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Mostly, a single database connection is required only while working with Magento. Magento has excellent features to add new tables to the database or extend the existing ones. So why do we need an external database connection outside the Magento? Well, data migration from other e-commerce systems is one of the examples.

In this blog here, I am going to tell you a simple way as how to do external database connection in Magento with CRUD (create, read, update, delete) examples.

Configuration

In XML configuration, the external database connection is similarly defined as the Magento default one. The difference between internal and foreign connection is that foreign connection is defined inside the particulars module’s XML configuration. It defines read and write adapters and sets up the database credentials. Foreign tables are also defined in the same way as Magento table. They are defined under abc_foreignconnection_resource node so the model resource can be called later in the code. For a demo, here is a frontend node in XML config.

<?xml version=”1.0″?>

<config>

<modules>

<Inchoo_ForeignConnection>

<version>1.4.2</version>

</Inchoo_ForeignConnection>

</modules>

<global>

<models>

<inchoo_foreignconnection>

<class>Inchoo_ForeignConnection_Model</class>

<resourceModel>inchoo_foreignconnection_resource</resourceModel>

</inchoo_foreignconnection>

<inchoo_foreignconnection_resource>

<class>Inchoo_ForeignConnection_Model_Resource</class>

<entities>

<product>

<table>product_description</table>

</product>

</entities>

</inchoo_foreignconnection_resource>

</models>

<resources>

<inchoo_foreignconnection_write>

<connection>

<use>inchoo_foreignconnection_database</use>

</connection>

</inchoo_foreignconnection_write>

<inchoo_foreignconnection_read>

<connection>

<use>inchoo_foreignconnection_database</use>

</connection>

</inchoo_foreignconnection_read>

<inchoo_foreignconnection_setup>

<connection>

<use>core_setup</use>

</connection>

</inchoo_foreignconnection_setup>

<inchoo_foreignconnection_database>

<connection>

<host><![CDATA[localhost]]></host>

<username><![CDATA[username]]></username>

<password><![CDATA[password]]></password>

<dbname><![CDATA[db_name]]></dbname>

<initStatements><![CDATA[SET NAMES utf8]]></initStatements>

<model><![CDATA[mysql4]]></model>

<type><![CDATA[pdo_mysql]]></type>

<pdo_type><![CDATA[]]></pdo_type>

<active>1</active>

</connection>

</inchoo_foreignconnection_database>

</resources>

</global>

<frontend>

<routers>

<inchoo_foreignconnection>

<use>standard</use>

<args>

<module>Inchoo_ForeignConnection</module>

<frontName>fconn</frontName>

</args>

</inchoo_foreignconnection>

</routers>

</frontend>

</config>

Model

The next thing is the model which is used to define a foreign connection to get or save data in any foreign database. Here the model is initialized with the product table from XML configuration, which in this case defines product_description table.

class Inchoo_ForeignConnection_Model_Product extends Mage_Core_Model_Abstract

{

protected $_eventPrefix = ‘inchoo_foreignconnection_product’;

protected $_eventObject = ‘product’;

protected function _construct()

{

$this->_init(‘inchoo_foreignconnection/product’);

}

}

The model resource class is defined as the same xml config node in _init()function, but with the table_primary_key parameter. Several functions can be created in this class which can work with external data.

1^st Example is CreateDataInResource function, which will insert data into model’s table. It takes an array of parameters which are required to be inserted.

2^nd Example is ReadDataFromResource function which fetches all the data from the model’s table. Read adapter should be defined first. It’s a configuration node from XML which defines read connection. After the read adapter definition, other Magento database connection such as (select(), from(), limit(), etc) can be used. Read adapter will execute the query once it is constructed completely.

To fetch data, one can use these functions FetchPairs() or FetchAll(). FetchAll is used to get all the records returned from MySQL.

