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User guide

Overview of Competition Creator for Magento

Competition Creator, what is it?

Competition Creator is a Magento extension that allows you to create your own competitions.

First of all, you can create a competition, choose the start and end date, detail the competition and finally, select the winners thanks to the automatic random draw of Competition Creator. 

This Magento extension allows you to improve the relationship between you and your customers by proposing competitions. But the main aim of Competition Creator is to allow you to collect some email addresses to send newsletters for example.

How does Competition Creator work?

Once you have created your competition, visitors of your Magento website will have direct access to that one thanks to the URL rewriting, used to optimize the indexing of the dynamic pages.

The competition will show a description, a disclaimer, the competition's end date. Your customers will have the choice to subscribe to the competition or not. They will have to fill in their first name, last name, and email address to be able to participate in the competition. Once the subscription is over, a notification will appear at the top of the page.

Your customers will also be able to discover the list of all the competitions you are proposing on a page available via the URL: www.yourwebsite.com/competition.

Here is what you get:

How to use Competition Creator for Magento?

STEP 1: Configure Competition Creator in a general way

First of all, you need to configure the extension in a general way in:
SystemConfigurationWyomindCompetition Creator

Settings

You can define several general settings for the Competition Creator extension. 
  • Countdown format
    Define the format of the countdown. For example:
    X days, Y hours, Z minutes
  • Dynamic countdown
    Choose to display a dynamic countdown or not. 
  • Send the result of the competition to
    Define to which email address(es) to send the results. Emails must be separated with a comma (,).
  • Send confirmation email to the participants
    You can send a confirmation email to the participants. 
  • Email confirmation subject
    In the above case, you need to define a Subject for the email. 
  • Email confirmation body
    You can add your own message to the confirmation email. 
  • Send email from email
    Define the email of the sender. 
  • Send email from name
    Define a name for the sender. 

STEP 2: Create a competition

To create a competition, go to:
CMSCompetitions

Click on Add one competition.

You can also edit a competition, by clicking on the line of the competition you want to modify.

Competition details

You can now configure all the details needed to create the competition in the Competition Details tab on the left.

  • Title
    First of all, you have to name your competition.
  • Url Key
    You must enter a unique URL, without any space just as in the example below.
    win-iphone
  • Number of winners
    Define how many people can win.
  • Image
    You can also add an image to your competition that corresponds to the competition's topic.   
  • Store views
    After that, define the different store views in which you want the competition to appear.
  • Customer groups
    Choose the customers that can participate in the competition. You can select all customer groups or just choose retailers for example.  
  • From date - To Date
    Then, define the start and end date of the competition as well as the hours.
    Once the competition is over, and only after that, you will have the possibility to draw the winners.
  • Details
    Next step, write a detailed description of your competition helping with the complete editor that you can show or hide by clicking on Show / Hide Editor.
    Show Editor
    Hide Editor

  • Disclaimer
    You must write one for each one of your competition.

Competitors

In order to collect data about the entrants, such as their email addresses, go in the Competitors tab on the left.

You have then the possibility to see all the competition's entrants, their first names, last names, email addresses as well as their status (subscribed, non-activated, unsubscribed, non-confirmed).

Frontend display

To have an overview of your competition, click on View the competition page from:
CMSCompetitions

You can also see all the competitions you have created listed on a page by using this url: www.yourwebsite.com/competition

STEP 3: Draw lots

Once the date exceeded, a new tab is available in the competition's edition.

Click on Draw lots now to select automatically the winner(s).

After that, a notification appears and indicates that the winner(s) have been drawn.  

In order to be able to select one or more winners, according to your settings in the competition's details, the competition must be over.

Go to the Competitors tab to know the names and addresses of the winner(s).

Improve your customer relationship with Competition Creator!

Easily collect a large number of email addresses

  • Create your own competitions

Completely customize your competitions

  • Choose the number of winners
  • Define the start and end dates of the competition

Automate the competitions

  • Draw winners automatically
Freqently Asked Questions
Pre-sales informations

This extension works with Magento Community Edition and also Magento Enterprise Edition. To know if Competition Creator is compatible with your Magento version, please check the Compatibility tab. 

License and domains

A license is valid for an unlimited period of time on one single Magento installation.

