What is "magento"

Magento is an e-commerce platform written in PHP on the Zend Framework, available under both open source license and commercial license. It was written in an advanced object-oriented language that uses the MVC standard and XML configuration files, with the aim of having flexibility and extensibility. It is owned and maintained by Magento Inc. (formerly Varien) which is owned by eBay.

Magento is aimed at marketers who need an online presence, but feel that a fully tailored store does not meet their needs, budget, or scale. Magento features include support for multiple languages and currencies, search engine optimization techniques, automated email marketing. Basic configuration and administration can be performed by end users with minimal technical training, and the ecosystem of third parties around Magento offers a broad customization of appearance and functionality for stores. Magento offers a certification program to help store owners find partners in the Magento ecosystem, and to help developers consolidate their understanding of the software.

The central feature of Magento is the modeling and extension system, based on OOP inheritance and composition principles. Largely configured by XML files, it provides a plugin API, which allows developers to modify almost any Magento feature, working with the abstraction layers provided by the framework. Several subsystems (layout, data flow) employ meta-programming, XML installations, and the MVC standard is supported by methods Factory for instantiation of auxiliary classes (Models, helpers, blocks).

Magento is a heavily abstracted software system. Most of the Magento code, and almost all of the third-party code, is organized into modules, and the functionality of the programming modules is exposed. Modules can be individually enabled or disabled, facilitating integration into existing stores. Magento’s persistent storage is usually Mysql, and its data on a store’s products is based on entity-attribute-value model.