UpdateDataInResource and DeleteDataInResource functions requires additional $id parameter that defines which record is going to be updated or deleted.

class Inchoo_ForeignConnection_Model_Resource_Product extends Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Db_Abstract

{

const TABLE_PRIMARY_KEY = ‘product_id’;

protected function _construct()

{

$this->_init(‘inchoo_foreignconnection/product’, self::TABLE_PRIMARY_KEY);

}

public function createDataInResource($values = array())

{

$writeAdapter = $this->_getWriteAdapter();

try {

$writeAdapter->insert(

$this->getMainTable(),

$values

);

} catch (Exception $e) {

Mage::log(‘Unable to insert data to external resource. ‘ . $e->getMessage(), null, null, true);

}

}

public function readDataFromResource()

{

$data = array();

$readAdapter = $this->_getReadAdapter();

$select = $readAdapter->select()

->from($this->getMainTable(), ‘*’)

->limit(20);

try {

$data = $readAdapter->fetchAll($select);

} catch (Exception $e) {

Mage::log(‘Unable to fetch data from external resource. ‘ . $e->getMessage(), null, null, true);

}

 

return $data;

}

public function updateDataInResource($id, $values = array())

{

$writeAdapter = $this->_getWriteAdapter();

try {

$writeAdapter->update(

$this->getMainTable(),

$values,

self::TABLE_PRIMARY_KEY . ‘=’ . $id

);

} catch (Exception $e) {

Mage::log(‘Unable to update data in external resource. ‘ . $e->getMessage(), null, null, true);

}

}

public function deleteDataFromResource($id)

{

$writeAdapter = $this->_getWriteAdapter();

try {

$writeAdapter->delete(

$this->getMainTable(),

self::TABLE_PRIMARY_KEY . ‘=’ . $id

);

} catch (Exception $e) {

Mage::log(‘Unable to delete data from external resource. ‘ . $e->getMessage(), null, null, true);

}

}

}

class Inchoo_ForeignConnection_Model_Resource_Product_Collection extends Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Db_Collection_Abstract

{

public function _construct()

{

$this->_init(‘inchoo_foreignconnection/product’);

}

}

Usage in Controller

All these below functions describes in IndexController class, but as they are defined in Model’s resource class, they can also be called in any controller class.

class Inchoo_ForeignConnection_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action

{

publicfunction indexAction()

{

// Create

$foreignProductCreate = Mage::getModel(‘inchoo_foreignconnection/product’)->getResource();

$foreignProductCreate->createDataInResource(

array(

‘product_name’ => ‘Product name’,

‘product_description’ => ‘Product description’

)

);

// Read

$foreignProductRead = Mage::getModel(‘inchoo_foreignconnection/product’)->getResource();

$result = $foreignProductRead->readDataFromResource();

var_dump($result);

// Update

$foreignProductUpdate = Mage::getModel(‘inchoo_foreignconnection/product’)->getResource();

$foreignProductUpdate->updateDataInResource(

3394,

array(

‘product_name’ => ‘Product name updated’,

‘product_description’ => ‘Product description updated’

)

);

// Delete

$foreignProductDelete = Mage::getModel(‘inchoo_foreignconnection/product’)->getResource();

$foreignProductDelete->deleteDataFromResource(3394);

}

}

In most cases, Magento uses different types of external connection to retrieve or send data, but sometimes an external database connection is a good to go thing. Give it a try and do let us know in the comment section below as how it worked.

An implementation of websites through the use of Artificial Intelligence is up and running and has been put into use in Tel Aviv, Israel. AI is a division of computer science that has to do with intelligence displayed by machines and goes into deep science with it. The Science that has made progression in the past decade is perfection and complacency which remains to be used.

Relegating the technological and robotics world now comes down to make technology as it perfects through robotics. Throughout the age of computers and the developing fields, there has been faultlessness which has met the eyes of designers. Willing to use voice communication which came into being through Eliza software has been in existence for more than one and a half decades.

Another issue of recognizing through an optical means is never a part of artificial intelligence but sound recognition and understanding are there at hand. With the launching of Wix Artificial Design and Intelligence (ADI) has shown a breakthrough in technology. Looking to be a rare introduction in the field, there has been a complimentary improvement you will see with it.