If you use more than one Magento installation, you will have to buy a separate license for each one.

If you run several domains on the same Magento installation, you will need only one license for all of them.

Although your license doesn’t have a limited period of validity, your support period does. By purchasing an extension, you’ll be granted a 6-month support period for free. Passed this period, you will have to renew your Support plan (see FAQ: How to extend my support period?).

You can pre-register your live domain to your license in advance.

Thanks to this option, you'll be able to get the extension ready to use on your domain before it goes live.

To pre-register your production domain: 

  1. Go to:
    mY accountLicenses & DOwnloads
  2. Click on  next to the extension you want your domain to pre-register on.
  3. Click on the link at the bottom of the page saying:
    Do you want to pre-register your domain in order to be ready to go live?
  4. Finally, enter your domain name and click on pre-register now .
Attention, this doesn't mean your license is activated. You'll still have to activate it on your new domain when the extension is installed. 

One license is valid for an unlimited period of time on one Magento installation only.  

It is possible, however, to extend or transfer your license in 2 cases: 

  • If you'd like to add your testing environments to your license.
    In this case, it is possible to extend your license to an unlimited number of domains for free.
    For example mywebsite-staging.com or mywebsite-dev.com
  • If you want to transfer your license to another live domain.
    In that case, the support period for your license must still be active.


To be able to use Competition Creator on both your production and testing environments, follow the instructions below:

  1. Download Competition Creator.
    (see FAQ: Extensions download)    .
  2. Install Competition Creator on your production environment.
    (see FAQ: Extensions installation)
  3. Activate the license.
    (see FAQ: Extensions activation).
  4. From your Magento admin panel, enter your current Activation Key in:
    syStem CONFIGuration WYOMING YOUR EXTENSION 
  5. Save your configuration.


Now that you can use Competition Creator on your production environment, repeat the same steps as above on your testing environments.

The only difference this time: a notification will appear in your Magento admin. 

You will be given a choice between:

  1. buy a new license now
  2. add this domain to my license


Click on Add this domain to my license.

A transfer request will then be sent to our team within an hour.

Once the request is taken care of, you will receive a confirmation email.

If your transfer request is accepted, you can use Competition Creator on both environments at the same time.

The order in which you activate your license on your domains does not matter.
You can start with your staging/dev/local environment or with your live domain, the process will be the same.
Modules versioning and download

In order to download Competition Creator, log into your Wyomind account:

    1. Go to:
      my accountLicenses & downloads 
    2. Click on the  icon next to Competition Creator.

      A new window opens.

    3. Choose the version of Competition Creator.
      You will be able to choose the most recent version of Competition Creator (for both Magento 1 and Magento 2).
    4. Click on  .

Your download can start.

When purchasing an extension from wyomind.com, you benefit from a lifetime upgrade. You can at any time download the latest version of the extension directly from your account. 

To upgrade Competition Creator, follow the steps below:

  1. Go to:
    my accountLicenses & Downloads
  2. Click on  next to Competition Creator.
  3. Choose the latest version of Competition Creator (for Magento 1 and Magento 2).
  4. Click on download .
  5. Install the new version of Competition Creator to update your Magento admin. 

Modules Installation/Uninstallation

To uninstall Competition Creator, go on its zip folder and open it.

You will find a shell file (such as: yourextension-uninstall.sh) that you must execute on both your server and Magento root directory.

Once the uninstallation is over, refresh your cache and enable the compiler back again (if you use it).

Before installing Competition Creator, you’ll have to:

  • Backup your Magento installation in:
    system  tools   backups
  • Disable the compiler in your Magento admin panel if it’s not already disabled:
    system  tools   COMPILATIONS
  • Refresh your cache in:
    systemselect cache typeactionsrefreshsubmit


Now you can install Competition Creator:

  1. Download Competition Creator (zip file) from:
    my account my downloads
    Refer to FAQ here: Extensions download
  2. Once Competition Creator is downloaded, open the folder and unzip it.
  3. Copy the content of the unzip folder and paste all files and directories in your Magento root directory (the folder content can vary according to the extension but it generally includes app, lib and skin folders).

  4. Once your installation is complete, don't forget to enable the compiler back (if it was already enabled before the installation) and run compilation process.
  5. Refresh your cache, logout from your admin panel and log back in right after.

