MAGENTO CHANGE CAPTCHA BACKGROUND LINES AND DOTS DENSITY

I had to reduce the density of dots and lines in captcha because it was un readable sometimes.

so here what i did.

Go to:

lib/Zend/Captcha/Image.php

protected $_dotNoiseLevel = 10;

protected $_lineNoiseLevel = 0;

magento:IP SPECIFIC LANGUAGE

 First download currency switcher from   
 http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/auto-currency-switcher-8671.html  
 //CODE TO DISPLAY LANGUAGE ACCORDING TO IP ADDRESS  
  if(Mage::getConfig()->getModuleConfig('Chapagain_AutoCurrency')->is('active', 'true'))  
  {   
                $geoIp = Mage::helper('autocurrency')->loadGeoIp();  
                $ipAddress = Mage::helper('autocurrency')->getIpAddress();  
                // get country code from ip address  
                 $countryCode = geoip_country_code_by_addr($geoIp, $ipAddress);   
                 $germancountries=array('CH','DE');  
                if(!isset($_COOKIE['frontstoreloc']))   
                {   
                 //$siteurl= $this->getUrl();  
                 $siteurl= "http://".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];  
                      setcookie("frontstoreloc",session_id(),time()+60*60*24,"/","");  
                     switch(trim($countryCode))  
                     {  
                           case 'CH':  
                                    $url = $siteurl . '?___store=german';  
                                    header( 'Location:' . $url);die;  
                           break;  
                           case 'DE':  
                                         $url = $siteurl . '?___store=german';  
                                         header( 'Location:' . $url);die;  
                           break;  
                           case 'IN':  
                                     $url = $siteurl . '?___store=english';  
                                     header( 'Location:' . $url);die;  
                           break;  
                           default:  
                           $url = $siteurl . '?___store=usa';  
                                     header( 'Location:' . $url);die;  
                           break;  
                     }  
                 }  
            }  

MAGENTO GET STORE SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTE LABEL:

 <?php echo $_product->getResource()->getAttribute($_attribute->getAttributeId())->getStoreLabel();?>  

Magento error :Mage registry key "_singleton/core/resource" already exists

Please have a look to

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10793897/mage-registry-key-singleton-core-resource-already-exists-in-magento

Magento invoice pdf : display custom options in one line

open default.php
at path:

app/code/local/Mage/Sales/Model/Order/Pdf/Items/Invoice

//REPLACE THE LINES  one that starts with if ($options) {

        //foreach ($options as $option) { with the followin lines.

       

       $options = $this->getItemOptions();

    if ($options) {

        foreach ($options as $option) {

            if ($option['value']) {

                $_printValue = isset($option['print_value']) ? $option['print_value'] : strip_tags($option['value']);

                $values = explode(', ', $_printValue);

                foreach ($values as $value) {

                    $optlabel= Mage::helper('core/string')->str_split(strip_tags($option['label']), 70, true, true);

                    $optval = Mage::helper('core/string')->str_split($value, 50, true, true);

                    $lines[][] = array(

                        'text' => htmlspecialchars_decode ($optlabel[0]." : ".$optval[0]),

                        'feed' =>35

                    );

                }

            }

        }

    }

Cargowiz issue bd.addClass is not a function ext-tree.js (line 33)

Open file

js/extjs/ext-tree.js

Search for bd.className

Replace bd.addClass(cls);  by  bd.className+=cls;

firefox screen shot of the error:

Magento connect installation error Connection string is empty

Click on "settings" tab

And fill up "FTP Host","Ftp login","Ftp Password","Installation Path:"

Magento REMOVE CACHE INVALIDATION ERROR(THOUGH IT'S NOT A BUG ;))

YOU HAVE TO PUT CACHE CLEAR CODE SOME WHERE IN ADMIN PHTML FILE.

i put that code in head.phtml

file:

head.phtml

path:

app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/page

<?php

 try {

      Mage::app()->getCacheInstance()->cleanType('block_html');

  } catch (Exception $e) {

    // do something

    error_log($e->getMessage());