Artificial intelligence is a common implication which you will want to condescend and see the use of it in self-driving cars, content delivery networks and understanding human speech. Use of different devices to sense how certain features need to get examined are the basic purpose of artificial intelligence in most ways. A combination of mathematics and philosophy has to do with the implication of computer science as a notable common feature.

Latest Trends In Website Development Through Technology

This ADI provides a comprehensive improvement and recognition of data that 85 million users recognize with the technology. What you will find most explicit is that it gathers information online and makes efficient use you will need. Making best and more conservative implementation of content that needs to be placed on the website is through this technology named Wix.

A continuous implementation of this transfer of content is seen since the beginning to an end which has development done easily. It is the ADI that knows how to develop websites making compulsive integration and continuation of web development. As you might seem to use it, Wix provides cloud development to make HTML5 sites as well as mobile sites you require.

Almost 100 Million users are there who are continuously using the site for more marked development and improved web design. As there are premium and freemium models to get access to community forums, e-commerce, social plug-ins, e-mail marketing and contact forms. Seeing a variety that you might seem to connect with, has several advancements in working.

Easy Designing Through A More Advanced Way In Web Development

Achsaf is the Wix ADI and is the first web development tool that has been given the name and is implied with Artificial Intelligence applications. After every other season, Wix gets newer versions of the developer such as HTML5 that there in use. It is the improved version and gets its publicity as a new and more remarkable web developing tool which comes to good use.

The perfect use of options that has artificial intelligence implications is through content which gets read from beginning to completion. Once the website gets completed a conclusion with themes as well as other design features are then designed with requirements. A query is always there at hand and the consistent questioning leads it to have conclusive application to website development.

Asked a few questions it could lead you to make a home page of websites you are into designing for your personal or commercial use. When there is a combination of artificial intelligence and algorithms that make easy development through a design strategy put into action is through algorithms. Where there is a right intrusion a contention from a series of choices mark in billions making the select ones as a used choice in website development.

If there is no immediate response to the Wix ADI simulator there are still a variety of things you will want to look at making a more comprehensive selection of a design strategy. The simulator accesses information through the web and gets right data in the right location on the designed website you are making.

It is no more a secret anymore that PHP 7 has gained a lot of popularity, more than its previous versions. There are some questions which arise while developing with this advance version of PHP such as how it will affect sites which run on WordPress.

PHP 7 is no doubt an advance update for server-side web development language, and not in PHP but it’s going to impact a lot on other PHP-powered CMS like Drupal, Joomla, and Magento.

Upgrades in Performances

The biggest performance upgrade in PHP 7 is the direct response to all the criticism for all the past performance issues for the platform. This new PHP 7 release will give a 50% increase for the apps and will be quicker than HHVM.

Double Speed

This latest new update is twice as fast as PHP 5.x. PHP 7 executes codes faster and requires only few servers to manage the same quantity of requests each second. For example, WordPress homepage now requires 72% fewer instructions to execute than previously.

Latest & Improved Operators

The two operators that make their debut on PHP 7 are Spaceship and Null Coalescing. The former makes the designers chained comparison briefer while the latter is supposed to check if something exists.

Function Type Clues

In PHP 7, you are now allowed to use Boolean, Integers, Floats and strings as function type hints. In addition to that, you can even declare a function’s return type. This will help in preventing you from passing and returning the wrong types from functions.

Engine Exception

Exceptions added in this latest release of PHP 7 engine will help designers to handle errors in applications. The new engine exception introduced in this version will replace these types of errors, which is a great news for designers. If they now witness any fatal error, they can immediately remove it.

Continuous 64-Bit Support

It is now possible to operate PHP on a 64-BIT Windows system with total confidence. This is no doubt a remarkable change because the earlier versions of PHP have failed to support 64-bit integers or bigger files.

Group Use Declaration

Group Use Declaration is another more interesting feature of PHP 7. They outstandingly have improved PHP namespace implementations. Now you can import as many classes as you want from the namespaces, all because of this syntax. Another benefit of this syntax is, you have to write less code.

Anonymous Class Support

Classes with no name help developers to enhance their coding and fasten the execution time. Well, other programming languages like Java and C# also let developers make use of anonymous classes in their code.

