It looks like this:

<meta name="generator" content="WordPress 2.9.0" />

To remove this meta tag, simply add the following line to your functions.php file in your theme:

remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

1. Sign up for your Google Analytics account here:
   http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html
2. Make note of your Google Analytics account number,
   e.g. UA-xxxxxx-x
3. Go to your Magento admin and visit the following screen:
   System > Configuration > Sales > Google API
4. Expand the Google Analytics block, Enable and enter your Account Number

Sit back and watch those stats start rolling in..
Doesn’t get much simpler than that – cheers Mage and Goog

var _gaq = _gaq  || [];

As with a lot of tips and techniques on this site, I’m just making a record of a technique that I use all the time and a version of it that I’m confident works. This also ensures that I have an online reference that isn’t going to disappear someday..

So anyway, onto clearfix

Basically this trick ‘fixes’ the problem that occurs when a floated element doesn’t automatically fill out it’s parent container..
Here’s some example HTML and an image to illustrate this scenario:

<div style="border:1px solid blue;padding:5px;">
	<div style="float:right;width:49%;height:50px;background:green;">
		&nbsp;
	</div>	
 
	<div style="width:49%;height:20px;background:red;">
		&nbsp;
	</div>
</div>

As you can see, the green div is extending out of it’s parent container.
i.e. it’s not expanding the container automatically.

To apply clearfix, simply use the following CSS:

.clearfix:after {
     visibility: hidden;
     display: block;
     font-size: 0;
     line-height: 0;
     content: " ";
     clear: both;
     height: 0;
     width: 0;
     }
.clearfix { display: inline-block; }
/* start commented backslash hack \*/
* html .clearfix { height: 1%; }
.clearfix { display: block; }
/* close commented backslash hack */

And then add a class=”clearfix” to the parent container in your markup:

<div class="clearfix" style="border:1px solid blue;padding:5px;">
	<div style="float:right;width:49%;height:50px;background:green;">
		&nbsp;
	</div>	
 
	<div style="width:49%;height:20px;background:red;">
		&nbsp;
	</div>
</div>

Now you’ll see the green div expands the parent container automatically.

Let’s use the following example scenario:
You want to add a drop box select element to ask the user ‘Where did you hear about us?’. The options will be: Google, Magazine, Word of Mouth, Other.

Update the Contact Us form template

Firstly you need to edit the contact form template.
If using the default theme, this code will be located in
/magento/app/design/frontend/base/default/template/contacts/form.phtml

Add the following markup to the template in the desired position:

<div class="input-box">
    <label for="where-hear"><?php echo Mage::helper('contacts')->__('Where did you hear about us?') ?> <span class="required">*</span></label><br />
    <select name="where-hear" id="where-hear" style="width:300px" class="required-entry">
        <option value="" selected>Please select...</option>
        <option value="Google">Google</option>
        <option value="Magazine">Magazine</option>
        <option value="Word of Mouth">Word of Mouth</option>
        <option value="Other">Other</option>
    </select>
</div>

Note the use of class=”required-entry” on the select element.. This tells the default javascript validation that this field is required. If the user tries to submit the form without choosing an option, then it will throw an error and highlight the field.

So that takes care of the form, now you need to set up a custom email template that includes the new field.

Create a custom transactional email template

Navigate to the following screen in your Magento admin:
System > Transactional Emails

1. Click Add New Template
2. In the top block (Load default template), select “Contact Form” from the drop box and click Load Template
3. In the Template Information block, set the Template Name to “Custom Contact Form”
4. In the Template Content field, add the following line where you want it to appear in the email:

   Where did you hear about us?: {{var data.where-hear}}

Assign the custom email template

Navigate to the following screen in your Magento admin:
System > Configuration > General > Contacts

In the Email Options block, set the Email Template to “Custom Contact Form”.

Click Save Config and you’re all done.

Adding a record to directory_country_region for a specified country_id will make that new entry show up in the State/Province drop box on the address forms. It will also make that a required field, so you need to make sure you add all the possible options.

