Full-text Search with Sphinx and PHP

Sphinx is an open source search server which combines very fast full-text search with a great scalability. It's growing up fast and we not only inventing new features for full text search itself, but also creating new ways to integrate Sphinx into PHP based applications.If you are not yet using Sphinx, we'll be highlighting some key steps on how to serve Full-Text queries to your PHP based applications from start to finish.

If you are an advanced Sphinx Search user, this talk will describe where one can offload MySQL or standard Database functions to Sphinx. From some specific queries one can run on the Sphinx to how to increase both performance and scalability of your applications (web-based or otherwise).

Besides tips and tricks centered around integration with PHP/MySQL based applications, you will learn about the recent 2.0.1 release straight from the proverbial 'horse's mouth.' This talk will utilize and focus on real-world examples from installation and integration to handling search results.

Sphinx is the acronym for SQL Phrase Index. Some key features of this search engine are (from official site):

1. high indexing speed (upto 10 MB/sec on modern CPUs)
2. high search speed (avg query is under 0.1 sec on 2-4 GB text collections)
3. high scalability (upto 100 GB of text, upto 100 M documents on a single CPU)
4. supports distributed searching (since v.0.9.6)
5. supports MySQL natively (MyISAM and InnoDB tables are both supported)
6. supports phrase searching
7. supports phrase proximity ranking, providing good relevance
8. supports English and Russian stemming
9. supports any number of document fields (weights can be changed on the fly)
10. supports document groups
11. supports stopwords
12. supports different search modes ("match all", "match phrase" and "match any" as of v.0.9.5)
13. generic XML interface which greatly simplifies custom integration
14. pure-PHP (ie. NO module compiling etc) search client API

Watch Online : 
http://www.ustream.tv/embed/recorded/14937201

Reference Links :

http://sphinxsearch.com/
http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.sphinx.php

Comparison between Magento and Prestashop Ecommerce System

Hello Friends..Thanks for your comments on my previous blog comparison between Magento and Zen-cart.
Recently i finished one project in Prestashop and i found that its very good E-commerce system for small business solution.  And also i found prestashop and little less feature than Magento Provides, Here below i provide brief comparison between Magento and Prestashop

About Magento:

Magento is Open Source eCommerce software. Magento eCommerce was launched on March 31, 2008. Within two years of development, Magento has become one of the most popular eCommerce software.

About Prestashop:

PrestaShop is Open Source e-commerce software for Web 2.0. PrestaShop is available as licensed software and was officially launched in August 2007 for small and medium enterprises. Prestashop is based on the Smarty template engine.

Comparison between Magento & Prestashop

1. Size of software

Presta - 2.2 MB (1292 files)

Magento 10.3 Mb (5521 files)

2. Installation

Prestashop installation requirements are less.

Magento installation needs a lot of extensions like PDO, CURL etc

3. Features

When it comes to features, Magento is a way ahead from Prestashop. Customer groups, product comparison, CMS are there in Magento. Magento’s SEO features make it the most suitable ecommerce software. Magento also provide Multi-Store feature which is very powerful. When it comes to design also, Magento is a clear winner.

Prestashop’s search feature is very impressive. The search on Prestashop frontend is relatively faster than magento.

4. Code contrast

Prestashop is based on PHP5 and Smarty template engine. The first model MVC is not excellent. It will be difficult if you touch the first Prestashop code. The line of code is much more for smarty adoption; which increases the workload for extending development.

Magento adopts Zend framework. The developers are not only required to master PHP, but also required to have good knowledge about Zend framework.

5. Shipping & Payment Modules

Magento offers wide range of shipping and payment modules, whereas such feature is missing in Prestashop.

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Magento is relatively more SEO friendly than Prestashop.

7. Design Flexibility

Design of Magento seems to be difficult than Prestashop. So, if you don’t have much technical skills and you want to customize the Magento Design, then you should hire magento expert.