Next step is to activate your license, to do so, click here: Extension activation

Modules activation

Once Competition Creator is installed, you have to activate the license: 

  1. Go to your Magento admin panel. A message pops up at the top of the page.

    If the message doesn't appear then you must check that:

    Wyomind's License Manager has not been removed from your installation.
    Wyomind's License Manager is enabled in: app/etc/modules/Wyomind_Licensemanager.xml
    The HTML output for Wyomind_Licensemanager and/or Adminhtml_Notification are not disabled in your system under: system   configuration  advanced advanced

  2. Copy your activation key.

    You can find your activation key in 2 different places:
    - In the confirmation email that you received after purchasing Competition Creator
    - In your Wyomind account:MY ACcount My downloads, select Competition Creator and click on  . A new page opens where you'll find your activation key (see below).
  3. In your Magento admin go to:
    SysteMConfigurationWyomindYour extension

    Paste the activation key in the Activation Key field and choose between the automatic (yes) or the manual (no) activation method:
    - By choosing Yes, the connection to Wyomind license server will be automatic. 
    - By choosing No, you will have to log on to Wyomind license server yourself.


  4. Save the configuration.
  5. Clear your caches. 
  6. A message appears at the top of your admin panel: Activate it now!  Click on that link.

  7. Copy and paste the license code in the License code field from your admin or simply click on Activate now! 
  8. Finally, refresh your cache, log out and log back in straight after, to complete the installation.

To activate the license of an extension that includes other modules, you’ll have to repeat the steps described above for each extension, using the corresponding activation keys (each module has its own activation key).

Modules use

For example, you want to translate some expressions for the French store view.

Go to your Magento root directory. Copy the Wyomind_competition.csv file under app/locale/en_US to app/locale/fr_FR (or to the language you want).

In that file, you can add some entries and translations. For example:

  • "First name","Prénom"
  • "Last name","Nom"
  • ....

Here is below an example of a translation csv file.

You could also use the "Translate Inline" tool available in the magento system in:
SystemConfigurationAdvancedDeveloperTranslate Inline

Troubleshooting

If your site crashes and gives this error message after uploading all files to the correct folders:

Fatal error: Class 'Wyomind_Notificationmanager_Model_Resource_Setup' not found in includes/src/Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Setup.php on line 234

It probably comes from installing an extension while the compiler is still enabled.

Important note:

  • If the compilation is enabled on your website, disable it first before installing any extension from: 
    SystemToolsCompilation
    After installation re-run the compilation process and re-enable the compiler.
  • Before installing any extension, it's advisable to backup your Magento installation.

Here is how to disable the Magento compiler:

  1. Edit the following file: includes/config.php and add a # before the 2 following lines:
    define('COMPILER_INCLUDE_PATH', dirname(__FILE__).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'src');define('COMPILER_COLLECT_PATH', dirname(__FILE__).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'stat');​

    to get:

    #define('COMPILER_INCLUDE_PATH', dirname(__FILE__).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'src');#define('COMPILER_COLLECT_PATH', dirname(__FILE__).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'stat');
  2. Then go back to your website admin and re-run the compilation process.

If you're getting a white page using the extension, you should enable the error reporting in order to display the error. You can do that from index.php.

Most of the time log-out/log-in may solve this issue.

The error is because although it's on a secure page it's trying to send the form insecurely.



To solve that problem, you need to update:

    \app\design\frontend\default\default\template\competition\competition.phtml

At line 25, replace:

Mage::getBaseUrl()


with:

getBaseSecureUrl()
Magento 1 / Openmage Compatibility

Magento 1 / Openmage®

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Magento 1 / Openmage® Enterprise (deprecated)

  • 1.1.3
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Changelog

Initial release for the master version

Initial release for the legacy version

Bug Fix:

  • Correction of install script

Bug Fix:

  • Correction of backoffice competitions urls

Patch:

  • Compatibility fix for Magento Security Patch SUPEE 6788

New features:

  • Confirmation emails to the admin and to the entrants
  • Management of start / end dates
  • Countdown until the end of the competition 
  • Cron tasks to draw lots automatically

Patch:

  • Compatibility fix for Magento Security Patch SUPEE-6285
  • First Release
Demo store
Work in progress...

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