MageBridge Quick Start Guide

This guide will get you up and running quickly with MageBridge. After the installation has completed (as described in the MageBridge Installation Guide), it is important to run through these steps to configure the most basic settings. For example, you need to configure the MageBridge API (webservice) to build the actual bridge between Joomla! and Magento.

While this guide covers the basic steps to configure MageBridge, you also need to make sure Magento and Joomla! itself are properly configured:

1. Finishing up in Joomla!

controlpanel Go through all the steps mentioned in our MageBridge Installation Guide. Make sure you have a proper license installed in both Joomla! as Magento, and make sure you have updated the installer-extension to the complete MageBridge suite.

When done, you will have extra pages within the Joomla! Administrator under the submenu Components » MageBridge, like Configuration and Logs. Also, you should be able to access the MageBridge Control Panel with links to all important functionality.

Required MageBridge plugins in Joomla!

Also you should have a lot of extra MageBridge plugins installed. The following plugins are required for the correct working of MageBridge, and these plugins need to be enabled through Extensions » Plugin Manager:

Authentication - MageBridge
Magento - MageBridge
System - MageBridge
User - MageBridge
XML-RPC - MageBridge

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Optional MageBridge plugins

Some other plugins can be enabled later on, but we recommend to leave them unpublished until the bridge is properly running:

Content - MageBridge
Content - MageBridge Tags
Search - MageBridge

Also at this point, the MageBridge modules are not needed and can be left disabled.

2. Creating an API-user in Magento

Before we start configuring Joomla!, we need to go to Magento Admin Panel and create an API (webservice) user. This user is used by the bridge to logon to the Magento application. Because with every user we have to determine the rights of that user, we have to create a role first. Browse to System » Webservices » Roles. Here you can add a new role by clicking on Add New Role. The role gets a name which can be anything. But importantly you can define which rights this role has. Magento lets you configure these rights by selecting Resource Access the setting All.

Note that under Magento 1.7, you will need to configure the roles and users under SOAP/XML-RPC Roles and SOAP/XML-RPC Users.

Note that an API-user (configured through System » Webservices) is not the same thing as a regular user (configured through System » Permissions).

About the API-permissions

Note that these permissions count for the API-user, not regular Joomla! users. So while the API-user might be able to do everything within Magento, the MageBridge API makes it only possible to do a couple of these things through the bridge, and finally the Joomla! system determines through Joomla! user-groups what a specific user is able to do with these bridged things. For now, just add all resources to this API-role, and save the role.

Now that we have a role, we can configure an user that makes use of this role. Browse to System » Webservices » Users and click on Add New User. The form asks us for an username and an API-key (which is equal to a password). Make sure you choose a secure username and API-key. The form also asks for a first name, last name and email which is a bit silly for a non-person user, so just fill in something. Save these settings. You will need the API username and the API key (password) in the next steps.

Note that an API-user (configured through System » Webservices) is not the same thing as a regular user (configured through System » Permissions).

3. Configuring MageBridge settings in Joomla!

If you have the full MageBridge component running in Joomla!, browse to Components » MageBridge » Configuration. You see various tabs here, among which API and Bridge. All settings are described on the MageBridge Configuration Options.

mb_config_tabs

Settings in the API-tab

The most important thing is to complete the form under the API-tab, which configures the bridge to Magento. This includes the connection settings for Magento and the API-settings. These settings are required for running the bridge.

First configure the API!

A very important tip we can you give here is to first configure all the settings under the tab API, then click Apply in the toolbar. This will empty the cache and check if the settings are sufficient to build the bridge. If not, you will get a warning that the settings are incorrect. If everything is ok, you can proceed to the next steps.

Settings in the Bridge-tab

After configuring the required settings in the API-tab, you will need to configure a couple more Magento settings in Joomla!. We highly recommend you first enable the API Widgets (under the Bridge-tab. This extends the default MageBridge forms with API-checks, which makes it a lot easier to configure things. If the API Widgets fail to load, there's something wrong with your API-settings.

On the Bridge-tab you also need to select which Magento Website to use. Note that within one single Magento instance you can have multiple Magento Websites. You can only configure one Website for Joomla!.

Settings in the other tabs

The other tabs include specific settings for specific problems or configurations. With the API Widgets enabled, it's much easier to configure these settings. We recommend you leave them at default, and first read through the various tutorials on our site. If you need to change a setting, the documentation will tell you so.

All the settings are described in more detail on the MageBridge Configuration Options page.

Check the settings

Once you're done entering all the appropriate configuration options, we recommend you browse within the Joomla! backend to Components » MageBridge » System Check. The MageBridge component will try out various settings, and inspect your installation. Please resolve any errors before continuing.

Create a Root Menu-item

mb_root_menuitem Joomla! builds a lot of logic on top of the concept of Menu-Items, so MageBridge also requires you to setup a Menu-Item. With MageBridge you can create menu-items pointing to specific categories, specific products and any custom Magento page you like.

However, you need at least one special Menu-Item, which is called the Root Menu-item and which serves as a fall-back menu-item when browsing through the store. Also this Root Menu-Item displays the Magento homepage, so could be seen as the MageBridge home. Within the Joomla! Administrator, browse to Menus and then choose the appropriate menu. Within that menu, click on New in the toolbar. Choose to link the Menu-Item to the MageBridge component.

Within the MageBridge component you have multiple views. Click on the Root layout in this list. On the next page you can configure this Root Menu-Item just as you would with any other Menu-Item. Remember that you need only one Root Menu-Item (homepage) in MageBridge. If you want multiple menu-items pointing to the Magento homepage, only create one real menu-item and after that create Menu Aliases pointing to this original menu-item.

Remember that you can always place the Root Menu-Item within a menu that is actually not connected to a menu-module, and is therefor invisible to your visitors.

4. What's next?

If all went well, you should now be able to navigate on the frontend to the Magento webshop. This means the MageBridge extension has been configured and the bridge is up and running. You can now start configuring Joomla! modules or menu-items to make references to the Magento shop. If you leave the API Widgets turned on, you will have no problem configuring a menu-item linked to a specific Magento product or category.

If the bridge is not functioning yet, make sure all the settings are correct. Also read the FAQ for common problems. If the problem persists, it might also be usefull to take a look at our MageBridge Troubleshooting Guide. If you're still stuck, posting on our forum is always an option.

Setting the MageBridge URLs in Magento - Yireo