8. Backoffice

The back office of Magento is less intuitive which requires more technical skills to manage it effectively. Whereas, backoffice of Prestashop is relatively simple and easy.

9. Community

Magento has comparatively larger community. Magento Community have 130,000 members, Prestashop have 30000 members. (Figures are approximate).

Function contrast:

Features	Prestashop	Magento
Open Source	100%	100%
Pricing	Free	Free
Templatable	Smarty	Smarty
Multi-Language	Yes	Yes
Multi-Currency	Yes	Yes
Product Reviews	Yes	Yes
Product Ratings	Yes	Yes
Downloadable	Yes	Yes
Related Products	Yes	Yes
Product Features	Yes	Yes
Newsletters	Yes	Yes
Discount Coupon	Yes	Yes
SEO URLs	Yes	Yes
Backup & Restore	Yes	Yes
Printable Invoices	Yes	Yes
Sales Reports	Yes	Yes
Free Shipping	Yes	Yes
Wholesale	Yes	Yes
News & Events	No	No
Wish List	No	Yes
Testimonlals	No	No
Track order	No	No
F.A.Q	No	No
Gift Certificate	No	No
Recently Viewed	No	No
Points	No	No
Bulk Category Add	No	No
Bulk Product Add	No	No
Product Comparison	No	Yes
Statistics	Yes	No
Affiliate	No	No
Memberships	Yes	No
One-page Checkout	No	No
Order Barcode	No	No
Merchandise return (RMAs)	No	No
RSS Feed	No	Yes
TAG	No	Yes
Send to friend	No	No
Access Restrictions	No	No
Live Chat Software	No	No

