In case you need a quick fix, all you need is to open the “app\code\core\Mage\Core\Model\Session\Abstract.php” file and around line 72 change “protected $_skipSessionIdFlag = true;” to “protected $_skipSessionIdFlag = false;“.

Surely this is a modified core file so for more general fix you can make yourself an extension that does the same. In such case you would most likely override method “setSkipSessionIdFlag($flag)” in the same file.

Or you can play with .htaccess file in order to try and solve the issue.

Cheers.

To see if you are on the right track, first thing you can do is to set something like “return ‘test’;” right on top of the method body. From there on you go line by line below until you reach the line that broke the response and caused the “Failed to parse response” messages.

In my case this was a completely innocent line of code that broke it, line 277 “$model = Mage::getModel($modelName);”. Notice that although inside the try-catch block, it still broke as this error in my class had nothing to do with exception, but standard PHP error.

So in essence I did two things. First I did “return ‘My model name: ‘.$modelName;” just above line 277. After that I tried to do “$myModel = new My_Model_Name()” somewhere in my code independent of API call. This is where I spotted the “Cannot redeclare…” error.

I realize these are trivial things, just felt the need to write it down is someone is having hard time debugging it.

Cheers.

It might sound strange or silly, but I guaranty you that Magento folder structure adds certain amount of unnecessary time to development process. What bothers me the most is the way you are forced to develop “by the book” extensions. Is it the lack of vision of purposely engineered concept that forces you to span your custom modules among tens of sub-folders that in the end do not belong to your extension.

What I would like to see is the WordPress or Drupal concept, where each extension with all of its files and logic lives in its one folder. No special view folders in main theme, no special layout folders in custom/default theme etc. Only one place/folder to host your extensions.

Here is my vision of extensions folder layout/structure that I find interesting and appealing.

Certanly this raises several questions like:

• Can we put javascript in this sub-folder, as it is to deep in the modules directory, is this security implication or SEO implication or, etc.
• Can we put css in this sub-folder, as it is to deep in the modules directory, is this security implication or SEO implication or, etc.
• Can we put style images in this sub-folder, as it is to deep in the modules directory, is this security implication or SEO implication or, etc.
• How does this relate to my designer doing the styling, etc.
• …

Have you ever had these problems with extensions/modules for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.? I doubt that.

I would say that easy workaround can be made for each of the above “implications”, leaving you with “one extension – one folder” concept.

Concept like that is easy to maintain, plus no robust Magento Connect is needed, etc. Certainly it has its flaws, but surely does the current one.

Enough said, for now -Just a little something I have been tinkering around.

Certainly the biggest thing that changed my life is the recent news that I will become a father in just a little less than 9 months from now. Got me thinking to what true values are in our lives. Most of my last few weeks I spent on renovating the house, new furniture etc.

However, my coding skills have stayed sharp in that time as my job never rests. Although I am currently doing the “Project Management” in my 4 people team, most of the time (60-70%) I actually code stuff (Magento projects).

My recent “exhibition” to the mobile world of Android turned out to be not just a test ride but something that will fit in nicely in the future. With that in mind I decided to ditch some of the previous categories on my site and divide it among Magento and Android related stuff.

I also decided that from now on I will publish all my future public work under the “Projects” section of the site. Most likely I’ll be using github to version my stuff so it will be far more easier to correct reported issue and distribute updates to those who use it.

Hopefully the first project I will upload on the github will be Mapy.

That’s it for now. Expect new articles and new extensions soon.

Cheers.

After creating a decent looking gradient in Photoshop for my application background I need to replicate this background in my Android app. I did not want to simply export the background image and set it as background of some Activity. I wanted my gradient background in Android to be done in programmatic way to retain the visual effect across different screen resolution on various devices.

Here is my Photoshop result of how I wanted my gradient to look like.

Doing gradient in Android is easy. All you need to do is to create a shape then use this shape as a background on some layer. Here is example of my shape (res/drawable/main_bg.xml) that reflects the one shown on the sample photo above.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle"> 
	<gradient 
		android:startColor="#e5eb43" 
		android:endColor="#214209"
		android:type="radial"
		android:gradientRadius="326"
	/>                
</shape>

In order to use this gradient background to some layer, simply add the android:background=”@drawable/main_bg” to that layer.

By default here is what the final result looks like in my HTC Desire phone.

As you can see, the gradient result is not what you expected from high quality device such as this (HTC Desire, with 480x800px screen). Luckily the issue is not really an issue and its not related to the screen capabilities of your phone (at least not in this case).

