Snowflakes Magento Extension

Dec 02, 2015 Extensions, Frontend, Magento 51 Comments

Back by popular demand – it’s Inchoo Snowflakes Magento extension! Revamped to behave nicely with responsive layouts, this extension will give your store a real holiday cheer, and bring smiles to your customers’ faces. Step by step installation and customization guide included.

This extension was brought to you originally back in December 2011 and we’ve seen plenty of stores using it. It was about time to make a full revamp, clean the code a bit and optimize it for new, responsive layouts most of you are proud to feature on your stores, right?

We decided to let you choose among many options – number, size, speed, color (just put in the hex code or even better – type the color name) and shape.

Hey, you can even put in a text to be displayed and act as snowflakes – so, you could have a store that’s literally raining “men” 😉

Installation

Step 1:
Simply download InchooSnowflakes.zip and extract files in your root folder.
If you are using a custom theme, copy the files in the appropriate theme folders.

Step 2:
Refresh your homepage. Log out of admin and log back in.

Step 3:
Enable Inchoo Snowflakes module in Admin (System -> Configuration -> Inchoo Snowflakes),
Select “Yes” in the dropdown menu to enable the extension.

Step 4:
Reload cache and let it snow! 😉

Customize

A quick handy guide to customizing the look and feel of your snowflakes:

  • Number – recommended 25 – 75 (too many snowflakes can slow down your site)
  • Color – edit color with Hex code or color name
  • Speed – recommended 1-5
  • Size – define minimum and maximum size
  • Symbol – ❄ ❅ ❆ – or put in any text you wish

Additional customizations
In xml file you can redefine where you want the snowflakes to appear.
Change handler etc. if you want them to show only on your homepage.

Path:

app/design/frontend/base/default/layout/inchoo/snowflakes/layout.xml

(or your theme folder).

Replace:

<default> ... </default>

with:

<cms_index_index> ... </cms_index_index>

Demo

Here is our demo page with snowflakes,
and Magento Demo shop – http://demo.inchoo4u.net/ (online only this month).

Screenshots

Configuration preview (Admin -> System -> Configuration -> Inchoo Snowflakes):
InchooSnowflakes1

Homepage Madison Island – desktop preview:
InchooSnowflakes2

Homepage Madison Island – smartphone preview:
InchooSnowflakes3

Download

Download the zip file here.

Compatibility

The extension has been tested on CE 1.9.x.x and backwards to 1.7.x versions and should work on older ones as well (no jQuery, strict by-the-book Magento work with Prototype) 🙂

But, as always – test it out on your development environment before pushing it to production – you know the drill.

Sharing is caring

Now that you’ve installed the extension, share some screenshots of what you played around with, I’m sure you’ll be very creative 🙂

Happy holidays everyone!
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 😉

About Matej Djakovic

Frontend Developer

Matej is a Frontend Developer who is passionate about Wordpress, Symfony 2 and Magento. He is also enthusiastic about sports and spends some of his free time for inline roller skating.

Read more posts by Matej / Visit Matej's profile

51 comments

  1. Hello, nice extension.
    I downloaded the zip file, I uploaded the folders to my server, but I can’t see the extension in Configuration.
    I’m using magento 1.8.1.0
    Thank you

    Reply

  2. This is great, thank you so much, Matej!
    One thing I did when it did not appear on Admin -> System -> configuration was to flush cache on admin page.

    Great extension, great job. Thank you so much. We hope to boost up sales with great winter atmosphere!

    Reply

  3. All works great on frontend but in System > Configuration > Inchoo Snowflakes it just returns a 404 Error

    Reply

  7. Hi,
    I unzipped the file and put it in the app folder on the server….I do not see the same on the configuration page in the backend and it also doesnt show up in the disable modules output in the advanced section too.. what am i doing wrong

    Reply

  9. Hello,
    first of all i would like to say thank you for updating this nice extension.
    I have installed your extension at our new testshop with magento 1.9.2.2 and Argento theme 1.7.1 and it works but i have the same issue like Andy (02-12-2015 at 20:14). Also your suggestion does not solve this issue. It slow down only the speed from top to buttom. But the issue is with the snowflake switching very fast from left to right.
    Thanks

    Reply

    2. Thanks foe fast answer. Now it works and i will install it at our liveshop today. Thank you again and i wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year 🙂

    3. Thanks, sorry for problems, I’m glad you like it and what you use on your live shop.
      I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
      ..let It Snow! 😉

    1. Thanks for the extension! I have it installed, but on my site the snowflakes move from side to side really fast. How would I slow it down?

    3. Hey Matej, thanks for the reply. But the speed in configuration is for vertical drop and the issue I’m having is with the side to side swaying. On my test site it is very jittery… As you can see here http://goo.gl/3cA6uL Any clue on how I can fix this would be appreciated!

    4. Hi Andy, you have javascript conflict, for some reason your snowflakes position are calculated in pixels. Need be in percentage, check our demo 🙂
      I checked your .js, and it’s different, I go now re-upload a new zip for download, please try with new js file from zip.
      Thanks!

  13. Nice extension! This works on every page, EXCEPT on the homepage. And I only want this to work on homepage. Any idea’s how to solve this? Thanks in advance! 🙂

    Reply

  15. Superb Effect…Made My Christmas…Must To Have For Christams Theme…Thanx And Hats Off To Developer

    Reply

  17. @Don V.
    Then I have some older version of code 😛
    Thanks for the confirmation that it’s working on newer versions of Magento.

    P.S. Nice idea with leaves! 🙂

    Reply

  20. @Don V.
    Changing handler 

    <default> ... </default>

    to 

    <cms_index_index> ... </cms_index_index>

    in
    app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/inchoo/snowflakes/layout.xml should display snowflakes only on homepage.

    Reply

  21. Davor Budimcic,
    Is there a way to modify your code so we have the option to only dipslay snowflakes on the home page?
    Thanks for your help!

    Reply

  23. @Matthijs
    You can disable/enable module(s) output in
    Admin > System > Configuration > Advanced > Disable Modules Output > Inchoo_Snowflakes
    😉

    Reply

  24. Great extension and easy install!

    Now just waiting for the holidays to come 🙂

    In the meantime I’ve disabled the “snow machine” by renaming the Inchoo_Snowflakes.xml to Inchoo_Snowflakes.xml.bk

    Is this the proper way to do this or is there a better way (via backend)?

    Thanks!

    Matthijs

    Reply

  27. oh! thank u so much.very nice work . But when i am accessing the config it gives an error 404 .

    Reply

  28. @Paul and Michael:
    Perhaps the question sounds stupid, but did you reload Magento Cache?

    Reply

  30. I guess you cooperated together with Google to let is snow 🙂 Actually, it looks amazing. Good job, it made me smile!

    Reply

  31. @Martin: Try to reduce number of snowflakes in configuration

    I’ll make some demo this evening and update the article.
    Thanks for the comments!

    Reply

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