Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/9BHlVU

Anyway, the second part is actually quite easy. It is pretty much about setting up your empty MySQL database for use with Magento. Here are the steps:

1. Install MySQL Server (obviously) – this process should be a no brainer process. Just download the installation package and run it. You need to configure the MySQL to support both InnoDB and ISAM for Magento to work. Follow the setup wizard and you will be okay
2. You may want to download MySQL GUI Tool as well. Or if you are looking for a good GUI, I suggest you try NaviCat. It is probably the closest application that give you something similar to what we see on our Microsoft SQL Management Studio tool
3. Create new database (or schema). Name whatever you want. I usually create user along with that and assign the user to the database and give all access
4. That’s it. You are ready to install Magento

So now the rest should be pretty straight forward. Once you put the Magento code on the Apache, call out the main URL (don’t use localhost or IP, if you don’t have domain, create dummy one through host file). You will see the Magento setup wizard. Follow the setup steps and you will be good to go.

Cheers.

Here are some of the key highlights of Ashland:

1. Master Pages

Ashland finally supports the .NET master page and theme approach for website skinning. Skin base has been deprecated, but the XML Package is still fully supported. This change allows any .NET developer to easily skin the eCommerce site without having to know XSLT language, like in previous versions of AspDotNetStorefront.
This move not only leverages master page and themes better, but it also allows for easier integration with AJAX toolkit and the creation of custom user controls. This makes the development of the site much more streamlined and faster.

2. Enterprise Modules

This is a certainly a big, significant move for AspDotNetStorefront. With Ashland, they’ve established what has been called ERP Synchronization Specification or ERPS, which combines the use of WSI (the Web Service API they’ve made available since version 7.1) and the “in Process” add-in model. The Add-In model leverages standardized contracts that allow developers to extend and develop “add-ins” to enhance AspDotNetStorefront’s core functionalities.
Here’s a list of available contracts (which can be extended):

• Payment gateway
• Shipping methods and rates calculation
• Order fulfillment
• Tax Rates
• Inventory
• Order Options
• XSLT Extension

All of these create new possibilities to extend AspDotNetStorefront without touching the core source code of the software. These also allow developer communities to share and/or develop custom add-ins that can be reused by other developers.

3. Support for Multi Stores

With Ashland, you can now create and manage multiple stores within the AspDotNetStorefront installation. Each store can have its own look and feel (skin), product subsets (through product mapping), shipping method, and even payment method. However, all stores will share the same product and variants database, order database and admin interface.
This feature is perfectly suited for companies that want to “launch” micro sites or subsidiary sites where all order processing needs to funnel through one system. However, this is not to be confused with a “mall” solution, where a company hosts multiple eCommerce sites under a single installation.

4. Other notable enhancements

• Configurable URL rewrites
• User-configurable error handling
• Revised shopping cart logic
• Versioned topic
• Page-level role based security

5. PA-DSS certification

The platform’s PCI compliance will be replaced with a new certification called PA-DSS. AspDotNetStorefront takes payment security standards very seriously, and as such, Ashland will undergo the full PA-DSS certification process as well as an independent security review. This will guarantee that all future AspDotNetStorefront-built eCommerce sites will meet the industry standard for payment security regulation.

The scheduled release date of Ashland is August 31st, 2009. The pricing should not be too different from the current version except for the multi-stores functionality, which they have yet to determine the licensing model for it.

But that’s not all for AspDotNetStorefront. Ashland may be the next version, but they are already started working on the next enhancement list which will be included on the next version of AspDotNetStorefront (code name “Vegas”). Here are some of the key features that are planned to be included in Vegas:

• Multi Payment support
• RMA generation
• Invoicing capabilities
• Order Archival
• Enhanced back order support
• Line Item order transaction
• Iterative (faceted) navigation and search capabilities
• Advanced phone order
• VAT inclusive pricing
• User-defined entities
• Fully localized admin site
• Integrated blog engine
• Mobile capabilities
• Admin redesign

The expected release date for Vegas is end of December 2009.

Taking a look at both Ashland and Vegas, we are very excited to the platform maturing and growing at the same time. The feature sets are fully updated and reflect the ever-changing needs of eCommerce websites and online stores. Kudos to the development team of AspDotNetStorefront! We are looking forward to working with both Ashland and Vegas.

Here are some of the things that I predict will be BIG in the next 6-12 months:

1. Facebook Connect
URL: http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php

More and more sites are leveraging this to allow their visitors to connect to their Facebook account and reach out to their Facebook friends. Facebook connect allows site to “embed” facebook functionalities such as share to friends, comments, post to wall directly from the site (without going to Facebook sites). Facebook opens up more and more functionalities under this wing. Rather than building your own social network, why not just integrate with Facebbok?

2. Open ID
URL: http://openid.net/

This is another big undertaken that has been slowly adopted by all major social media sites including Facebook. This allow users to use one login to access all their favorite Web 2.0 sites. This also opens up the door of communication between one site to another. Big retailer Sears just recently announced of supporting Open ID on their community sites: MySears and MyKmart.com.

3. HTML 5.0
URL: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/html5.asp

The new spec of HTML is out and adding a lot of Web 2.0 specific functionalities to the core HTML. Now you embed video directly to HTML without the need of external player. Another big thing in HTML 5.0 is to allow having local storage of data (this will replace what we do with cookies todays) If you haven’t checked the spec out, make sure you start looking to it. Firefox 3.5, Opera and Safari 4 have already support this.

4. Google Wave!!!
URL: http://wave.google.com/

If you have not watched their video presentation of Google Wave, go search at Google and watch it. It is too cool to miss out. From the same brothers who create the awesome Google Maps, they are trying to revolutionize the way people communicate to each other. This is going to change everything we know about online communication and colaboration. Moreover, they meant for both personal and corporate world! No more Exchange Server, Share Point and Facebook?

Alright, see you all on my next report.

1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share
2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating system
3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social
4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content
5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services

I found his opinions are so true and we are definitely entering the era #3 and #4. With the release of Google Wave later this year and the wide support of OpenID everywhere, the maturity of these eras are right in the corner. Even Sears announced that they will be the first commerce site to support OpenID initiative. I won’t be surprise if one day Microsoft will announce that you can now login to your Windows with OpenID (Windows 8 probably?)