Chapter 10. The Major Functional Areas

The Magento platform comprises various modules that deliver various bits of functionality. Developers are often more in touch with one group of functionality than others. Examples of some of the most commonly used functionalities include those related to CMS blocks and pages, categories, products, customers, imports, custom product types, custom payment, and shipping modules. This is not to say that other functionalities are less important. In this chapter, we will take a quick look at the functionalities in the Magento admin area, PHP code, and API calls. The chapter is divided into the following sections:

• CMS management

• Catalog management

• Customer management

• Products and customer import

• Custom product types

• Custom offline shipping methods

• Custom offline payment methods

The intention is not to go into the details of each functional area. Rather, the aim is to show the admin interface and the corresponding programmatic and API approach towards basic management...