Because a webshop is in fact an online reflection of a true shop we always recommend Magento. When a client requests a PSD to Magento project, we will always double-check if Magento is the best option because Magento is a relatively resource consuming system. To determine the use of Magento we will always take into account the number of offered products. When the number of products is limited to 20 or less (which is rather exceptional) we will always recommend our client to go for Wordpress or Joomla because these systems offer a wide variety of plugins which perfectly suit the objectives but are less server resource consuming. Wordpress or Joomla nevertheless were no real option for Inktbaas’ website. We decided to go for Magento because the Inktbaas’ website would contain a wide variety of cartridge types of different brands.
Copying an existing Magento webshop
We are normally provided with completed PSD files by our client. Such project involves PSD to Magento conversion. The Inktbaas Magento project nevertheless was different because we weren’t provided with completed designs but we were shown an existing website owned by the same client which we were requested to copy as detailed as possible. The objective and request wasn’t to create an exact copy but to start from scratch. This might seem an easy task with an online version at hand but nothing is farther from the truth and it takes several days to complete the whole process because we had to rewrite the whole code. It all started by developing the HTML and CSS. Our appointed PSD to HTML developer was instructed to carefully study the website without consulting the existing website’s HTML and CSS. Our developer at all times took into account this specific request and started rebuilding the website piece by piece. After a few days the HTML and CSS part had been completed by our developer and the client’s feedback was requested. The only feedback we received was related to the right side of the website which wasn’t displayed correctly on iPhones. This feedback was easily solved by adding one line of CSS code, after which our PSD to Magento developer could kick off his project part.
From HTML to Magento
The PSD to Magento developer grabbed the HTML and CSS files and started to integrate the Magento code. After a while the HTML was split in different parts which were one by one called up separately by Magento. Therefore we realized a dynamic HTML use and the same HTML code could be called up on several parts of the website. 6 Workdays were needed by our Magento developer to complete the whole PSD to Magento project after which we again requested client feedback. Because our client disposed of an extended Magento knowledge and experience we didn’t have to explain him the quotes were automatically sent upon completing an order and we didn’t have to instruct him how to easily manage his website and administration via the admin panel. Only a few days after installing the website on the client’s server, the website itself had already been filled with a wide variety of products, several sales had already been realized and our client had started a successful adwords campaign. The website ran smoothly and the client was very satisfied with the delivered Magento webshop.
