If you run a search on google for a Magento WordPress Integration you’ll come across a number of different integration methods. I chose FishPig for the integration I wanted to go with. The installation was rather easy to follow. You can do it one of two ways. The easiest of course would be using the Magento connect extension, unfortunately it didn’t work for me on the newest Magento installation. Instead I had to do a manual load.

First – you need to install WordPress, it is so easy it’s scary. Be sure to install it in it’s own directory in the magento directory. Name the directory something like “news”, “word”, etc, but not “blog”. You are not going to be using the directory as wherever you place it. Once you have it integrated with Magento, the system is going to be using it’s own directory.

Second – if you use the extension you have to go into the admin area of your Magento site. You’ll notice that there is no tabs for wordpress. You get the extension key from the MagentoEcommerce site the link takes you to the extension. You first need to add the extension before it a wordpress tab will show up. Go to System/Magento Connect/Magento Connect Manager. This will take you to a new page where you have to sign in again. Once signed in you will be in the Magento Connect area. Paste the extension key into the text input area under Install New Extension and hit Install. If the extension key works you should return to the Admin area of your store. Clear your cache or better yet log out of the admin area and then sign in again – if the key is installed correctly you will see a “wordpress” tab is now situated to the left of the “system” tab.

If the extension key does not work in Magento Connect then you are going to need to do a manual load of the FishPig installation. You’ll need ftp access. I use “Yummy” for the Mac platform. It can be downloaded for a 30 day trail and only costs $28 for a single user license. Another ftp client I found was great – especially if you are using cloud files is Cyberduck. It’s free, but they would love a donation. It works with Mac and PC and works with WebDAV, Amazon S3, Google Storage, Rackspace Cloud Files and even Google Docs. Check it out.

With the manual install you have to download the FishPig Integreation and upload the different files into the correct folders in the Magento directories.

• copy: app/etc/modules/Fishpig_WordPress.xml
• to: app/etc/modules/Fishpig_WordPress.xml

• copy: adminhtml/default/default/layout/wordpress.xml
• to: app/design/adminhtml/default/default/layout/wordpress.xml

• copy: adminhtml/default/default/template/wordpress/
• to: app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/wordpress/

• copy: frontend/base/default/layout/wordpress.xml
• to: app/design/frontend/base/default/layout/wordpress.xml

• copy: frontend/base/default/template/wordpress/
• to: app/design/frontend/base/default/template/wordpress/

• copy: Fishpig
• to: app/code/community/Fishpig/

• copy: en_GB/Fishpig_WordPress.csv
• to: app/locale/en_GB/Fishpig_WordPress.csv

• copy: en_US/Fishpig_WordPress.csv
• to: app/locale/en_US/Fishpig_WordPress.csv

• copy: fr_FR/Fishpig_WordPress.csv
• to: app/locale/fr_FR/Fishpig_WordPress.csv

Once you have completed this upload – looks more difficult that it actually is. Then clear your cache – System/Cache Management/Flush Magento Cache or better yet sign off your admin area and then sign back in. If you have done this correctly you will see the “wordpress” tab to the right of the “system” tab.

You’re going to have to make four minor changes.

One in your wordpress admin area. Change your wordpress settings so that “WordPress address (URL)” reflects the actual directory where your wordpress directory actually resides and Site address (URL) reflects where Magento is going to direct it’s blog traffic. ie: http://youdomain.com/blog.

Two in your Magento WordPress Settings: make a decision if Magento and WordPress are using the same database – if not you will need Host: localhost (most likely), Username: your databasse user name, password: your mysql password, database name: the database housing your wordpress tables.

Third. Chose your Integration – fully or semi – there is a help doc explaining the differrences. Your blog route should be the directory name you have chosen for your WordPress Site address (URL), blog.

Fourth: Decide if you want to enable Logging.

If you have done this correctly you should see four smiley faces in the Server Response area of the Fishpig’s Magento & WordPress Integration. Test