Magento is almost infinitely customizable, but there will come a time when you'll be happy to deploy your newly created Magento theme to your own store, or even release it to the Magento community. In this chapter, we'll look at:
- Cross-browser testing options for our new theme
- Deploying your theme on your own Magento store
- Packaging your Magento theme as an extension for others to use
An important thing to consider before deploying your skin is how your theme displays in various browsers used on different operating systems such as Windows and Mac.
Testing your theme in every browser and on every platform might be too strenuous a task, as there are hundreds of combinations. Therefore, it might pay to consider the most likely browsers your store's customers will be using. For example, if your store is selling software aimed at Mac users, then it is more likely that your customers will be using Safari rather than Internet Explorer.
There are a large number of browsers to choose from, but some are more popular than others.
HitsLink (http://marketshare.hitslink.com) reports that Microsoft's Internet Explorer has around 70% of browser users, while Firefox has around 20% of the browser market. Safari is reported to have a 6% share of the browser market, while Opera, Chrome, and Netscape have around 1% share each.
Tip
Wikipedia has a comparison of web browsers at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers.
An alternative to testing our theme in only a select number of browsers is to use a remote-access service or browser-compatibility testing tools, which allows you to view your store's design as it would appear across a number of operating systems and browser versions.
Note
Browser-testing services only test the visual aspects of a theme (what your theme looks like in a particular browser), and not the functionality of your store. For example, there may be problems with older versions of Internet Explorer or on some Internet Service Provider's connections. As such, testing can only ever go so far.
BROWSERCAM (http://www.browsercam.com) is a popular browser-testing service.
Although there is a monthly cost associated with using this service, you may be able to access a 24 hour free trial. Apart from showing you how your site will look on desktop browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari, BROWSERCAM also allows you to see what your store looks like to those customers using handheld devices.
BrowserShots (http://www.browsershots.org) has more limited functionality than BROWSERCAM, but it is free of charge.
While it is more limited than BROWSERCAM, BrowserShots provides and huge range of browsers and operating systems as seen in the following figure:
