Bret Williams - Mastering Magento

Bret Williams , after 15 years in advertising and political consulting, dove into a new marketing venue in 1995, called the Internet. Over the intervening years, Bret and his team at novusweb created the first site with live coverage of a major sporting event, the first car dealer website to provide online customization and pricing, and an innovative rapid-development process.

In 2005, Bret and his wife, Cyndi, launched their first owned e-commerce site, which almost immediately became a leader in its niche. Since then, Bret has worked to research and identify open source platforms that can provide the features and functions necessary for online retail success.

Today, Bret and the novusweb team continue to develop online marketing solutions for their own company as well as select clients all across America.

Mastering Magento , my first book for Packt Publishing, would not have been possible without the mentorship of Acquisition Editor Robin De Jongh. His counsel helped keep this book focused and succinct. I'd also like to thank Zainab Bagasrawala, the Project Coordinator, whose gentle prodding kept me pinned to the keyboard, and Chris Rodrigues, my Lead Technical Editor who helped fine-tune this labor of love.

Of course, I have to thank my wife, Cyndi. She not only proofread each chapter before I submitted it to Packt, she kept me supplied with gourmet coffee, bite-size candies, and the love and support on which I have relied for over 32 years.

Ray Bogman is an IT Professional from the Netherlands. He started working with computers since 1983, as a hobby at first. In the past, he has worked for KPN, a large Dutch Telecom company, as a senior security officer.

He has been the SEO of Wild Hibiscus Netherlands (www.wildhibiscus.nl) since 2010, and of Jira ICT (www.jira.nl), which he co-founded in 2006. He is also the co-founder and creator of Yireo (www.yireo.com).

At Jira ICT, he is a Magento, Joomla, and Security evangelist. His focus during the day is training webmasters and consultants the power of Magento, from the basics up to an advanced level.

Besides work, his hobbies are snowboarding, running, going to the movies and music concerts, and loving his wife Mette and daughter Belize.

He has participated in reviewing Joomla! templates ontwerpen , a Dutch book that covers Joomla! template tutorials.

Hans Kuijpers , an open source enthusiast, was born and raised in the Netherlands and has been creating websites since 1995. He holds a BS in Technology Management from Fontys University. In the past, he has worked for KPN, a large Dutch Telecom company, as a developer on the DNS platform.

He is currently working for Byte Internet, a Dutch hosting company that strives to be the best in class on Magento hosting. Besides that, he also works for Jira (http://www.jira.nl/), a Dutch company that offers Joomla! and Magento training, consulting and project management; and for Yireo, which publishes online videos and tutorials for both Joomla! and Magento. He is also very active in the open source community, organizes Dutch Joomla! day events, and sets up monthly Joomla! user groups.

He has participated in reviewing Joomla! templates ontwerpen , a Dutch book that covers Joomla! template tutorials, and Magento 1.4 Theming Cookbook , a Packt Publishing book with over 40 recipes to create a fully functional, feature rich, customized Magento theme.

Fernando Miguel has eight years of experience in Information Technology, for two years of which he worked as a trainee, and for six years as a web developer. Today, he has his own company, Origami Web Systems.

He has a Bachelor's degree in Information System from Centro Universitario Modulo, where he has received a scholarship for Best Academic Performance. He did his Post-Graduate in Health Informatics from Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo.

Frenando has volunteered IT support work for the AIDS Prevention Congress in Caraguatatuba, Sao Paolo, Brazil.

He has good knowledge about Content Management System tools knowledge, specially in Joomla!, Magento, and Wordpress. He also has knowledge about Magento e-commerce CMS development, customization, and support, and can also work on PHP development using ZendFramework.

Fernando has worked on the Magento 1.4 Theming Cookbook , and has now worked on this amazing Mastering Magento book!

I would like to thank my mother, Edneia, who has helped me a lot with her advice, my wife, Elizabete, for being patient when I've worked overtime, and my grandmother, Mildes, who passed away but still continues to inspire me.