Magento 2 with Docker for Windows and WSL 2

Before COVID-19 cut the possibility of public gatherings, we had plenty of offline hackathons or contribution days in the Magento community world. An essential part of a working toolkit at such events is, obviously, a laptop (there were gurus that wrote the code even on tablets but that’s a different story). At every table, alongside ten developers with serious expressions, you would typically find at least seven MacBooks and three other devices running Ubuntu. If you’re lucky, you might encounter a developer who uses a Windows-based laptop as their workstation, but this is a rare exception.

The growing unpopularity of Windows-based laptops among web-developers in the past has its roots. There was a period when Windows could not provide a toolkit powerful enough for productive web application development. Many developers, who made the switch from Windows to OSX or Linux, never looked back. But during the last few years, the situation with the Windows platform has changed dramatically. Microsoft took the direction of improving the development tools they own (VS Code, WSL) and acquiring new ones (GitHub). We would like to share our recent experience in building Magento 2 local development environment using Docker and WSL 2.

Tales of the Magneto Adobe Stock Integration. Part II.

In the previous chapter, we talked about work on the Magento Adobe Stock Integration (ASI) project and how these kinds of volunteer activities are critical to the continued growth of developer’s expertise. As a result of engagement in such projects, developers not only get to improve their Magento skills, but the whole ecosystem also benefits from the accelerated roadmap delivery.

Adobe Stock Integration Part 1

The final days of June 2019 were unusually hot in Ukraine. The weather that year decided to follow all possible summer standards: sunny days, very high temperatures, and a lack of precipitation. Thus, it was pleasant to sit near the AC on the train during my ride from Kyiv to Kharkiv. In Kharkiv, I took part in the Magento Meetup. These kinds of events are essential in providing a unique opportunity to share knowledge with the community, improve your skills, and to strengthen friendships.

Magento Cloud - Pro vs Starter

Magento Commerce Cloud is the ideal combination of a hosting platform together with the right Magento Commerce features for building a website. We already highlighted reasons to choose Magento Commerce Cloud solution – a perfect choice for merchants who wish to simplify eCommerce website maintenance and, at the same time, acquire a stable platform for developing and growing business.

Magento offers two variations depending on business needs – Magento Commerce Cloud: Starter and Pro-Plan. Let’s compare these in more detail so you can find the right choice for your company.

The Open Source for Open-Source

The Atwix engineering team spends a lot of time monitoring, engaging, and contributing to Magento Open-Source projects. As CTO, I can tell you this investment is smart business for any Magento shop to stay on top of ALL that is taking place across our eco. However, within our Magento agency, Open-Source is something very personal to all of us. Managers and developers set aside much time and effort to review, share and contribute. Contributing ensues our knowledge and skills stay sharp, and it is great for the greater community to continually move the eCommerce platform forward. To that end, I wanted to share what we have been seeing, and where we have been rolling up our sleeves and participating – recently GraphQL has occupied much of that time and for good reason…

Speed matters in eCommerce. This statement on its own is common knowledge (or should be). However, what may be less known is the need to invest in Magento performance audits and improvements — continually. Think of performance investment not so much as optional, but rather as part of an ongoing merchant’s operating budget needed to maintain optimal user experience (and site owners and all those responsible for managing the site!). 

Top 5 Reasons it might be time to upgrade Magento Open Source to Magento Commerce

Changing a merchant’s eCommerce platform is a mission critical business decision. It is a decision that should not be taken lightly. The storefront platform, in many ways, is a reflection of the merchant. How they came to market. How they position themselves. How they manage their e-business. How they chose to innovate and how they share their passion.

Magento Commerce Cloud

We work closely with merchants from various industries around the world. When it comes to choosing a hosting platform, it turns out they have much in common. Namely, the need to carefully think through business requirements and customer experiences as they select the right hosting solution.

Overview of Magento Commerce and Open Source 2.3.5 release

General availability for Magento 2.3.5 was on April 28. This release introduced new security and performance improvements. Like any patch release, if you want to improve your Magento performance, it’s recommended that you update to the latest version of the Magento application at your earliest convenience to apply not only functional enhancements but, most importantly, all the recent security fixes. To help you plan and budget software updates, let’s first clarify types of Magento code releases. 

PhpStorm value for Magento community

Working on the same technology, on the same project, on the same code – year over year – will inevitably make a developer strong, knowledgeable and something of a subject matter expert.  Howeverbeing hyper-focused for such extended periods introduces various risks to both the developer and the project, such as potential loss of interest or, worse, burnout.
That’s when PhpStorm Magento 2 plugin came to the stage.