Pimcore is one of the popular digital platforms used for the efficient management of digital data by business owners. In recent years, the growth of Pimcore has increased significantly among the global eCommerce websites. The simplicity and ability to simplify the operations of complex software solutions is the main reason behind the popularity of Pimcore development services.
In addition, Pimcore offers a wide range of benefits to the businesses which will be discussed in upcoming sections. This article is about briefing the usage and handling of Pimcore for beginners along with practical examples.
What is Pimcore?
Before getting into the core topic, let us brush up with some basics of the Pimcore platform.
Well, Pimcore is award-winning open-source PHP software that is specifically designed to collect, organize, enrich and manage enterprise-level business data.
The open-source platform offers centralized solutions like content management (CMS), product information management (PIM), digital asset management (DAM), customer data management (CDP), digital commerce, and master data management (MDM) for all types of business.
In simple words, the Pimcore platform empowers enterprises or organizations with a centralized repository for data and improves operational efficiency by eliminating the risk of data silos, improving digital customer experience along cutting operational costs.
The API-driven approach and the incredible flexibility nature of the Pimcore platform make it a perfect alternative for expensive digital experience platforms in today’s business market.
To explore more about Pimcore and its hidden capabilities for miss to read What is Pimcore and How It Boosts Business Growth.
Types of Digital Content Managed by Pimcore
Pimcore for beginners should be well aware of the digital content types that can be easily managed by the open-source PHP software. In basic, the platform enables business leaders to manage the three types of digital content such as.
Documents
In this digital era, documents are referred to as digital pages which follow MVC pattern. Each of such documents has its own set of controller, action, and template.
Assets
In this virtual world, an asset can be anything considered important for business and stored. In most cases, the digital asset of a business can be its product image, video, business catalog, documents, Pdfs, PPTs, and others related to business operation. In general, these assets are stored along with their corresponding metadata.
Objects
The core concept of objects can be easily understood through object-oriented programming. Here, objects are used to structure the data relevant to products, product categories, consumers, and so.
Do you want to manage all the above types of content by developing a tailored digital solution by harnessing the potential of Pimcore technology platform?
Pimcore for Beginners: How Pimcore Can Be Useful?
- Pimcore ensures the product data are distributed across multiple channels consistently from a centralized database.
- Pimcore provides better control over the master data to the business leaders, by clearing all those headaches of the manual process.
- Pimcore offers a centralized data repository for storing all the product digital assets and enables marketers to build a strong engaging brand story.
- Pimcore helps to build a better and personalized digital experience.
- Pimcore attracts more potential consumers.
- Pimcore delivers exceptional shopping experiences to the target audience.
Pimcore for Beginners: Key Features of Pimcore
Here are the lists of key features of Pimcore that enable enterprises and organizations to improve their operational efficiency. Pimcore for beginners should aware of these features before starting to work on them.
Data Modelling
It is the fundamental and convenient function of the Pimcore platform. It helps developers to create both simple and complex data models without a mess. The platform is specifically designed to manage millions of products and more than 40 types of data. With those, it creates a data model within a few minutes.
Roles & Permissions
Pimcore offers an intuitive administration panel for managing all product data. The advanced mechanism of Pimcore allows administrators to assign permission for users for accessing and editing the data stored in Pimcore based on their roles. In addition, it enables administrators to offer group editing options to their employees.
Workflow Management
For better product data management there should be proper data planning and workflow scenarios within the business. Pimcore facilitates businesses to plan their data properly and create well-structured information flow schemes. Business leaders can enjoy full freedom in creating and managing business workflow.
Data Quality Control
Maintaining the high standard quality of information is the ultimate goal for the Pimcore platform. Pimcore enables administrators to validate the data fields by standardizing, structuring, and enriching the collected data. In addition, it facilitates transparent and consistent data sharing among the systems.
Digital Asset Management (DAM)
The centralized storage feature of Pimcore makes it easy to manage, edit, organize and delete the data. The single location storage of data gives more control to the organization or enterprise on the product’s digital assets.
Data Syndication
Pimcore supports data syndication by collecting data from multiple integrated systems stores in a centralized location. This enables business leaders and administrators to share the data among the partners, vendors, employees, and other teams from a single location. Also, it provides high data security and more control over the stored data.
Do you want to discuss the award-winning features of the Pimcore technology platform that empowers your various product, customer, content, and commerce-related processes?
Learning Pimcore – Where to Start?
Before learning Pimcore, beginners should be aware of the installation procedures first. For installation steps, you can easily find a lot of online sources. For successful installation of Pimcore, make sure you increase the ‘max_allowed_packet’ option in the my.ini configuration to 100MB. So, Pimcore can make use of the database efficiently.
If all goes fine, Pimcore is ready to use.
1. Inspecting Directory Structure
After successful installation of Pimcore, you need to check with the directory structure for creating a new project. In the directory structure, you need to know how to navigate using the code. Pimcore follows the Symfony framework, so following the best practices of the Symfony directory structure will be handy.
Here’s a quick summary of the project structure overview.
- /app/ - It contains a Symfony configuration file along with the shared templates and translations.
- /bin/ - It contains the executable files. Also, it allows you to store custom scripts for executions.
