Magento and Joomla! are the two leading open source applications widely used for online store creation. They are very similar to each other, hovewer some features of Magento look more functional and easy-to-use, whereas Joomla! is a time-tested software. Magento is the perfect tool for setting up a successful e-commerce site. Joomla! on the other hand is the right choice for FAQ, blogs, forums, whitepapers and so on.

What if to create a multipurpose application that would implement all the best features of Magento and Joomla? The guys from Yireo (Netherlands) hit upon integrating these two content management systems.

Yireo is is part of Jira ICT. It’s a group of enthusiastic developers whose aim is to create stuff with open source and educate people about all aspects of it: “With our software and tutorials you can become an expert yourself and explore the endless opportunities of these Web 2.0 applications.”

In July 2009 Yireo developers will launch MageBridge – a solution to use the Magento e-commerce system within Joomla!. With MageBridge you can setup a complete webshop while also serving your customers with interesting content. The main webshop interface is used as a Joomla! component, while there are also modules displaying menu’s, the latest products, a random product or just a plain Magento-block. Also, Joomla! plugins are used for authentication, user synchronization and searching the Magento product-catalog. MageBridge is therefore much more than just a wrapper-solution, but a complete integration of Magento inside Joomla!.

Besides MageBridge, Yireo will also launch a lot of tutorials on how to Magento, Joomla! and MageBridge itself.

Using MageBridge you can combine Joomla! with Magento with ease!