When studying for the Magento Solution Specialist exam, a lot of questions are focused on areas such as PCI compliance, and the inner workings of the Magento admin area. Some questions you should be asking yourself prior to taking the exam can be seen below.
What is PCI and PA-DSS Compliance?
PCI Compliance – Or PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
It is a defined set of requirements made to ensure that every company that processes, stores or transmits credit card information maintain a secure environment.
PA-DSS Compliance – Stands for Payment Application Data Security Standard.
The requirements within the PA-DSS are designed to ensure that payment vendors provide products which support merchants’ efforts to maintain PCI DSS compliance and eliminate the storage of sensitive cardholder data.
What are the different merchant levels of PCI Compliance?
There are 4 different merchant levels:
A merchant would like to set up multi-currencies for their store. How would they go about this using one store view?
1. For this you would have to ensure that you select more currencies in the Allowed Currencies list under System -> Configuration -> General -> Currency Setup.
2. Step 1 is not quite enough to get things going. You have to ensure that the currency rates are pulled in to Magento in System -> Manage Currency -> Rates.. Importing the data from Webservicex will get your currency dropdown to show on the frontend of the website.
A merchant would like to set up multi-currencies for multiple store views e.g. US Dollar for a US store view using the same domain. How would they go about this?
1. Firstly, we need to add another store and store view to the same website in System -> Manage Stores.
Note: Although you can just add a store view, rather than a store and a store view, Magento adds a dropdown at the top of the website stating YOUR LANGUAGE. So it seems as though Magento meant just adding the store view to cater for different languages.
2. When we have added the store and store view, we can go to System -> Configuration -> General, ensuring that we are on our new store configuration scope and change the locale to your country of choice.
3. Near the footer of the website, a Select Store dropdown will appear, and you will be able to switch to your new store with the updated language. You may need to install a language pack if you are not seeing your language translations on the website.
A merchant wants to set up multiple languages on one store view. How would they go about this?
1. Go to System -> Manage Stores and add a store view. Name the store view to the appropriate language.
2. In System -> Configuration -> General, set the locale to your country of choice.
3. At the top of the website, you will now be able to select the language in the dropdown that has appeared.
Where does a merchant change information about locale and timezone?
This is done in System -> Configuration -> General -> General, and expand the Locale Options section.
Where does a merchant change information regarding allowing different currencies?
This is done in System -> Configuration -> General -> Currency Setup and expand the Currency Options section.
The merchant should also ensure that they import the correct currency rates via Webservicex in System -> Manage Currency -> Rates.
In the admin, what options can be changed regarding admin security?
Many of the options are found within System -> Configuration -> Advanced -> Admin, and expanding the Security section.
What different types of store email addresses can a merchant configure?
These are found within System -> Configuration -> General -> Store Email Addresses and the types can be seen below.
What SEO options an a merchant configure for the Catalog?
Within System -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Catalog, expand the Search Engine Optimisations section. These are the following options.
How can a merchant control inventory change settings in System -> Configuration?
Within System -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Inventory, there is a Stock Options section and a Product Stock Options section.
What is Persistent Shopping Cart and what options can a merchant configure?
Persistent shopping cart is a way that a guest or registered customers’ cart contents can be saved upon the next visit.
The cart contents are saved in the form of a “persistent cookie”.
What types of data can the persistent cart save?
What are the different types of sales emails that are sent out to the customer?
These can be found within System -> Configuration -> Sales -> Sales Emails. The different types can be seen below.
Can a merchant configure the sales emails to use different email templates for guests only?
Yes. This can be done within System -> Configuration -> Sales -> Sales Emails, then expand the order email section that you want to change, and set the Email Template for Guest option to the template of your choice.
How does a merchant allow Terms and Conditions on the checkout?
Firstly the merchant must ensure the setting in System -> Configuration -> Sales -> Checkout, expand the Checkout Options section and set the Enable Terms and Conditions dropdown to Yes.