Comparison between Magento and Zen-Cart Ecommerce System

“What shopping cart do you recommend?” is the number one query we get. An easy enough question, but the answer depends on your business and your requirements. To make your choice simpler, we’ve compared the features of our two most popular carts, Zen Cart and Magento
Magento
Magento (community edition) is a free open source shopping cart started by Varien in 2007. Magento impresses with its extensive feature list. Most functions which need to be added on with other carts come as standard. It’s ideally suited for companies who need a professional online shop presence. 1. highly flexible coupon and pricing functions 2. comprehensive filter functionality (filter products by) 3. multi-store as standard 4. ability to create and edit orders in admin 5. large number of high quality modules via Magento Connect 6. no need to hack core code 7. impressive template system Magento sometimes gets a bad press for being too complex and server resource-intensive. Both are fair comments, but should not put you off considering Magento. With the right developers on board and a high-end hosting environment, Magento can provide extensive functionality at open source level.
Zen Cart
Zen Cart is an open source project started in 2003, based originally on osCommerce. Zen Cart impresses with its realiability, solid feature list and ease of use, making it ideal for shop owners who intend to handle development themselves. 1. highly reliable 2. includes all standard features to sell online 3. easy to understand templating and PHP structure 4. suitable for coders beginning with PHP 5. light footprint making it very accessible for shared hosting environments 6. friendly forum 7. active development team That Zen Cart has been around since 2003 however shows in its PHP coding structure. However this downside is exactly what makes it accessible to beginners in PHP and makes it an ideal first cart for new coders.
Comparison between Magento and Zen-Cart
Both Magento and Zen Cart run on the LAMP environment (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). Zen Cart is quick to install and is kind to shared hosting environments. Magento is more demanding and requires a high-end hosting enviroment. Zen Cart is usually quick to learn by simply “going in and playing around” whereas for Magento a guide or read on the wiki will help you to get your bearings.
	Magento	Zen-Cart
Requirements	PHP5.2 MySQL4.1.20+, InnoDB, cURL	PHP4.0+ MySQL4.1.14+
Open Source?	Yes	Yes
Unlimited products?	Yes	Yes
Fee?	None	None
SSL support	full SSL	full or shared SSL
Knowledge level for coding?	advanced	intermediate
Magento has multi-shop as standard, a feature very rarely seen with other carts and a comprehensive templating system. WYSIWYG editor is missing but easily added. Zen Cart is a reliable cart with all features necessary to sell online.
	Magento	Zen-Cart
Multi-store	Yes	No
Multi-Lingual	Yes	Yes
Support for Multiple Currencies	Yes	Yes
Tax Rate support	Yes	Yes
iPhone optimised	Yes	No
Template system	Yes	Limited
WYSIWYG? Page content management	Yes	Limited
Email template management	Yes	No
Administration Permission System Roles and Users	Yes	Add-on
One-click installs of modules	Yes	No
Magento impresses with the product filters whilst Zen Cart makes it easy for new shops to get started quickly.
	Magento	Zen-Cart
Batch Import and Export of catalog	Yes	Add-on
Google Base Integration	Yes	Add-on
Layered / Faceted Navigation for filtering of products	Yes	Limited
Product comparisons	Yes	No
Product reviews	Yes	Yes
Bundled products and stock control for attributes stand out with Magento. Zen Cart however has some good features if you want customers to call for price or only use it as brochure-type site.
	Magento	Zen-Cart
Multiple Images Per Product	Yes	Yes
Reports	Yes	Limited
Bundled products (show several products on one page)	Yes	No
Up-sells in Shopping Cart	Yes	No
Stock Control	Yes	Limited
Products can be marked as free or Call for Price	Add-on	Yes
Min or max quantities and units	Add-on	Yes
Probably the most important section for online shops these days. Magento has created an comprehensive discount functionality making it very easy to run campaigns. Gift Certificates however are not included in Magento, but they are with Zen Cart.
	Magento	Zen-Cart
Google Site Map	Yes	Add-on
URL Rewrites	Yes	Add-on
Meta-information for products and categories	Yes	Yes
Discount Coupons	Yes	Yes
Catalog Promotional Pricing	Yes	Yes
Multi-tier pricing	Yes	Yes
Customer groups each with its own pricing structure	Yes	Add-on
Wishlist	Yes	No
Newsletter	Yes	Yes
Gift Certificates	No	Yes
Getting the checkout right is crucial for sales conversions. Magento recognises this by offering one-page checkout and the ability to buy without having to open an account (guest checkout). It also comes with Google checkout and PayPal as standard. Zen Cart on the the other hand offers a solid standard checkout.
	Magento	Zen-Cart
Delivery / Billling address	Yes	Yes
One-Page Checkout	Yes	Add-on
Checkout without account/Guest Checkout	Yes	Add-on
Shipping to multiple addresses in one order	Yes	No
Integrated with Google Checkout (Level 2)	Yes	Add-on
Creating orders in admin is often required e.g. for orders taken by phone and Magento offers this as standard. Zen Cart does make order management simpler though by allowing you to create your own order statuses.
	Magento	Zen-Cart
Manage orders from admin	Yes	Yes
create, edit orders from admin panel.	Yes	Add-on
Create one or multiple invoices, shipments and credit memos per order to allow for split fulfillment	Yes	No
Order statuses	Preset only	Yes
Have you used Magento or ZenCart? If yes, what are your experiences? Let us know by sending a comment below! Or you can contact us on ezeelive@gmail.com for Ecommerce Portal Development

Magento eCommerce system and its advantage

Magento is an open source ecommerce solution. It comes with a variety of tools, necessarily for building a successful online shop. Magento offers a lot of built-in capabilities, such as promo pricing and coupon codes, detailed statistics, and SEO options. ezeelive (php develoeprs mumbai) provide best ecommerce web portal using magento. There below some advantage features of magento which make its best over other ecommerce systems.

