MageTalk Episode 167 – The Left Hand of Agreement / The Right Hand of Discord

What happens when Phillip forgets his headphones? Terrible audio quality, that’s what! Recorded 30 days before Imagine 2018 and never released, this episode held up production due to its neverending issues and basically almost never saw the light of day. Not for the faint of heart – this one is for the true fans that can’t get enough of MageTalk.

You’ve been warned!

Show Notes

2:12 Shoptalk Shenanigans

Phillip has insider knowledge that says (contrary to what Gary Benerofe (@garymediaspa) says) that the first twenty minutes are actually the most entertaining and not just filler.

Dissension amongst the ranks!

3:32 Distributed Contribution Day (say that five times fast)

Distributed-cd in GitHub if ya nasty.

419 tickets, over 40 pull requests, and over a dozen Magento agencies took part in Distributed Contribution Day. The boys break down the details of the repository.

Kalen gives a shoutout to Atwix for their great contributions.

Is this the new MageStackDay?

6:41 Some Magento Complaints

Shoutout to the echoing audio in this section.

Phillip gives a lot of exposition before complaining about Partner Points and the amount of contribution some developers give without getting any recognition.

Is this creating uncertainty in the Magento Partner community?

13:08 A complaint within a complaint

Kalen brings up the change in Magento certification naming.

Does this sound like a downgrade to you?

14:20 Another Distributed Contribution Day Shoutout

Kalen gives a shoutout to the elusive Peter O’Callaghan (@pete_cags) for a making rare appearance.

15:50 Shameless Commerce Hero Plug

Kalen gives us some updates on Commerce Hero’s recent successes and what he’s been working on.

Congrats, man.

17:42 The Search Workflow

Phillip asks Kalen what his search workflow looks like and how he handles this important step for Commerce Hero. Kalen breaks down what queries he uses as well as what’s important when matching potential applicants to positions.

“When you simplify, clean things up, and speed things up…something happens where some of the loss of functionality ends up being positive because speed is so important.” -Kalen Jordan

26:35 GraphQL is useful as Hell

Max Bucknell (@maxbucknell) did a presentation at NoMad Mage on GraphQL and Magento 2.3 that floored Phillip with the simplicity of getting data from multiple sources using one query.

Watch the video here.

Now that’s useful.

31:24 Component Driven Architecture

Phillip discusses how component driven architecture is making a comeback.

“Component Driven Architecture is going to change the way that we’re designing and the way that we’re building to where we will have almost functional mockups.” -Phillip Jackson

33:05 The Cost of Strict Deadlines

Kalen mentions a very transparent and telling tweet from Joshua Warren (@JoshuaSWarren) that shows the cost of some strict agency deadlines.

Mental health is important, folks. Take care of yourself.

35:08 Mental Health for the Self-Employed

Phillip asks Kalen what Mental Health looks like for those that are self-employed. Kalen breaks down the differences between what he faces today and what he has experienced in the past. Phillip then goes into the stresses he faces working remotely full time along with the multitude of side projects he takes on.

“Being able to turn it off and know where your limits are is really hard when you’re working at home or especially when you work for yourself.” -Phillip Jackson

40:31 Mentor/Mentee Matching

Kalen mentions a tweet by Sander Mangel (@sandermangel) regarding matching mentors and mentees and then goes into the details on how he matches the two.

44:28 Compensation for Mentorship

Phillip asks Kalen what he thinks about compensation for a mentorship position. Does it water the value of the relationship down when someone has to pay for it? He brings up how Alan Storm (@alanstorm) uses Patreon to distribute his mentorship.

Kalen is also looking for a mentee. Hint, hint.

48:05 Some Magento Community Love

Phillip gushes about how forthcoming and giving the Magento community is with its time and resources.

Y’all are a good bunch.

51:08 Shoutouts Upon Shoutouts

Kalen gives a shoutout to Brian Taylor (@BrianTaylorhere) at Forix for being a loyal follower of the show.

Another shoutout goes to Max Pronko (@max_pronko) for just hitting the 1,000 subscribers mark on his YouTube Channel. Congrats!

Video recordings are now available from Reacticon for only $10. That’s an unbelievable deal.

Mentions/Links

-Gary Benerofe (@garymediaspa)

-Peter O’Callaghan (@pete_cags)

-Max Bucknell (@maxbucknell)

-Joshua Warren (@JoshuaSWarren)

-Sander Mangel (@sandermangel)

-Alan Storm (@alanstorm)

-Brian Taylor (@BrianTaylorhere)

-Max Pronko (@max_pronko)

Atwix

GraphQL

NoMad Mage

Max Bucknell’s GraphQL Presentation at Nomad Mage

Forix

Max Pronko’s YouTube Channel

Reacticon Video recordings



MageTalk Episode 153 – The “Epancimation” of Mimi

Show Notes

In MageTalk Episode 153 we cover Magento 2.2.2(.2.2.2.2.2.2)’s release – and the guys get down and dirty into the features which make it one of the best (and most impressive) releases of Magento 2 yet. “Dogfooding” leads to increased understanding of problems and leads to better product ownership. Phillip talks about in-house ecommerce directors at solutions partners like Something Digital, and Kalen talks about the importance of brand and how social proof will replace brand.

Partner program

  • Congrats to Ali Ahmed and Imagination Media for becoming Magento Solution Partners

Improvements to MageTalk Website!

  • COMMUNITY FAVVSSSS

  • Karen’s article – http://webshopapps.com/blog/2017/12/strategy-magento-2018/

  • Natural tension between platform and apps in platform ecosystem as it matures – facebook, twitter, etc. Same will happen with shopify
  • Marketplace needs work – continuous integration
  • Partner program engagement

Magento 2.2.2(.2.2.2.2.2.2.2)

  • MFTF http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.2/magento-functional-testing-framework/introduction.html
  • In the FTF you get used to code in PHP and XML to write tests. With MFTF you need XML only! – No need to learn PHP for tests writers anymore.

How many full time ecom developers have actually setup/run their own store

  • Dogfooding….In-house ecom manager role with agencies?

    • Kristof / Fooman on Dogfooding
    • https://store.fooman.co.nz/blog/planning-your-move-to-magento-2-scoping.html

Thread on brands / naked brands

  • Thread: https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/939618974509228032
  • “Naked brands” – https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/939942771540025345

Transcript

Coming Soon!