Should I learn Magento?
I’ve been looking for a Front-end Developer position with my arsenal of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and React but have been seeing other technologies pop up (of course, there’s so much out there). Magento is one of them.
In a couple of these job listings they go so far as to further label the position as a “Magento Developer”. They also ask for 2+ years of experience with Magento 1 and 2 and would prefer that the candidate had certification as well.
From the job listings, I gather that Magento is usually associated with “eCommerce sites with separate ERPs”. I don’t fully understand what that means but I hope to find out by the end of this blog.
Magento has also been compared to the likes of BigCommerce and Shopify.
What is Magento?
Going to their their website, I can see that it’s an open source eCommerce platform written in PHP and it powers Adobe Commerce. The whole front page is about Adobe Commerce. Does Adobe own Magento? Or vice-versa? What is the relationship? Apparently, Magento is an Adobe Company.
Advantages
By being open source and having a lot of plug-ins/extensions, Magento is very flexible and customizable with several templates and themes to choose from. It is also scalable so businesses don’t need to switch platforms when they grow.
“It can support up to 500,000 products on a single e-commerce website. It can take up to 100,000 orders in an hour.”
Magento provides an excellent customer experience from shopping on an e-commerce store to the cart and checkout process.
If you fill out this form, Magento will email you a guide where they compare themselves to Shopify. They are definitely trying to target small businesses experiencing fast growth.
Learning Magento
To learn Magento you need a good foundation in:
HTML — to develop the frontend and customize the client-facing site
CSS — to implement templates and thems
PHP — to do most of the tasks such as repeating sets of products (crucial)
XML — to change and edit layouts
JavaScript — to develop the frontend
Certification
Magento 2 Certified Professional Front End Developer Exam
“A Magento 2 Front End Developer creates and customizes Magento themes including: templates, layouts, CSS, JavaScript, and other components of the front end, including translations, of a Magento site. A Magento 2 Front End Developer uses the Admin Panel to implement design-related system configuration and modify the appearance of specific pages.
This exam is for a Magento 2 Front End Developer with a deep understanding of Magento 2 fundamentals and with 1.5 years or more of experience with Magento 2.”
This exam costs $295 and will require considerable hands on experience with Magento in order to pass it. So, if you’re going to learn Magento, you’re really going to have to dedicate yourself to the platform.
If you fill out a form with your name and email etc. you can get a free Magento Study Guide.
Max Pronko, a Magento expert, gives advice on his blog and suggestions to prepare for the exam. Basically, you need to have real practical experience with Magento to pass the exam.
Magento U also recommends taking an optional prerequisite course “Core Principles for Theming in Magento 2”. After looking through the Adobe Digital Learning Service (ADLS), it looks like it’s now called “Magento 2: Magento Front End Core Concepts for Developers.” The 2-part “Magento 2: Fundamentals of Development” also looks like a good place to begin.
Hasan Khan discusses his experience with the course in his blog.
There are many 1–15 day “on-demand” instructor-led trainings and well as self-paced courses. The catch is that you will need either the 12-month On-Demand Learning Subscription for $2,500 or the 12-month All Access Learning Subscription for $5,000.
Yikes! Even more of a time and money investment. Maybe beginners would be better off learning from scratch with blogs, YouTube and Udemy before taking the plunge for an Adobe Digital Learning Service subscription.
For those who don’t know, Udemy is always having a sale on their courses so you’ll pay a fraction of the “retail” price which brings it down to $13-$19 a course. Go explore!
Final Words
Before I dive into Magento I will need a firm understanding of PHP. It is something to consider.
Also, what is ERP in relation to Magento? ERP is an Enterprise Resource Planning system that contains “critical data like orders, prices, customer info, product data, and shipping methods.”
A well connected Magento and ERP means inventory stays up to date.
Some examples: Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, Infor, Epicor, Sage