Abstract Syntax Tree

PHP 7 introduces Abstract Syntax Tree and for good reason. It is the middle phase in the whole language compilation process. AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) has come with lots of advantages like the possibility of more optimization, refined code quality and the chance to use tools such as static code analyzers.

Removal of Unacceptable Items

Good news, some deprecated features, unsupported or dead server APIs and extensions are removed in this latest version of PHP. Here see the list of removed items:

• ASP style tags
• PHP 4 style constructors.
• Ereg and MYSQL extensions.

These are some necessary things to keep in mind while moving to PHP 7.

Notifications

Stay alerted for notifications. Hosting sites usually send the notification to the site owners prior to any PHP updates. Do tell your hosting provider if you missed anything by mistake.

WordPress Site Backup

It would be great if you save the copies of your WordPress site in multiple locations before migrating to PHP 7. This applies even when you think that the update will not break your site.

Update Before Migrate

Update all your site elements like the themes, plugins and the whole WordPress site before migrating to PHP 7. It is a wise precaution to ensure that all the site elements work fine even after the migration.

Talk to your Hosting Provider

Don’t feel shy in contacting your web hosts’ support team. Ask them if they are able to take care of all the site issues while migrating. Ask them to simply install a new copy of WordPress and then restore your whole site from the backup.

Wrapping it up

With all these updates, the release of PHP 7 sounds are all exciting for the developers and designers. The new update is designed with lots of features which has made the programming language faster and more improved.

Still scared in migrating to PHP 7? So it is recommended to follow all the precautions to avoid any mishaps.

The road for conversion on any website is a long one. Countless of factors matters as why someone would take action on your site. In this post right here, we are going to talk about the most important user group on educational websites which intends to satisfy parents and students. Obviously, any educational website serves many purposes and both users are part of your organization but not necessarily both the users need to be served in the same way for conversions.

Let’s take a look at some key website elements which can help effect, achieve and encourage conversions.

1: Compelling and Attractive Headlines

There are lots of choices available for students when narrowing down their options for educational sites. In the process of researching, they will look at hundreds of websites recommended to them by others or seems appealing to them in some way. This is the reason that a compelling and straightforward headline is so much important.

If a user lands on your website, make them revisit your website again. This can be done through many things since it is difficult to focus on any single aspect of the website, so it’s better to make a bold, loud, stand-out and clear statement to convey your message rather than filling the page with a glut of information.

2: Quality Imagery

High-quality images go hands in hands with the compelling and appealing headlines. The homepage and landing pages of your educational website should feature quality photography which gives your user an immediate and positive reaction over that. Pairing with strong headlines or content and high-quality images will leave a long lasting impression on users, convincing them that they have landed in the right spot.

3: Clear, Defined User Paths

Education websites serve many user groups. And because of this reason, it is important to have clearly defined user paths to allow easy navigation according to the needs. Giving clear pathways to a relevant and specific content ensures you that the users don’t abandon your site just like that because they can’t find the information they are looking for.

4: Ease of Navigation

Educational websites are normally loaded with lots of information, which makes sense as it is fulfilling different needs of user groups and offers a huge number of different courses, programs which should be represented. However, displaying an enormous amount of content can be a challenge when it comes to representing it on the web. Web sites with a variety of content should focus on presenting in such ways which help in navigating the site towards the content which is relevant and useful.

5: The Right CTAs

Call-to-action buttons are incredibly an important factor in the conversion process. But it doesn’t force users to take that step instead it guides them the way which makes sense to them. The more satisfied and comfortable your users are, the more likely they will take a step to complete the conversion. Consider it necessary as how much information users require before they take any more serious and important steps such as giving their contact or card information. So ensure to include other options for users who are not yet ready to make any commitment.

6: Social Presence

Displaying Social proof on your website is one of a great way to gain user trust and get them connected with your educational institute on a more personal level. Word-of-mouth marketing, social shares, comments, mentions are now considered to be the digital equivalent of a conversation shared between people. Integrating social tools on your site shows that your educational institute possesses a thriving, engaging and successful community.

