! site. In most cases this is just fine. For multi-lingual content, MageBridge supports Joom!Fish and Nooku out-of-the-box and allows them to connect to different store views. Support for store groups through customizable plugins is under way.

Can I change my licensed domains?

Yes, you can, you have to. As soon as you have purchased MageBridge, you need to configure the domains within your Yireo Account settings under Software Subscriptions. Our documentation guides you through this process. Afterwards, you can always modify the licensed domains as you as fit. We only monitor these changes to prevent abuse - common-sense changes are allowed, 10 changes a day are not.

Can I resell MageBridge?

No. You are not allowed to re-sell any of the MageBridge extensions. However, you can buy a MageBridge license for a customer. In that case the license is belonging to you, and you can configure which domains the license belongs to.

How can I pay?

In the Yireo Shop we offer two methods for you to pay: PayPal and MultiSafePay. The latter is a payment provider giving support for VISA, Giropay, Carte Bleue, iDEAL, DIRECTebanking, Maestro, MasterCard and Mister Cash. We do not offer any other payment gateways. Please note that we only sell our extensions through this way, so if you have problems paying through these methods, this is unfortunately not something we can help you with.

If the payment through our website fails, your order will be set to Pending. You can still complete your order by completing the transaction through your PayPal account.

It is possible to transfer money directly to us (PayPal manual transfer only), but we still require you to place an order through our Yireo Shop. Only with a valid order, a money transaction can be made legit.

Do you offer a trial for MageBridge?

Yes, we do. See our MageBridge Trial page for instructions.

Can I get a refund?

See the MageBridge Refund Policy for more details.

Will I be charged every year?

A license or membership will need to be renewed after a certain amount of time - for instance a year. The exact amount of time is dependant on the period for which the license or membership was granted. But we will not recharge you. Renewing a license or membership is your own responsibilty - we work with one-time only fees.

Can I get a printed invoice?

Nowadays, electronic invoices are as good as printed invoices. There's no requirement anymore to send invoices through physical mail. Because our entire sales mechanism runs through the web, Yireo only sends out invoices electronically. These invoices can be printed out by yourself if you have a paper-based bookkeeping.

If you want us to print-out the very same electronic invoice and send it to you, this is ofcourse possible (while it makes not much sense). However, we will need to charge you an extra € 30 for the administrative costs involved.

My license expires. How do I renew it?

If the license expires, you need to purchase a renewal. At the moment we are still working on the implementation of this renewal, which will be available in the Yireo Shop in July 2010.

Can you help me with the implementation of my site?

Setting up a MageBridge-based website requires a good knowledge of Joomla!, Magento and MageBridge. We can help you setup the best website. Also if you need custom modules or plugins, you can contact us.

For now, as Yireo, we only concentrate on MageBridge and the Yireo Tutorial Club. If you want our help with implementations or custom development, feel free to contact us through Jira ICT (the Dutch company behind Yireo). Please see the Jira ICT website for more information.

To www.jira.nl

Why do you offer template-patches?

On this site, you can find various patches for popular templates from RocketTheme, YOOtheme and JoomlArt. We offer these patches as a kickstart to get you going with template-design. If you choose a Joomla! template, most likely that template has never heard of the concept of MageBridge, unless the template is listing MageBridge as a supported extension. Therefor you will need extra styling to add the look & feel of the choosen Joomla! template to MageBridge. With our template-patches some of this work is already done. Ofcourse, no Joomla! website could ever be built without proper webdesign, and the same applies to MageBridge.

A demo of the template-patches can be found here: templates.magebridge.com

Does MageBridge involve any hacks?

No, it doesn't. MageBridge doesn't modify the core of either Joomla! or Magento. Most features are implemented by using the available APIs and event-systems.

A warning has to be issued regarding the Magento-extension. Magento allows core-classes to be overridden by third-party-classes, and MageBridge uses this trick to fetch data needed from Magento which could normally not be fetched. For instance, the breadcrumb-class only allows for fetching HTML, not the data-array that lies underneath. The MageBridge override adds a method to the class that does fetch this data-array. Note that these modifications are not core-hacks, but adaptions of the override-technology offered by Magento.

Is multi-currency supported by MageBridge?

Multi-currency is totally independant from the multi-site mechanism, and
is configured per store. Because one Magento store is brought to one
Joomla! site, this just works - just like many other Magento features.

MageBridge is so expensive. Can I get a discount?

MageBridge Standard ships for 95 Euro and some consider this expensive. If you consider MageBridge expensive as well, we urge you not to buy MageBridge. The average costs of building a Magento site lies (in our personal experience) above 3000 Euro, and investing money in MageBridge should not cost you money, but save you money instead. If you are not willing to invest a huge amount in Magento, then Magento is not the right choice for you - MageBridge is not going to solve problems for you either.

Also, why complain about MageBridge being expensive? It is already available for free on our Subversion-server. You just need to lift up your technical knowledge to use those SVN-sources. If you can do that without money, then MageBridge is already available for free. It can't be less expensive.

If you want to know about discounts, listen to our Twitter @yireo, watch our Facebook-page or subscribe to our blog. As soon as there is some kind of discount, we will notify not just you but the entire world.