Then under the Sales -> Terms and Conditions and add a new Terms and Conditions item.
What payment methods are available in Magento EE?
These are:
How does a merchant edit a category page so that it has a custom theme different to the one configured under System -> Configuration -> Design?
They would go Catalog -> Manage Categories, choose the category they would like to change, and then within the Custom Design section
How does a merchant show layered navigation on their category pages?
1. Set Is Anchor option to Yes
2. Ensure that the attributes they want to show in the navigation are of type dropdown, multiselect or price
3. Also ensure that the attributes option Use In Layered Navigation are either set to Filterable (No Results) or Filterable (With Results).
A merchant would like to display a block they created within CMS -> Static Blocks on a category page. How would they go about this?
In Catalog -> Manage Categories, choose the category to edit, click on the Display Settings tab and change the Display Mode to Static block only or Static block and products.
What different ways are there for the merchant to change the layout of the category pages?
Catalog -> Manage Categories, choose the category to edit, click on the Display Settings tab and change the Display Mode to Static block only or Static block and products.Page Layout option under the Custom Design tab.Custom Layout Update xml under the Custom Design tab.Custom Design option under the Custom Design tab.System -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Catalog, expand the Frontend section, and change the List Mode to either List Only, Grid Only, List (default)/Grid or Grid (default)/List.What are the required fields that a Magento merchant must fill out when creating a simple product?
These are the Product Name, Short description, Description, SKU, Weight, Status, Visibility, Price, Tax Class and Qty (if the Manage Stock option is set to “Yes”)
A merchant would like to use a colour and size attribute to be available for creating a configurable product. How do they go about this?
They would need to create both attributes, and ensure the attributes are in the Global scope, are of type dropdown and the Used to create Configurable products option is set to Yes.
A merchant would like to sell report PDFs to customers. What would be the best product type to use?
This would be a downloadable product.
A merchant wants to set up a product set where a customer can choose different product options to buy their own custom solution. What product type should the merchant use?
This would be a bundle product.
How can a merchant send out a gift card to a customer from the admin?
Within Customers -> Gift Card Accounts -> Add New Gift Card Account and enter the customer’s email to send the gift card email that will contain the code in. The customer can then use this on the cart page, or if they have an account, can login and redeem the gift card for store credit.
How can a merchant configure the gift card account creation to happen on ordering rather than on invoicing?
They can do this within System -> Configuration -> Sales -> Gift Cards, expanding the Gift Card General Settings section and changing the Generate Gift Card Account when Order Item is option to Ordered.
A merchant has a retail and wholesale website under the same Magento instance. The merchant would like to use the same set of products for both websites, however wants the wholesale prices to be slightly cheaper. How do they configure this?
In System -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Price, set Catalog Price Scope to Website.
What are the different ways to provide a price discount in Magento?
1. Special Price
2. Tier Price
3. Group Price
4. Catalog Price Rule
5. Shopping Cart Price Rule
How does a merchant change the default customer group that customers get assigned to when registering on the website?
In System -> Configuration -> Customers -> Customer Configuration, expand the Create New Account Options section and change the Default Group option.
How can a merchant assign a different customer tax class to a customer group?
Within Customers -> Customer Groups, edit the customer group desired and change the customer tax class.
What is the difference between Catalog Price Rules and Shopping Cart Price Rules?
Catalog Price Rules are rules that are applied before the customers adds products to their cart. Shopping Cart Price Rules are calculated after items are added to the cart, and also can use coupon codes.
What is the difference between a rule condition and an action?
A merchant would like to set up a promotion that would provide a 10% discount on products within a certain category. How would they go about this?
This can be done either within a Catalog Price Rule or a Shipping Cart Price Rule
A merchant wants to use a coupon code to give a customer for a certain discount. What promotion rule do they need to set up?
A shopping cart price rule.
What are the different types of discounts that can be set against products in catalog price rules?
What are the different types of discounts that can be set against products in shopping cart price rules?