- /src/ – It’s the place where you can use your PHP code.
- /var/ – This part contains the private generated files.
- /vendor/ – It is where all 3rd party dependency files are stored safely.
- /web/ – It is the public document root that points to the host.
2. Inspecting Database
This section briefs you about the database structure. The database structure of Pimcore contains more default tables that are created at the time of Pimcore installation. Here are the lists of key database tables that beginners should be aware of.
- Classes – Where object classes along with ID & class names are stored.
- Objects – Where system objects are stored along with metadata ids, class names, parent details, and so.
- Assets – It contains all the digital assets of the products along with their metadata.
- Documents – It’s the table that stores all documents, snippets, folders, and emails along with Metadata.
- Versions – Where multiple versions of objects, digital product assets, and documents are stored in an organized manner.
- Users – This table contains all the information about the backend users.
- Cache – It is a default-specific table that contains all the data stored in a serialized form.
In addition, the Pimcore contains multiple dynamic tables where it gets modified during the configuration process of object data. These tables come with numerical suffix representing the object class number (id). Some of the tables are object_(id), object_store_(id), object_relation_(id), object_query_(id).
Pimcore platform functions with all these tables.
3. Inspecting Cache
Pimcore platform caches almost every operation and activity. Doing so improves the performances significantly. By default, the Pimcore platform prefers doctrine connection by using a table caching system. With that connection, it writes cache into the cache_tags in the database.
All the elements of Pimcore such as documents, assets, and objects get cached and serialized in the cache database table. In addition, it allows users to configure their own set of cache pools.
Have you started exploring Pimcore practically by accessing its open-source free version? Let’s Credencys help you provide better clarity on Pimcore.
Pimcore for Beginners – How to Create a Brand Class in Pimcore Platform?
Building a brand class in Pimcore can be done by installing the Pimcore eCommerce skeleton. Once it has been done, Pimcore beginners can start their Pimcore development journey.
Well, consider having a webshop selling multiple brand products in a single place. Now, this section briefs about how to display all brand products in a dropdown menu and how to list brand products under the render brand page or upon the selection of a particular brand.
Let’s start building with Pimcore
Creating a data object is essential for storing brand information. This can be done by following the steps in Pimcore administration.
- Visit Settings > Data Objects > Classes
- Now, select the “ADD” option and enter the class name you want to create
That’s it! A brand class will be created with a unique identifier. Now, to design the newly created class Pimcore for beginners should follow these steps.
- For adding the property ‘Layout’, Right-click the General Settings > Add Layout Component > Panel
- For adding property ‘Name’, right click the Layout > Add Data Component > Text > Input
- For adding the property ‘Logo’ to the brand products, right-click the Layout > Add Data Component > Media > Image.
Now, the brand class is ready with the perfect layout in the Pimcore eCommerce skeleton along with the brand property. Let’s see how to add a relation to the brand class.
After clicking the property, you can witness the property type would be a ‘many-to-one’ relation. By scrolling down the page, you can see the ‘only object’ option. Select it and do the changes as given below.
- Select existing (already created) brand class
- Uncheck the “invisible” option, to enable property in the administration interface
- Save it
Now, the simple class structure has been successfully created.
Let’s find out how to create brand instances.
- Create a ‘brand’ folder under the assets (Assets > Folder)
- To upload the logo, right-clicking ‘Brand’ directory > Upload Files.
- For creating a brand instance under the data object section, create the ‘brand’ folder by right-clicking Home > Folder
- For naming the brand, right-click ‘Brands’ directory > Add Object > Brand and enter the name
- By repeating the same process, you can name and add logo properties to all products
- Save & publish it
With the same procedure, you can add multiple brands and respective logos to their relevant products as you like.
Once all is done, you can assign a brand name to the products by drag-and-dropping the desired brand. Publish it after saving.
Now let us see how to add a document page for newly added brands and their products.
For adding a content page, visit the under the document section and right-click the ‘en’ document > Add Page > Content page. Now, you will see a pop-up window where you can name it ‘Brands’.
That’s it!
Now, you have successfully added assets, objects, and documents ready. The final document properties should look like this.
It’s time to move to the coding part and fetch the brands to products and display them in a drop-down menu.
- To render a brand document, you are supposed to create a brand controller first and view it. It can be done by adding appropriate coding under the /src/AppBundle/Controller directory.
- To create a view, you need to create a ‘brand’ directory and a detail.html.php file under the /app/Resources/views directory.
- To render products, you need to loop to add products and render the product.html.php template seen in /app/Resources/views/Shop/list/ directory.
That’s it! Navigate to your Pimcore local domain and you can witness the presence of brands option in the menu. By clicking the menu option, you can view the brand page displaying the relevant brand logo along with its products.
Do you find the above guide useful to start with product data management of your digital solution using the advanced features and functionality of the Pimcore platform?
Bottom Line
This article has provided the essential Pimcore for Beginners feature those most developers use to develop an efficient application. Also, it offers solid ground along with perfect guidelines for creating a brand page under the brand menu in Pimcore for beginners. Pimcore is a large platform that offers a pool of opportunities and possibilities to learn.
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