Site Management :

• Control multiple websites and stores from one Administration Panel with ability to share as much or as little information as needed


• Multi-Lingual


• Support for localization


• Support for multiple currencies


• Administration Permission System Roles and Users


• Web Services API for easy integration between Magento and any third-party application


• Flexible tax rate management with support for US and International markets


• Fully 100% customizable design using templates


• Customer Groups


• One-Click Upgrades


• Content Management System for Informational Pages

Marketing Promotions and Tools :

• Flexible Coupons (pricing rules) with ability to restrict to stores, customer groups, time period, products, and categories. For example: Percent Discount | Fixed Amount Discount | Free Shipping | Buy x, get y free. | Buy x, get y with percent or fixed amount discount | Buy x, get free shipping on order | Buy x, get percent discount | Buy x, get fixed amount discount.


• Catalog Promotional Pricing by percentage or fixed amount with ability to restrict to stores, categories, products


• Free Shipping Option


• Multi-Tier Pricing for quantity discounts


• Bundled Products


• Customer Group-specific pricing and group-specific tier pricing


• Landing Page Tool for Campaigns


• Search Engine Friendly URL’s


• URL Rewrites


• Recently Viewed Products


• Recently Compared Items


• New Items Promotional Tool


• Up-sells in Shopping Cart


• Cross-sells on product pages


• Send to a Friend for all visitors, or registered users only


• Send Wishlist to a Friend by Email or RSS


• RSS Feeds for New Products, New Specials and New Tags


• Auto-generated Site Map


• Google Site Map


• Polls


• Newsletter Management

International Support :

• Multi-Lingual


• Support for Multiple Currencies


• Tax rate support


• Localization


• Configurable List of Allowed Countries for:

1. Site Registration


2. Shipping Destination Addresses with ability to specify per shipping method


3. Billing Addresses with ability to specify per payment method

Search Engine Optimization :

• 100% Search Engine Friendly


• Google Site Map


• URL Rewrites give full control of URL’s


• Meta-information for products and categories


• Auto-generated Site Map for display on site


• Auto-Generated Popular Search Terms Page

Checkout :

• One-Page Checkout


• SSL security support for orders on both front-end and back-end


• Shipping to multiple addresses in one order


• Checkout without account/Guest Checkout


• Shopping Cart with tax and shipping estimates


• Checkout with account to use address book


• Option to create account at beginning of checkout


• Accept gift messages per order and per item


• Saved Shopping Carts with configurable expiration time

Shipping :

• Integrated for real-time shipping rates likes UPS, UPS XML (account rates), FedEx (account rates), USPS and DHL etc.


• Shipping to multiple addresses in one order


• On-site order tracking from customer accounts


• Multiple shipments per order


• Ability to specify allowed destination countries per method


• Flat rate shipping per order


• Flat rate shipping per item


• Free Shipping


• Table rates for weight and destination, Table rates for product sub-totals and destination , Table rates for number of items and destination

Payment :

Configurable to authorize and charge, or authorize only and charge on creation of invoices

Integrated with multiple PayPal gateways like Website Payments Standard, Website Payments Pro (Express and Direct), Website Payments Pro UK (Express and Direct), and PayPal PayFlow Pro

Integrated with Authorize.net, Google Checkout (Level 2)

Saved Credit Card method for offline payments

Accept Checks/Money Orders

Accept Purchase Orders

Payment Extensions Available through Magento Connect like Fontis Australia, Cybersource, Protx, Tweakmag Payment, SPPLUS, Fontis New Zealand, eWAY, ChronoPay, ePay, Paybox, iDEAL, Flo2Cash Web Service, Protx Direct Payment Module, PagSeguro Payment Module, CyberMUT Paiement / Paiement CIC, Moduł platnosci.pl dla Lento, Payone, PaySimple, UOS, Paymentmodule, Fontis Paymate, Fontis Payment Express, Dibs Payment, WorldPay, Bank Prepayment, VCS, Saferpay, Datarans Paymentgateway, SecureTrading XPay Module, Ogone Payment, Payment Module: ECS Clearing Interface, Fontis SecurePay,PayPoint.net (SECPay) Payment Gateway Module, Metodo de pago Servired, Servired, 2Checkout.com payment module, Fast Transact Integration module, BBS Payment Gateway, Fontis Westpac PayWay, Fontis NAB Transact, Barclays ePDQ, ClickandBuy,Optimal Payments Firepay, Platnosci.pl (STO), FIA-NET ReceiveAndPay, MultiSafepay Payment Module, Fontis Commonwealth Bank CommWeb, Novalnet Payment Module, 1&1 ipayment, sofortüberweisung.de, PayPoint.net (MetaCharge) Payment Gateway Module, Mokejimai.lt payment gateway, Magento FirstData API Payment Module (Originally LinkPoint), Shine Software IWSmile,

