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I am getting a little frustrated with EE ecommerce modules. They are great, but just don't have the flexibility or features for our larger clients. I'm really not too keen on having two systems - it's seems like a step back in time.

However, I have used all the EE ecommerce addons and am starting to think it might be the way to go. A dedicated ecommerce platform will naturally be more powerful for serious online retailers.

I've been looking recently at Magento. I'm not 100% convinced of it yet.

I've been reading all the docs I can find that relate to integrating the two. It seems pretty straightforward on the templating side, however, I'm wondering if anyone ever found a solution to help manage users? Sharing sessions etc?

I'd be interested in hearing your views/solutions to this if you have one.

Anyone found the right solution? Or built an extension that might help?

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  • I'd be interesting in hearing what you find frustrating or limiting with the EE ecommerce modules. As a previous user and developer of Magento, I'm successfully replicating everything needed for clients using EE & Expresso Store.
    – Peter Lewis
    Dec 2, 2013 at 8:35
  • A few things really. Love CTs flexibility - Hate their lack of support. Store is superb and would be my first choice, just not flexible enough - The checkout process is limited in my eyes and other common aspects are a little behind. Lack of decent currency support is a pain and not being able to order from the CP is frustrating. Multi-channel commerce is non existent. They are just not mature enough yet for some clients and I want to future proof my clients as they grow, the system can grow to fit. There is a list I'd like to see with EE commerce, but I think it is a way off for a handful.
    – T2theC
    Dec 2, 2013 at 9:45
  • @T2theC Out of interest, what would people pay for backend ordering interface for Expresso-Store? We actually have one developed in-house. If I knew the uptake would be worth it, I'll consider selling it and supporting it (all we really need to do is throw a graphic designer/interface designer at it to make it super sleek). We also have an Android app we give to clients that they can use to easily take orders when they're meeting clients.
    – Michael P
    Dec 2, 2013 at 10:43
  • I think you could charge close to $200. Its a vital part to many businesses and then worth the investment. We looked to getting one build with Yuri from IntoEEtive. He also thought there may not be a huge uptake - It might not be a best seller, there is definitely a need out there. Most of our clients would go for it. Its quite high up Stores requested feature list. If you are interested in working together, let me know - We are more Frontend, UX than PHP guys, so there could be a cross over. I have other ideas that I think would go down well on the eccomerce side. Let me know.
    – T2theC
    Dec 3, 2013 at 11:18
  • We have been working on replacing a Magento store with BrilliantRetail. The issue I'm having with BR is 1. lack of good free support. 2. several sections are architected totally wrong making it impossible to override the behavior without jacking with core code. We needed the Promo module to use SKUs for discounts and it doesn't have that capability and can't be extended, even with hooks. His hook for discounts is in the wrong place and doesn't pass the data correctly. 3. He uses a hidden EE channel for each product and does not add that channel in his update_product function, only from the BO.
    – MB34
    Jan 28, 2014 at 22:01

2 Answers 2

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I have built a couple of sites that integrate EE into Magento with both Magento Enterprise and Magento Community. Basically I use EE for the part of the navigation the, left nav on CMS pages and the footer for the entire site. When you are wanting content fro the CMS you basically force a 404 error in Magento and you override the 404 controller in Magento and then pass the request off to EE. Once you get the generated html back from EE you give that to Magento to display.

Here is a link the give you an idea of how to do this, I used to have a really well documented blog post from someone but for the life of me I can not find the post any more.

http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/tutorial-integrating-3rd-party-cms-content-within-magento/

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  • Ace. Thanks Trevor. I have seen that article. It looks like the way to go. Have you found any need for sharing sessions etc? I just wondering if you may have had comments in EE content that required a login - then share the login with Magento? I think this maybe a rare case for most of our clients, but its a consideration. Thanks gain for sharing the link. Oh, and how have you found your clients reaction to using two systems?
    – T2theC
    Dec 3, 2013 at 11:24
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I have not had the need for sharing session between Magento and EE. The clients using the admins have been pretty tech savvy so having the 2 admins have not been an issue once they were shown what admin did what. Now if you have a client that is not very web savvy then not sure how that would go over but I have been lucky so far.

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  • Thanks Trevor. It's more for front end users that I was concerned about. Cheers.
    – T2theC
    Dec 6, 2013 at 8:28

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