What entity types does Magento provide the merchant with to import and export data?
These are products and customers
What are the two different file types that Magento accepts to import/export data?
.csv and .xml
What column is the unique identifier that Magento requires when updating product data
The SKU
What product types can be imported using Magento import/export?
All product types, except bundle, gift card, and downloadable products
What product types can be exported using Magento import/export?
All except gift cards
How does a merchant import images?
Upload the images into the media/import directory and add in the image file name to the .csv like the following: /imagefile.jpg. Magento will then look for the image in media/import/imagefile.jpg.
What are the different shipping methods available in a Magento default install?
These are:
What are the different type of flat rate available and what do they do?
These are:
What type of table rate conditions do Virtual Products apply to?
Virtual products have no weight so they only affect Price v Destination and Number of Items v Destination
What fields are needed for Weight v Destination table rates
These are:
What fields are needed for Price v Destination table rates
These are:
What fields are needed for # of Items v Destination table rates
These are:
What are the import/export buttons located?
These are found under System -> Configuration -> Sales -> Shipping Methods, ensuring that your change the current configuration scope to your website.
Do the table rates support postal/zip code ranges?
Nope
Do two tax rules that have the same priority get added together or compounded?
They get added together
Do two tax rules that have a different priority get added together or compounded?
They get compounded.
How does a merchant set up a UK VAT rule
1. Create a tax rate and set the country dropdown to United Kingdom, and set the rate to 20%
2. Create a rule, choose the taxable goods product tax class, the default customer tax class and select the 20% rate to be a part of the rule.
How does a merchant set up fixed product tax?
Enable FPT option to Yes within System -> Configuration -> Sales -> Tax, under the Fixed Product Taxes section.Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes, and set the Catalog Input Type for Store Owner option to Fixed Product Tax.How does a merchant set up Cross Border Origin Tax?
Firstly, the merchant should ensure that catalog prices entered into the admin are including tax.
Secondly, the Enable Cross Border Trade option should be set to Yes within System -> Configuration -> Sales -> Tax, under the Calculation Settings section.
Enabling this option means that the products will have a fixed price regardless of the customer’s tax rate.
How do you avoid compounding tax if two tax rules have a different priority?
This can be done if you specify the lower tax priority to calculate the rate off of the subtotal only. i.e. tick the checkbox on the rate.
What steps are needed to configure Magento Solr?
1. Firstly you should ensure that Solr is installed on your server
2. Within System -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Catalog, expand the Catalog Search section and set the Search Engine to Solr.
3. Fill out the hostname, port, username, password, timeout and server path fields.
4. You can then use the Test Connection button to verify the connection.
How does a merchant set up attribute weights for Solr and what does this do?
Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes and choose the attribute in questionEnable in Quick Search and Enable in Advanced Search options are set to Yes.size with a search weight of 2 and description with a search weight of 3. When a customer searches for the word medium, Solr will return a list of products whose size attribute is medium and won’t include in the list the products whose description contains the word medium. What are the steps involved in Magento RMA
Sales -> RMA -> Manage RMA.System -> Configuration.What are the types of RMA that a customer can request?
Refund, Store Credit or Exchange.
What RMA attributes can be edited and where can the merchant do this?
Resolution – whose options are:
Reason – whose options are:
Condition – whose options are:
This can be edited within Sales -> RMA -> Manage RMA Items Attributes.
What payment methods are available in EE?
What payment methods can be used with Secure Payment Bridge?
How does a merchant set up API credentials for a third party to use?
Firstly head to System -> Web Services -> SOAP/XML-RPC - Users and add a new user.
Fill out the form and make a note of the user name and API key
Then head to System -> Web Services -> SOAP/XML-RPC - Roles and add a role name.
Under the Resources tab, choose the resources that the third party should have access to i.e. Catalog/Sales. and save the role.
Head back into the Users area, and under the Roles tab, choose the new role that you have created and re-save the user.