You then need to add a corresponding record to directory_country_region_name, using the region_id generated when you inserted into directory_country_region. This entry will make the new region show up when a whole address is displayed on the screen or email, e.g. in an order summary.

Example: Add North and South Island to New Zealand

So let’s say that like me, you live in New Zealand and want to add 2 regions: North Island and South Island. The country id for New Zealand is NZ, the region code is a unique identifier so I’m going with NORTH and at the moment I’m only interested in the en_US locale.

First I will insert North Island into directory_country_region as follows:

INSERT INTO `directory_country_region` 
(`region_id`,`country_id`,`code`,`default_name`) 
VALUES (NULL,'NZ','NORTH','North Island');

Note the NULL entry for the region_id field which will auto_increment. I need to find out this new region_id for my next insert so I can either browse the table manually, or this query will do the trick:

SELECT * FROM `directory_country_region` 
WHERE `country_id`='NZ' AND`code`='NORTH' AND `default_name`='North Island';

In my case, the new region_id is 320, so with that I’ll now insert into directory_country_region_name as follows:

INSERT INTO `directory_country_region_name` 
(`locale`,`region_id`,`name`) 
VALUES ('en_US','320','North Island');

Now I just repeat those steps for South Island and I’m all set.

I’ve created some code below which automates this process, you just need to make sure Magento is properly initialised in your script and modify the variables at the top as necessary.. Enjoy!

// set up array containing regions to be added (region_code => region_name)
$new_regions = array(
	'NORTH' => "North Island",
	'SOUTH' => "South Island",
);
 
// specify country code for new regions
$country_code = 'NZ';
 
// specify locale
$locale = 'en_US';
 
// create our core_write conection object
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');
 
// iterate our new regions
foreach ($new_regions as $region_code => $region_name) {
 
	// insert region 
	$sql = "INSERT INTO `directory_country_region` (`region_id`,`country_id`,`code`,`default_name`) VALUES (NULL,?,?,?)";
	$connection->query($sql,array($country_code,$region_code,$region_name));
 
	// get new region id for next query
	$region_id = $connection->lastInsertId();
 
	// insert region name
	$sql = "INSERT INTO `directory_country_region_name` (`locale`,`region_id`,`name`) VALUES (?,?,?)";
	$connection->query($sql,array($locale,$region_id,$region_name));
}

Before running any the snippets in this article,
you’ll need to make sure Magento is initialised in your script

Magento Database Models

The best way to access and manipulate data in Magento is by using the provided objects and their associated functionality..
For example, you can get a Magento category model like this:

$model_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category');

With your category model you now retrieve data
e.g. get all child categories of category ID 2 and echo the name

$model_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category');
foreach ($model_category->getCategories($id=2) as $category) {
	echo $category->getName();
}

Magento Helper Classes

Magento has helper classes which are pretty handy also.
For example, you can get a Magento category helper like this:

$helper = Mage::helper('catalog/category');

Your helper will have a bunch of methods defined for performing common tasks.
For example, you can get all your stores top level categories as follows:

$helper = Mage::helper('catalog/category');
foreach ($helper->getStoreCategories() as $category) {
	echo $category->getName();
}

Check this file to see what methods are available in the catalog category helper:
magento/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Category.php

Raw SQL Queries in Magento

That’s a VERY brief intro into using Magento’s models and helpers. They should serve your needs most of the time, but if you really need to deal with raw queries here’s how to do it.

Depending on what sort of operation you wish to perform (read or write) you will use one of the following to get a database connection object:

$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_read');
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');

These connections are essentially Zend database objects so you can run any of the methods defined here. Probably of most interest will be query(), fetchAll(), and fetchOne().

Write directly to a Magento database table

This example creates a core_write connection object, then directly inserts a row with raw SQL via the query() method.

