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Case Study

Magento Ecommerce Website for Buying Antique

Rugs

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The client is a retailer and focused on becoming America’s favorite rug store. The client realizes

that buying the “right” rug can be very difficult on the internet. Colors, textures, quality and feel

are impossible to judge. The client wanted a Magento based ecommerce website offering customers

great customer service, outstanding brands and prices lower than the competition.

This ecommerce website provides dynamic functionalities enabling quick, easy and smooth

transactions combined with a safe, convenient and secured online shopping experience for the

customers. This customized platform includes a database driven shopping cart system with

different products, shipping module and payment gateways making the ecommerce website stand

out to make sure the client’s products and services sell.

A key objective of the new site is to import product data and images into the system from third

party vendors through the use of CSV files. The objective was also to enable customers to choose

from the various options available for each product and decide on the one that suits them the best

from the comfort of their needs. The project addresses the development of an online shopping cart

system that allows suppliers to sell their products directly online to the customers. This Magento

based ecommerce platform also offers varied discounts to the customers to enhance their shopping

experience.

Client expected the following functionalities to be added to the system:

Integration of a payment gateway (Authorize.Net)

Free shipping system

Order management system

Inventory management system

Integration with the Microsoft C5 ERP system

User-friendly design

Client Requirement

Project Challenges

Team faced the following challenges while project development:

Developing an active shopping portal capable of handling millions of user requests at

the same time without slowing the site down.

Incorporating web usability principles in the website design to ensure easy navigation

for all types of users.

ERP integration and data synchronization with the ecommerce shopping cart system

for varied products on regular basis.

Ensuring safe and secure transfer of data.

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Technologies Used

Manpower

Planning

A four-tier development approach was adopted keeping in mind the enormous structure

of the website and the challenges involved:

The Database layer containing MYSQL Server Database, Tables, Stored Procedures and so

on.

The Data Access layer containing the libraries responsible for accessing data from the

database.

The Business Logic layer consisting of all the business logic procedures for modules like

Shipping, Payment Gateway, Order Management, Check out etc.

The User Interface layer which forms the Graphical User Interface of the website.

Operating System &

Server Management

Red Hat Linux OS, Multi-Server Architecture with Staging &

Production Environment through Version Controlling releases, Server

Optimization, Security & SSL Implementation, Scheduler for Back-ups,

Alert Monitoring System Integration, Server Performance Tuning at

regular intervals, Software Firewall Configuration & Maintenance

Development Tools &

Environments

PHP5+, Magento, Apache Web Server, AJAX, HTML, CSS etc.

Database MYSQL Database Server, DB Clustering, DB Optimization, Master

Slave Replication, Query Optimization, Scheduler for Backups

Project Leader

1

Developers

2

Designers

2

Quality Assurance Testers

1

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Architecture

PHP and MYSQL Server formed the basis of development as the site was rich with user data and

featured extensive capabilities for online shopping. Shipping Management, Order Management,

Inventory Management etc. were developed in PHP such that they can be executed directly from the

UI layer. These PHP files consisted of all the business logics used for respective modules like Save

(Add/Update), Delete, Get Single Object, Get Multiple Objects for Listing and were designed to be

capable of handling many more logics which were not related to the database.

The Data Access layer contained the libraries responsible for accessing data from the database and

built a generic query for insert, update, delete and select depending on the business class. All

business layer components were coded to use this library for data accessing process from database.

Stored procedures were used only for complex retrieval of data from multiple tables and were

entirely avoided with conditional syntax to ensure smooth performance of the website. The UI layer

was kept free of any business logic with images, applications and data being called from their

respective servers.

Development Highlights

The end result is stunning website with a gamut of online activities successfully handling all the

orders, shipping, payments amongst others. Extensive pre-development research was carried

out to create a robust application in minimum time while dealing with extensive customizations.

Web usability guidelines were strictly followed during development and the interface was made

easily navigable through judicious use of AJAX, CSS and HTML controls. The site was developed

and fully functional within a span of 6 months.