How to install a Magento extension

For those just joining us, I'm now in the process of setting up a Magento store to integrate with Moodle.

Magento is an e-commerce solution in a similar vein to Moodle, it is free and open source or there are people that will do the dirty work for you.  I will eventually be using Magento to sell Moodle courses but first I have to get Magento to work with our online payment gateway.

Magento has native support for Paypal but we're using World Pay so I have to install a plugin.

First we vist www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/ and search for the extension you want, you can choose to look at free or premium extensions.  Clicking on the nice big Install Now button.

Now, this might bring up a dropdown menu for you to choose Magento Connect 1.0 or 2.0.  I'll admit this means nothing to me and if you're reading this post it might not mean anything to you either.  In another tab or window log in to your Magento backend via the admin panel and go to System > Magento Connect > Magento Connect Manager, you'll be asked to log in again.  You'll be taken to the Magento Downloader and if you scroll to the bottom you'll see what version of Magento Connect Manager you're working with.  Mine says 1.5.0.0.

Now I assumed this meant I should choose Magento Connect 1.0 from the drop down on the extension page, but when I did it didn't work.  So I tried choosing 2.0 and that seemed to do the trick.

Choose whichever you think might work, tick the box to agree to the licence agreement and click get extension key.  Copy the code it brings up, paste it into the box on the Magento Downloader marked Paste extension key to install and click Install.

At this point it'll either work or return an error message.  If you get an error message (like I did) try the other extension key.  If it works, return to your Magento dash, see if you have any messages saying a cache needs refreshing and configure your new plugin.  In my case this mean going to System > Configuration > payment methods.