Magento 2 performance training with Vinai Kopp

At Space 48, we believe in continuous improvement every day. Although contentment is a nice state to be in, you can’t afford to stand still in ecommerce. We think it’s important to stay above the curve and be the first to adopt new technologies for our customers. Our in-house training plays a key part in keeping us up to date and at the forefront of the latest Magento thinking.

Weekly workshops

Despite having a busy development team, we always encourage time away from the desk for developer learning and training. Both our frontend and backend development teams take part in weekly workshop sessions led by our Technical Director, Tony Brown.

Having been involved in ecommerce for over 15 years and developing Magento solutions since 2008, Tony is the ideal tutor for our development team and is always on hand to answer questions. Tony was also recently appointed by Magento as a Magento Master for 2017, based on his 2016 contributions to the Magento community and his deep understanding and knowledge around the platform.

Mage Titans conference

One of these contributions include co-organising and speaking at our Magento developer-focused conference, Mage Titans, which is an annual conference that our team look forward to attending, and sharing skills and knowledge with other developers alike. Delegates and industry professionals have cited Mage Titans as one of the best Magento conferences in the world, and as a result it has since been rolled out internationally to cities including Milan, Austin, Mexico City, Valencia and, of course, Manchester – where it all began.

Training with Vinai Kopp

Fellow Magento Master and Mage Titans advocate, Vinai Kopp regularly makes the trip to Space 48 from his home in Germany to deliver intense hands-on training workshops. The workshops usually take place over a period of 3 days and cover a wide range of Magento challenges. His expert advice has been known to blow our minds, but most importantly deepen the developers understanding of complex processes and techniques.

Vinai is a freelance Magento trainer, developer, consultant and author. Specialising on the Magento platform since 2008, he is a member of the Magento Certification Advisory Board and was one of the first to pass the MCD+ exam.

Magento 2 training with Vinai

Vinai recently delivered further training around Magento 2 to our backend development team. We caught up with him to ask him how he felt the training went and why it’s beneficial for Magento agencies to invest in employee training.

How do you feel the training went?
I think the last training session went well. Keeping the full page cache working properly has to be a high priority on all Magento 2 projects, so I feel the time we spent in the training was well invested.

What did last week’s training cover, could you provide us with a brief overview?
We covered the different tools the Magento 2 framework offers to work with the full page cache, Varnish.
In particular we covered the layout XML block directive attributes `cachable` and `ttl`, and also “hole punching” the FPC using private scope blocks and customer-data UI components.

Why do you like working with Space 48?
I really like working with Space 48 because both Jon and Tony are value driven. They believe in delivering value to their customers and in investing in their employees. Delivering results and pleasant human interactions go side by side.

Why is it beneficial for Magento agencies like Space 48 to invest in employee training around subjects such as Magento 2?
In order for Magento 2 projects to succeed, a solid understanding of the architecture and the tools is required. The level of complexity is quite a bit higher compared to Magento 1. Developer training is an investment in customer satisfaction, and also helps with developer retention in a highly competitive market.

We then caught up with some of our backend developers involved in the last workshop to ask them their thoughts on in-house training.

Why do you enjoy our in-house training with Magento experts such as Vinai, and do you find it beneficial when writing code in your everyday role?

Training is beneficial because, apart from learning the new techniques of working with Magento 2, we get pertinent answers to problems we’ve had during our day- to-day work. I enjoy learning from Vinai as he is able to explain complex processes in a simple and understandable way.
Andrei Bodeanschi (Technical Lead)

It’s interactive and fun, not to mention getting to develop with someone as experienced as Vinai turns any task into an opportunity to understand the underlying concepts of Magento.
Vlad Costin (Backend Developer)

One of the main points in the last training session was learning about the full page cache. We discussed how it works and what would be the best way to work with it. I especially enjoyed creating a real module to demonstrate and practice the concepts we discussed. The training with Vinai is really great as we get to learn all about the new changes with Magento, from one of the best developers around.
Raul Diaz Watson (Backend Developer)

Wrap up

We hope this exclusive interview with Vinai Kopp and some of our backend developers has given you a glimpse into the Space 48 training process. Head on over to our people page to find out more about our Technical Director (Tony Brown) and our Head of Development (Iain Hubbard).

If you have enjoyed this article, check out:
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An Interview With Vinai Kopp

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