Order Management :

• View, edit, create and fulfill orders from admin panel.


• Create one or multiple invoices, shipments and credit memos per order to allow for split fulfillment


• Print invoices and packing slips


• Call Center (phone) order creation


• Includes ability to create new customer, or select existing customer and view shopping cart, wishlist, last ordered items, and compared products list, as well as select addresses, give discounts and assign custom prices


• Create re-orders for customers from administration panel.


• Email Notifications of Orders


• RSS feed of New Orders

Customer Service :

• Contact Us form


• Feature-rich Customer Accounts


• Order History with Status Updates


• Order Tracking from Account


• Forgot Password Email from front-end and administration panel


• Order and Account Update Emails


• Customizable Order Emails


• Create and Edit Orders from the Admin Panel

Customer Accounts :

• Order status and history


• Re-orders from account


• Recently ordered items


• Address Book with unlimited addresses


• Default Billing and Shipping addresses


• Wishlist with ability to add comments


• Email or Send RSS feed of Wishlist


• Newsletter Subscription management


• Product Reviews submitted


• Product Tags submitted


• Account Dashboard for overview of recent orders, personal information, newsletter subscription status, primary billing address, primary shipping address, shopping cart, wishlist, recently ordered items, recently reviews and recent tags

Catalog Management :

• Inventory Management with Backordered items, Minimum and Maximum quantities


• Batch Import and Export of catalog


• Batch Updates to products in admin panel


• Simple, Configurable (e.g. size, color, etc.), Bundled and Grouped Products


• Virtual Products


• Customer Personalized Products – upload text for embroidery, monogramming, etc.


• Tax Rates per location, customer group and product type


• Attribute Sets for quick product creation of different item types


• Create Store-specific attributes on the fly


• Media Manager with automatic image resizing and watermarking


• Advanced Pricing Rules and support for Special Prices (see marketing tools)


• Search Results rewrites and redirects


• Approve, Edit and Delete Product Tags and Product Reviews


• RSS feed for Low Inventory Alerts

Catalog Browsing :

• Layered / Faceted Navigation for filtering of products


• Static Block tool to create category landing pages


• Ability to assign designs on category and product level (unique design per product/category)


• Configurable search with auto-suggested terms


• Recently viewed products, Product comparisons, Recently compared products


• Cross-sells, Up-sells and Related Items


• Popular Search Terms Cloud


• Filter by Product Tags


• Product Reviews


• Product listing in grid or list format


• Breadcrumbs

Product Browsing :

• Multiple Images Per Product


• Product Image Zoom-in Capability


• Product Reviews


• Related Products


• Stock Availability


• Multi-Tier Pricing Upsell


• Product Option Selection


• Grouped Products View


• Add to Wishlist


• Send to a Friend with Email

Analytics and Reporting :

• Integrated with Google Analytics


• Admin Dashboard for Report Overview


• Sales Report


• RSS feed for New Orders


• Tax Report


• Abandoned Shopping Cart Report


• Best Viewed Products Report


• Best Purchased Products Report


• Low Stock Report


• Search Terms Report


• Product Reviews Report


• RSS feed for New Reviews


• Tags Report


• RSS feed for New Tags


• Coupon Usage Report


• Total Sales Invoiced


• Total Sales Refunded


• Best Customers Report by Total and Number of Orders

Source: MagentoCommerce.com