7: Mobile Optimized

Mobile optimized websites are a necessity now. Half of the users’ access web through their phones and Google takes mobile optimization as a ranking factor. The website without mobile optimization is a major drawback and a website performing poorly on the mobile screen is undoubtedly a conversion killer.

In a digital era, almost everyone expects websites to function on phones as fine as they do on desktop screens, so it’s wise to meet their expectations to generate leads and conversions.

In the End

We hope these 7 areas of focus discussed above will help you design your website in a way which influences conversions. Did we miss out any other factor? Do let us know in the comment below.

Moodle, aka Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, an open-source platform which lets you create interactive, collaborative content and online courses through Learning Management System (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Deploying any Moodle website can be very profitable. Moodle website owners can make the most out of their Modular architecture and can implement plenty of functional modules/extensions on the site to make the educational interface more attractive, interesting and engaging.

However, you might feel sometimes the decrease of your Moodle’s website load time and performance. With too many extensions installed on your Moodle site or being shrink on your Moodle hosting plan, can also give your Moodle website users a hard time. Since nothing can spoil the name and reputation of a website than its low speed and functionality.

I am going to share down here few tricks to optimize and speed up your Moodle website.

1: The Basic Tweaks

Before taking any further step towards optimization techniques, it is necessary for you to understand and consider first some of the basic things which can cause or make your Moodle website slow.

2: Get a Managed Moodle Cloud Hosting

Discover first whether the hosting plan you are on suits your website or not. If you are using shared hosting then obviously it’s the root cause for your Moodle website to function slowly and makes it more delicate for security threats as well.  Get Managed Moodle Cloud Hosting for better and adequate resources and security.

3: Baseline Monitoring

If using in-house servers then do monitor the components of the system which are the baseline of your Moodle site. For Linux Operating System, try LBS and for Windows Monitoring System, use performance monitor. Once you are done gathering the information about your system performance, you can now improve the performance and speed of your Moodle website by making changing in system components such as RAM, caching or Disk Space.

4: Operating System

Moodle runs on limited operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Mac OS and UNIX. But for the better performance, Linux is supposed to be the core Operating System on the servers which can run your Moodle website. Do check your hosting provider too and see if their systems are giving the recommended configuration to Moodle or not. If not, then change your hosting ASAP.

5: Additional Performance Tweaks for Desktops

If you are using FireFox, integrate firebug and then YSlow extension in it. This advance tool will tell you the exact loading time of each page of your Moodle website. Also, the YSlow tool will evaluate all the pages in contrast to Yahoo’s 14 rule for fast loading website and gives you the metrics of some common issues on your website. 

6: PHP Accelerators to less the CPU load

It is suggested for both in-house servers hosting providers to make use of PHP accelerators according to the PHP version. The PHP Accelerator will help to ease the load from the servers while processing PHP queries.

7: Check Memory Limit

The latest version of Moodle requires larger memory. Check the memory_limit in php.ini. If the Moodle version is earlier than ver1.7 then reduce the memory to 16M and for 1.7 versions, increase the memory limit to 40M.

8: Optimize the Performance of Apache Server

If your Windows server has Apache installed then use the Apache Lounge build version because this build of Apache is far better in performance and stability than the official one. Do remember one thing this version won’t keep you updated with the official patches and releases of Apache.

9: Increase MaxClients Memory Limit

Increasing the memory of MaxClients will leave 80% of the available memory for spare. Apache requires maximum 10 MB memory for processes increase up to 100MB. This whole thing will render your Moodle website pages fast.

Tip: Don’t increase the MaxClients value to above 256 as this would allow your server to eat more memory.

10: Tweak MYSQL Performance

Change MYSQL settings for better performance of the Moodle website. But make sure you have made the backup of the databases before taking any attempt to change the configuration of MYSQL.

Some Other Tools to Increase Moodle’s Performance

There are some other methods available to increase or boost up the load time for the Moodle website. Such as CDNs (Content Delivery Network) can make your Moodle website accessible for all and Memcached allows quick rendering of the web pages.

Well, these are some tips to speed up the performance of your Moodle Website. Hope they work for you. Got any other tip? Do let us know in the comment section below.