// insert a new US State into the region table
$sql = "INSERT INTO `directory_country_region` (`region_id`,`country_id`,`code`,`default_name`) VALUES (NULL,'US','XX','New US State')";
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');
$connection->query($sql);

Read directly from a Magento database table

This example creates a core_read connection object, then uses the fetchAll() method to retrieve and iterate all the rows returned by a raw sql query.

// display all regions defined for the United States
$sql = "SELECT * FROM directory_country_region WHERE country_id='US'";
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_read');
foreach ($connection->fetchAll($sql) as $arr_row) {
	echo $arr_row['default_name'];
}

Add this snippet to the top of your script, updating the path accordingly.

<?php 
define('PATH_TO_MAGENTO', '/var/www/magento'); // update accordingly
require_once PATH_TO_MAGENTO.'/app/Mage.php';
Mage::app()->setCurrentStore(Mage_Core_Model_App::ADMIN_STORE_ID); 
 
// your php code here
 
?>

You have a couple of good options here:
1. create a new WP_Query object, or
2. use the get_posts() function.

Note: Using query_posts() is a bad option as it will upset your “main loop”

Both take pretty much the same arguments as query_posts() – see a list here.

Example usage of WP_Query:

$featured_category_id = 10;
$args = array('posts_per_page'=>3, 'cat'=>$featured_category_id);
$query = new WP_Query($args);
 
while ($query->have_posts()) : $query->the_post();
	the_title('<h3>', '</h3>');
endwhile;

Example usage of get_posts():

$featured_category_id = 10;
$args = array('numberposts'=>3, 'cat'=>$featured_category_id);
 
foreach (get_posts($args) as $post):
	the_title('<h3>', '</h3>');
endforeach;

Run jQuery code when page has finished loading (DOM ready)

$(document).ready(function() {
	// code here
});
 
// jQuery shortcut to DOM ready
$(function() {
	// code here
});

Run jQuery in “no conflict” mode

jQuery.noConflict();
 
// run code when DOM ready using $ shortcut
jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
	// code here
});

Get selected text from select element

$("#ID :selected").text()

Get multiple selected text from select element into array

var arr_text = [];
$("#ID :selected").each(function(i, selected){
	arr_text[i] = $(selected).text();
});

Bind a click event

$("#ID").bind("click", function(){
	alert("Clickity Click");
});

in_category_extended() is designed to extend the functionality of in_category() in the following ways:

1. test if the current post is assigned to the specified category OR any descendant categories
2. return TRUE if you are viewing the specified category page OR any descendant category pages

Sure, you can do this a bunch of different ways, using multiple functions and code snippets, but I want a single boolean PHP function to use in my templates.

Example Usage

The main navigation consists of category tabs with on/off states.
If I’m viewing a post OR a category page which is related to the “development” category, then I want to apply a class="current" to the development tab element, which I can then style accordingly with CSS.

class="<?= in_category_extended('development') ? 'current' : '' ?>"

Function Definition

bool in_category_extended($category)

returns TRUE if the current webpage is related to the specified category

Function Parameters

$category
(mixed) (required) Category specified by ID (integer), or slug (string)

Function Code

This function has come in very handy for me – I hope you find it useful too!

function in_category_extended($category) {
 
	// easy out
	if (!(is_category() or is_single())) return false;
 
	// retrieve specified category (ID or slug)
	$obj_specified_category = is_numeric($category) ? get_category($category) : get_category_by_slug($category);
	if (empty($obj_specified_category->cat_ID)) return false;
 
	// we're viewing a category
	if (is_category()) {
		$current_category_ID = get_query_var('cat');
		return ($obj_specified_category->cat_ID == $current_category_ID or cat_is_ancestor_of($obj_specified_category->cat_ID,$current_category_ID));
	}
 
	// we're viewing a post
	else {
		global $wp_query;
		$obj_post = $wp_query->get_queried_object();
		if (empty($obj_post->ID)) return false; 
 
		if (in_category($obj_specified_category->cat_ID, $obj_post->ID)) return true;
		else return in_category(get_term_children($obj_specified_category->cat_ID, 'category'), $obj_post->ID);
	}
}