MageBridge 1.5 Release Notes - Yireo

MageBridge 1.5 Release Notes

Version 1.5 was released in August 2010 but this is more of a milestone, because its main features have been available already for months. This version primarily adds caching and some smaller tricks like using the Google API - with this new release the performance of a MageBridge shop can dramatically be improved.

Caching

With MageBridge 1.5, a new caching ability is introduced. If configured properly, this could mean that your Joomla!-based shop no longer needs to contact Magento for every request - something that could give you huge increases of speed. Caching involves enabling an option in MageBridge, but it also involves a thorough review of all your Joomla! modules to see whether they are actually cacheable or not. MageBridge 1.5 also includes an option to AJAX-ify Joomla! modules to make sure user-related content is loaded after the main page-content is loaded.

Everything regarding this new caching ability is discussed in the MageBridge Caching guide.

YOOtheme template-patches

Because combining the Magento theme with the Joomla! template gives direct result, it's a fine way to get started with MageBridge quickly. But still, the integration doesn't look flawless. We decided to develop various patches for the popular YOOtheme templates that make the integration of the Magento Default Theme into that specific YOOtheme template look flawless.

Upgrade procedure

In short:

• Upgrade MageBridge in both Joomla! as Magento
• Open the MageBridge settings in Joomla! and save them
• Take another look at the MageBridge Quick Start Guide

Upgrading to MageBridge 1.5 should be painless using the Update-pages in both Joomla! and Magento. Please note that if you upgrade the Joomla! extensions, you MUST update the Magento extension – and vice versa. Also note that there are new configuration options in both the MageBridge settings in Joomla! as the MageBridge settings in Magento. The online MageBridge Quick Start Guide is updated to include these new settings.

If errors occur, it could be that the Magento extension is not updated properly, due to wrong file permissions. This issue occurs mostly in hosting environments where the system umask is not tuned for usage with the PHP CGI-configuration. See the last chapters of our modified MageBridge Troubleshooting Guide for more information.

Features

• NEW: Caching ability
• NEW: AJAX-ified Joomla! modules
• NEW: Extra plugingroup "magebridge"
• NEW: Loading Prototype and jQuery through Google API
• FIX: Improved disabling of JavaScript and CSS-files in the Joomla! backend
• FIX: User synchronization is done by ID and no longer by email-address
• NEW: Improved default MageBridge CSS-code to allow for better template-patching
• FIX: Restructuring of various helpers and model-classes
• NEW: Extra system checks and troubleshooting-tools in the backends

Known bugs / limitations

See our official list of known bugs and/or limitations.