10 Plugins for Extending Thelia after a fresh install

So you have successfully installed Thelia! Congratulations! Now what? Here is a list of some important suggestions and tweaks that you should do after installing Thelia to improve the performance, security and productivity of your e-commerce.

Back Office

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Security

First step, your fresh install has to be secure, one way to achieve this is to rename your admin folder and there’s a module for that! Back Office Path is dedicated to rename the Back Office URL and improve your security.

When you’re done, uncheck ‘use also default prefix’ and save. Now, you can connect to the back office by using the new url : http://mywebsite.com/l33t-4dm1n http://thelia.net/modules/backoffice-path.html

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Google Universal analytics

Enhance your e-commerce by measuring user interactions with products on your websites across the user’s shopping experience. You can use the google analytics module installed natively in your back office, but you certainly want to analyze data from your e-shop and improve your ROI, Google universal analytics integration uses the Google Measurement Protocol and add e-commerce informations in your google analytics account. /!\ It only works if you have enabled the Google Universal Analytics. For each order, the module sends to Analytics information about the transaction and all items attached to this transaction.

http://thelia.net/modules/google-universal-analytics-integration.html

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TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor (Native)

TinyMCE Editor extend writing functionalities by adding a powerful and easy to use wysiwyg editor.

TinyMCE is natively installed and you just have to activate it in the module panel. Using tinyMCE for Thelia, you’ll be able to manage any pictures, videos, or html styles without coding anything. The easiest way to enrich your contents.

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Admin toolbar in front-office

Admin toolbar in front office displays shortcuts on the top page of your e-shop to quickly manage contents, orders, customers, … Toolbar is available on the Front template when you are logged in as an administrator. Admin toolbar gives to administrators a quick access to edit the page you are visiting (product, category, folder and content pages) and it creates shortcuts to the admin for the module page or even the configuration page.

Admin toolbar in front-office – Thelia ModulesAdmin – Thelia Modules

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Front-office customization

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Carousel (native)

Back Office access is now protected and supercharged, you now want to customize your shop! Let’s start! First you want to show your products in a wide carousel. That’s easy, go to admin/modules and activate the Carousel module. You can now modify the carousel contents by using the configure panel :

A Carousel will appear on the Home Page in third position but you can modify its position by using “Manage hook position” in the bottom of the Module page. The Carousel is better in the first position, right ?

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Social Media links (native)

You love social networks and want your visitor to connect with you, you just have to configure the social media panel to activate the social hook. It displays a call to action to your social networks in the footer of the page.

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Keywords

This module is used to associate contents or folders to one or more keywords, this is useful when you like to enrich your contents by keywords tags and propose a transversal navigation. After creating your keywords and putting them into groups, you can associate contents or folders to one or more keywords. This allows you for example to display items based on a particular keyword or structure your page with a tag system. It offers a new way to navigate into the shop categories.

/!\ You must adapt your template to display associated contents. http://thelia.net/modules/keywords.html

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Recently viewed products

Improve the user experience by displaying the last viewed products. Once you’ve installed the module, you have to modify your template by adding a new loop in wich you want to display the last viewed products. For example, you can add the list in the shopping cart using this source code :

{ifloop rel=”recentlyviewed_loop”}

{intl l=”Your navigation”}

{loop name=”recentlyviewed_loop” type=”recentlyviewed” current_product=$product_id limit=”4″} {include file=”includes/single-product.html” product_id=$ID hasBtn=false hasDescription=false width=”218″ height=”146″} {/loop}

{/ifloop}

http://thelia.net/modules/recently-viewed-products.html

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WishList

Increase sales and conversions by having a Thelia Wishlist. Guests and customers like to add products of your shop into this wish list so that they keep a quick access to their wishes. Customers could find their wishes later to add them quickly into the shopping cart.

Wishlist – Thelia ModulesFront widgets – Thelia Modules

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Comment System

Your shop is online and you’d like to know what your customer think about your stuff! The Comment System module allows customers to add comments on different elements of the website : products, contents, … Only registered and logged in customers can post comments on the website. You can also authorize customers to post comments only on products that they have bought. Customers will receive an email after 15 days (by default) to encourage them to post comments.

A comment is composed of a title, a message, a rating and is related to a customer

The message can be moderated by an administrator before being displayed on the website (recommended).

Once a comment has been accepted the customer can edit or delete it. http://thelia.net/modules/comment-system.html

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We hope this article helped you learn about the must have Thelia modules to be installed first. Do you have your own preferences ?

Tags: Customization, Installation, Module, Performance, Productivity, Security