Developers might have any number of reasons for creating an open-source framework or platform. But oftentimes what they seek, when exposing their code to the world, is the input and engagement of a community.

When Varien released Magento, the company may have had a number of motives, but regardless of what else it sought, it has certainly generated an engaged community—1.5 million downloads and an estimated 30,000 merchants actively using the platform, according to Magento.

With so many interested parties, there is bound to be a lot said about Magento, and in this article, I am going to put you in the conversation. I have listed seven Magento-oriented videos that I’ve watched this holiday season.

Roy Rubin and Yoav Kutner Keynote Presentation at Bargento 3

This video, which includes a Magento marketing promotion, is of the keynote presentation that Varien CEO, Roy Rubin, and Varien CTO, Yoav Kutner, gave in Paris, France at Bargento 3 in November 2009. The video covers the “state” of Magento and gives some indications about what is to come.

Creating Themes in Magento

This is a classic screencast from the Magento team about how themes are structured in the platform. I reviewed it when I wrote an introduction to Magento Commerce Them Basics earlier this month.

Creating Transactional Emails for Magento Commerce

This screencast demonstrates how to convert Magento-provided email templates into custom email templates for all of the emails that a Magneto store programmatically sends to customers.

Use Magento’s Translation CSV File to Change Site Labels

This tutorial, which was published right here on Ecommerce Developer, shows you a quick and easy way to change site labels, like “My Cart” and “My Account” using Magento’s translation CSV files.

Roy Rubin About Vertical Versions of Magento

This video was recorded at the Shop.org show in September of 2009. When I first learned that Magento was planning to release a software-as-a-service (SaaS) version, I was worried that I had missed some announcement. Turned out there had been no announcement (I believe Ecommerce Developer was the first to report the forthcoming SaaS version), but this video does imply that something like SaaS is coming.

Configuring Templates, Adding a Product Grid in Magento

In this tutorial video, which I produced for Practical Ecommerce, our sister site, demonstrates how to modify the static Magento home page and how to use template path hints.

Installing Magento on WAMP

If you’re like me, you like to develop on a local host before pushing things out to the Internet. But installing Magento on a local host is not as easy as you would think. But don’t worry, this video gives you the details you need.