  }

 ?>

Pisc Euvat extension error

I was implementing this module https://support.pillwax.com/open-source/doku.php?id=magento:euvat

but got the below mentioned error

Column not found: 1054 Unknown column '_table_taxvat.value' in 'where clause'";i:1;s:7921:"#0


To resolve this i just removed the sql conditions like below in file Grid.php
at path: app/code/local/Pisc/Euvat/Block/Adminhtml/Customer/Invalidstatus

change the below lines
"(_table_taxvat.value IS NOT NULL AND (".$collection->getTable('euvat/vies_cache').".response LIKE '%valid=1;%') AND tax_class_id<>".$config->getTaxClass_EuBusiness()." AND tax_class_id<>".$config->getTaxClass_DefaultCountry().")".

to

"( (".$collection->getTable('euvat/vies_cache').".response LIKE '%valid=1;%') AND tax_class_id<>".$config->getTaxClass_EuBusiness()." AND tax_class_id<>".$config->getTaxClass_DefaultCountry().")".

As u can see i just removed the red colored line  "_table_taxvat.value IS NOT NULL AND" , just do the same for all occurance of that  line.

magento- Stock Status Index process is working now. Please try run this process later.

To remove this error first thing you have to do is to clear  the content of locks folder under var folder.

If this didn't solved your problem then check out the file permission of locks folder and change it to 777

magento remove index.php

go to admin panel, system->configuration->web section
Under "Search Engine Optimization" set value of "Use Web Server Rewrite" to "Yes"
Under "Secure" section set "Use Secure URLs in Frontend" to "Yes".

Now,
Add the following lines to your .htaccess file

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule> 

If your magento setup is under some folder like Clients/testsite then use followin lines

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /Clients/testsite/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /Clients/testsite/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

magento ecommerce google analytics

BELOW IS THE CODE THAT I USED IN MY PROJECT

File: success.phtml
path: app/design/frontend/default/mytheme/template/checkout

 <?php  
 $order1 = Mage::getModel('sales/order')->load(Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session')->getLastOrderId());   
 $subtotal = $order1->getSubtotal();  
 $order_id = $order1->getId(); //the id of the order  
 //$order->getIncrementId();//the increment id of the order  
 $gtotal = $order1->getGrandTotal();//grand total of the order   
 //echo "<pre />";  
 //print_r($order->getBillingAddress()->getData());  
 $address = $order1->getBillingAddress()->getData();  
 $city = $address['city'];  
 $state = $address['region'];  
 $country = $address['country_id'];  
 ?>  
 <script type="text/javascript">  
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];  
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-17916440-1']);  
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);  
  _gaq.push(['_addTrans',  
   '<?php echo $order_id; ?>',      // order ID - required  
   'steigerhoutstunter.nl', // affiliation or store name  
   '<?php echo $gtotal;?>',     // total - required  
   '0',      // tax  
   '0',       // shipping  
   '<?php echo $city;?>',    // city  
   '<?php echo $state;?>',   // state or province  
   '<?php echo $country;?>'       // country  
  ]);  
 <?php  
 $order_items = $order1->getAllItems();  
 $itemcount=count($order_items);  
 $name=array();  
 $unitPrice=array();  
 $sku=array();  
 $ids=array();  
 $qty=array();  
 foreach ($order_items as $key => $item)  
 {?>  
  _gaq.push(['_addItem',  
   '<?php echo $order_id; ?>',      // order ID - required  
   '<?php echo $item->getSku(); ?>',      // SKU/code - required  
   '<?php echo $item->getName(); ?>',    // product name  
   'category name',  // category or variation  
   '<?php echo $item->getPrice(); ?>',     // unit price - required  
   '<?php echo $item->getQtyToInvoice(); ?>'        // quantity - required  
  ]);  
 <?php   
 }  
 ?>  
   _gaq.push(['_trackTrans']); //submits transaction to the Analytics servers  
   (function() {  
   var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;  
   ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';  
   var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);  
  })();  
 </script>  

magento sage pay error: SagePay Payment Has Failed, Please Reload Checkout Page And Try Again. Your Card Has Not Been Charged

  Actually at my setup sagepay wasn't working with  firecheckout.

you have to buy the paid latest version of firecheckout in order to make it work with sagepay. 