To fix the “issue” you simply add the code shown below to your Activity class.

@Override
public void onAttachedToWindow() {
	super.onAttachedToWindow();
	Window window = getWindow();
	window.setFormat(PixelFormat.RGBA_8888);
}

And here is how the final gradient result looks like now.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers.

• Step (1) you run your application in the debug mode by right clicking the application project in the Eclipse and choosing “Debug as > Android Application”.
• Step (2) you switch to DDMS perspective in Eclipse.
• Step (3) you click on the screenshot taking icon.
• Step (4) “Device Screen Capture” window pops out (from here the rest is pretty self explanatory).

And here are some random screenshots of certain apps on my Android powered HTC Desire phone.

Hope this helps some of you.

Cheers.

To make it short, this mini HowTo is about HTC Android phone any my experience with it. Unlike some other Android based phones, when you connect HTC Desire via USB cable to your computer, chances are it wont get recognized in the Windows. Yea, for those of you with the weak spot towards Windows this HowTo is based on my Windows machine.

So, first things first. If you are doing a fresh install of entire Android development environment, then you first need to go trough the official Google articles named Installing the SDK and Developing In Eclipse, with ADT. Once you do that you will get the menu item in Eclipse under the “Window > Android SDK and AVD Manager” like shown on the screenshot below.

After you get this new “menu item”, you need to click on it and install some extra stuff like shown on the screenshots below.

When all of the above is done we can actually approach to the final “How to connect and get debug ready with your HTC Desire Android phone and Eclipse IDE” step.

When you connect your HTC Desire via USB, it will not install all the needed USB drivers. Windows will recognize it as a USB stick (drive). Now all you need to do is open this drive for browsing and in the root you will find the HTCSync_2.0.28.exe or something with similar name. Installing this file will give you full USB drivers needed for Windows to properly see your device.

Now when you go to Eclipse, create a new Androd app and do “Debug As > Android Application” you should see new window pop up as shown on the screen below.

I realize this HowTo might not be 100% in detail, but hopefully it will get you on the right track. Basically it all comes down to installing the USB drivers to get your HTC phone visible by Windows.

Cheers.

Before I proceed I would like to emphasize that although the author mentions me personally in the book (on the page 210), my positive review of it is by no means result of that.

I would rate “Part 2: Advanced Magento development” as a must read for every Magento developer that has not yet overcome these steps. Additional bonus for the book goes on the “Apendix: API References” section that covers the use of Magento API pretty in depth. What impressed me where the “var_dump” response examples for each API call.

I have noticed that the book got some negative reviews, something in terms of “The Definitive Guide To Magento… really? Unless you’re the kind of person that in general has a hard time using computers, about 60% of this book is a complete waste of time in my opinion…”. Lets say I even agree with comments like these, but then again paying around $40-50 for the book is nothing compared to around $60-200/hour we take in professional Magento development. In such cases I would say this: I personally learned nothing new from this book, but several of my coworkers (junior developers) did and for that book payed off for us.

There is no point of me reviewing individual sections of the book here. If you are in the loop of learning Magento I would strongly recommend you purchase the book. Here are the links Amazon or Apress.com site.

Cheers.

After initial configuration I started my Magento installation. And here is where I hit the wall. My installation was OK until it reached the step where it needed to write to database. After some running time browser would give me a “File Download” dialog with file whose content says “The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.“. My first reaction is was that I forgot to boost some timeout in the config.

After several minutes of tracing the issue, I finally figured that it was a “ZendEnablerApache.dll” that was causing my “unable to service your request” issue. I traced the configuration to “C:\Program Files\Zend\ZendServer\etc\ZendEnablerConf.xml” file. There I changed the connectionTimeout to 18000 and the requestTimeout to 36000. After that I restarted my Apache and was able to install Magento and do other time consuming PHP operations.

Hope this helps some of you who might experience the same issue.

Cheers.

On the work side, I am coding (slowly, but with detail) an Android app for Magento, using XMLRCP API. Its around 70-80% until reaching the “Alpha” version. This is something I am working on on my own time. Hoping to introduce some new changes and setup some grounds for future possible Magento-Android, or general eCommerce-Android mobile development in the company I work for (Inchoo.net). After (long time ago) C# and (everyday) PHP development, Java language was pretty easy to pick up so Android development for me proven to be an easy step. Not to mention that it fits nicely into the eCommerce.

Basically I am counting on writing more and more Magento-Android articles, code samples, etc. from now on.

Will keep you posted on the progress.

For all of you reading my blog, thank you. I truly appreciate all your comments and email feedback’s.

Cheers.