This is for developers that are new to Magento or want a quick recap of what has been going on with it since its big update in 2.3.

Magento File Structure

One of the main things to know is how Magento’s file structure works.

The main folder you need to focus on is the app folder, inside there are a few things

folders: etc, design, code

files: functions.php, bootstrap.php, and autoload.php

etc is a folder just for other magento configurations the main folder you should focus on is design in code usually is the extensions I will dive a bit more deep in this folder later.

Inside design folder there is a frontend and adminhtml folders again here frontend is the main one for this then it should have in this case our company name and inside our theme name showcase.

• Files to edit:

for CSS: /web/css/

main file should be custom.css

for JS: /web/js/

Another Important folder here is Magento_Theme this is where our templates / layouts live.

Magento Admin Panel

For this example I will use the  Everything Billiards staging site:  http://everythingbilliards.designstudio.host/

I have installed the admin panel under http://everythingbilliards.designstudio.host/admin

You can see the username and password on our Google Team Drive.

Our main focus for this guide will be in the sidebar: Catalog, Content, Stores, System

Catalog Admin Page

Click on Catalog then Categories here is where you control the categories for the store and also the main menu of the site. This will auto create buttons on the header.

Once you create a new category you can either include it in the menu or not. There is also a Category Image, Description, and the important one: Add CMS Block. This is where we add content to the category page I will dive deeper on this subject in another article here!

Content Admin Page

Under Content there are a few things: Elements – Pages, Blocks, and Widgets. We will focus on Blocks more here, again in this other post I dive deeper in how to create a category page using blocks.

There is also a Design section with Configuration, Themes, and Schedule but you won’t be using them quite yet. Primarily, this is how to enable themes and such.

Stores Admin Page

Under Stores usually you will be only going to Settings > Configuration for changing any defaults for layouts and other settings.

System Admin Page

Under System Page you will focus on Cache Management the only bad thing about magento is you need to keep clearing the cache.

Installing Extensions

When downloading Extensions which are Plugins in WordPress terms, most come with a readme file with instructions on how to install them. Its not the same as in WordPress where you just upload the files in a specific folder and you are good to go. For Magento, you will need to log in to the server via SSH and do some commands.  Most extension files are uploaded to:

Then in command line via SSH you will execute the following commands

Check the instructions file to make sure the extensionName is correct, then execute the following command

If Magento is in Dev Mode then you should be good to log in to the admin panel and refresh all the caches.

If it is not then you should also do this command to re-deploy the static content of Magento, and then refresh all the caches.