Magento Extension Roundup - November 2016

The Ean Generator automatically generates EAN-13 compatible codes based on the product's ID. These codes are stored in a product attribute, which allows for easy retrieval and manipulation using the normal product attribute approach. The codes are automatically generated either when the product is saved or periodically through the Magento cron system.

By ensuring all products have a valid EAN-13 code, this extension gives you the option to supply EAN data to third-party consumers such as a feed generator for Google Shopping or Criteo. Note that it doesn't handle barcode generation, so you would need a separate extension if you also wanted to display the EAN-13 numbers for barcode scanners.

Experius' Email Catcher extension logs all out-going email traffic sent from your Magento installation. This information is presented in an admin panel grid and allows merchants to preview individual emails as seen by the customer. Unlike Magento's inbuilt sales email BCC solution, this extension does not require a dedicated email account and supports ACLs to limit which members on your team can review emails.

This extension rewrites two core email classes, which means that it may conflict with other email related extensions. However, if you are using the standard Magento email system then it should work out of the box, and you'll be able to get a better idea of what emails your system is sending to customers.

The Order Comment Checkout extension is quite straightforward and just allows customers to add comments when placing an order. Customers may find this useful when they have specific delivery requirements or comments. These comments can be viewed in their own dedicated page in the admin panel, or on the order PDF.

This extension requires two rewrites to the order PDF classes, which may conflict with other extensions that modify order PDFs. We'd question whether something so simple needs an entry in the top-level admin menu and its own interface, as it would seem to make more sense to simply include the comments on the order screen. Otherwise the extension does what it says and may be suitable for merchants using a stock frontend design who want to give customers to option of including extra information with their order.

The MagEvol Responsive Slider allows merchants to create mobile-friendly sliders based on the Owl Carousel Plugin v1.3.2 and Bootstrap v3.3.7. The extension offers plenty of customisation options and gives merchants the choice in setting their images, colours and even transition effects.

You may need to make modifications to your Magento installation if you have a custom theme. However, once installed and configured, this extension provides content creators an easy way to create sliders without touching any HTML.