How to Install Magento Extensions?

Having found the perfect Magento extension that fulfills your business needs can make you feel really excited about the possibilities. But it becomes very irritating when you find the extension is not working properly post installation. 

This makes you feel like the whole hard work involved in hunting and installation went to a complete waste. However, there may be small errors in the installation process that are surfacing as an issue. 

This step-by-step guide will teach you how to successfully install the extension on your online store.

What are Magento extensions?

These are sets of codes that can add special features to your Magento store. The goal of using extensions is to add more functionality to the store to attract customers and launch a fulfilling shopping experience to drive sales. Overall, different extensions can help you automate and streamline various manual tasks.

Estimates suggest that over 50% of Magento stores utilize at least one third-party extension to address specific business needs. Popular extension categories include marketing and SEO, shipping and delivery, payment gateways, and customer support. These can help online store owners to boost sales of the eCommerce businesses.

Benefits of using Magento Extensions

• Enhanced functionality: You can quickly add new features like one-step checkout and better search options or enhance login processes.
• Improved user experience: It helps to make your site more user-friendly and efficient for business customers.
• Better order management:There are various processes that can be streamlined like order management to quickly deliver products to the customers.
• Improved store performance:Keeping up with the new technology trends and resolving specific problems is seamless with viable extensions that become an integral part of the online store.

From where can you download and install the Magento extensions?

You can access extensions from the following three platforms:

• Via a third-party store (extension vendor)
• Adobe Marketplace
• GitHub

In all of the three areas, there are many ways to download and install extensions. This creates confusion among the store merchants. The usual process requires access to the zip file and unzipping the file to proceed with the installation process.

Although it is rare, sometimes you may fail to find a suitable solution under which you can also opt for Magento extension development solutions. The extension will be tailored precisely to fulfill your business needs and will easily integrate into your online store. 

How to prepare your online store for installing Magento extensions?

Whether you are using Adobe Commerce or a third-party extension, it is essential to make preparation before initiating the installation process. This is much similar to the Magento upgrade process, where you prepare the store before starting the process.  

A well-prepared store will undergo a smooth installation process.

Create Backup of Your System: The foremost step is to take complete backup of all your Magento files and database. So, you can quickly return to your original configuration in case something goes wrong. 

Check and Set File Permissions: The file permissions should be flexible enough to allow installation of the extensions and also keep your store secure against malware, XSS attacks, etc. 

Switch to Developer Mode: Changes in the store like Magento upgrade or installation process are advised to proceed under Developer mode. This helps to avoid any glitches on the live store with the Magento installation ongoing process.

Enable Maintenance Mode: Switching the store to the maintenance mode makes your site inaccessible to the customers but it is essential to avoid errors. Additionally, users get the message that the website is under maintenance and can access it later to buy products or services. 

Testing the installations on a staging server is essential to avoid any issues on the live store. A Magento agency UK can ensure seamless integration of extensions into your online store.

How to install Magento extensions via stores?

When you have downloaded or purchased your extension from a store, you need to follow these steps

• Download the zip file from the store
• Unzip the file and retrieve individual files from it
• Make another file path with the store name and the name of your extension
• Upload the newly built file path to the root directory of the installation. Ensure all paths are the same as the existing file path structure.
• Select ‘run: php bin/magento’ and ensure ‘upgrade’ is selected under setup
• After completing the process, you must clear the cache

Process to install extensions via Adobe Marketplace

There are several ways to install extensions from the Adobe Marketplace, and when using the zip file method, you can follow the same process as those involved in using a store. Some of the standard ways of installing extensions via the official market are as follows:

Method1- You can install the extension via the Composer tool. It is a dependency tool present within the Magento 2 platform and offers a streamlined process for installing extensions.

Method 2- Using the admin web setup wizard, you can install the extension.

Here’s how to install a Magento extension via Composer

• Install composer in advance
• Find the necessary extension in the file composer.json. You need to find the extension name and version in composer.json
• Now, go to the Magento project directory and update your composer.json file.
• Add this to the code:Run: php bin/magento setup:upgrade
• Also Run: php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy via command line interface

Once the process is complete, you need to clear the cache.

How to install a Magento extension via GitHub?

There are two standard ways to install Magento extensions via GitHub. The first process is to use a zip file. The process is the same as using zip file via a store.

The other method is to use a composer, which we have already discussed above. 

chilliapple: one-stop house for all your Magento needs

We are Adobe Bronze Partner solution agency and can help you with all your online store needs. As a leading agency, we have handled various clients with upgrade, integration, and store setup from the scratch. 

Whether you need assistance with an already purchased extension or are looking for Magento 2 extension development, our experts can help you out.