I had downloaded latest verision of sagepay and had to impelement it on magento 1.7.0.1 , I used simulation mode.

Don't forget to make simulator account  in sage pay in order to use it in simulator mode.

Magento error "You cannot define a correlation name more than once"

solution:

This is a layered navigation error.

In your catalog.xml search for

"layer_view" . If you find two  occurences for this, then remove one that you don't need.

I commented the second one that I didn't needed and fixed the error.

<reference name="right">

             <block type="catalog/layer_view" name="catalog.leftnav" after="currency" template="catalog/layer/view.phtml"/>

         </reference>

<!--        <reference name="left">

            <block type="catalog/layer_view" name="catalog.leftnav" after="currency" template="catalog/layer/view.phtml"/>

        </reference>-->

Get payment code in event observer

 $paymentcode = $observer->getEvent()->getPayment()->getMethodInstance()->getCode();

magento get payment method in onepagecontroller.php

$params=$this->getRequest()->getParams();
$payment_method=$params['payment']['method'];

MAGENTO-REMOVE ALL ITEMS FROM THE CART

//THIS WORKED FINE FOR ME :)

$session= Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session');
$quote = $session->getQuote();
$cart = Mage::getModel('checkout/cart');
$cartItems = $cart->getItems();
foreach ($cartItems as $item)
{
   $quote->removeItem($item->getId())->save();
}

Get order id from page url

simple use this:

$orderId = (int) $this->getRequest()->getParam('order_id');

HCL Technologies magento interview questions

Recently my friends went for interview for magento developer profile at HCL, where they were asked several questions like below. I will keep updating this post regularly.

1.WHAT IS module conflicts?
Ans: when two modules override same controller then module conflict arises.

2. How can we remove module conflict?

Ans: http://www.magestore.com/blog/2011/12/21/magento-methods-to-resolve-the-module-conflicts-in-magento/

3.What is code pool?

 Ans: it is a concept to pull the code in magento structured format.

 magento

     |_app

         |_code

              |_community

              |_core

              |_local

              

              

              

4. Can we override Community Module?

Ans: yes we can override to the local.

5.What is Module conflict?

Ans: We install one module(Extension Conflict) to findout that Class which is Conflict. We have to written only one config file for both module.

6. Difference between javascript and jquery?

javascript: it is Client side scripting/programming language.

Jquery: Jquery is library buit in javascript.

7. Final Class && Abstract Class

Ans:Final Class: A Class which Can't be inherited by other class, that class is called final class.

You all knows that final class is inbuilt in java. But in C++ you have to create final class.Two types of Final class, you can create . One who want to create object of final class on Heap and other who wants to create object of Final class on stack.

=>It makes use of private constructor, virtual inheritance and friend class.

=>In place of priavte constructor, use private Destructor. Because Constructor can be overloaded and Destructor can'nt be overloaded.

8. why Interface used.?

9.can used Protected Class outside Function.?

10.CURL & Php.ini

11. .htaccss

12. database engine

13. Primary key and Unique Key

14. EAV Concept

15.what is mage regisry? How we register a variable?

Ans: http://blog.chapagain.com.np/magento-how-to-set-and-get-registry/

php code formattor for blogger

http://beta.phpformatter.com/

magento get admin form key

Here is how you can get admin form key in your frontend form. I used the admin form key to login from frontend to admin dashboard.

step1: create object

<?php $adminobj= new Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Template(); ?>

step2: I used the value in hidden field like below:

<input name="form_key" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $adminobj->getFormKey() ?>" />

magento login to admin from frontend error:404 error page not found

Hi,
I was trying to login to admin panel by using frontend login template.
Here is my form whose action post to admin login action.

<form action="http://www.mysite.com/bgsh/index.php/admin" method="post" id="customer-form">

I changed the action to :

action="http://www.mysite.com/bgsh/index.php/admin/admin"

and BINGO:

no error on login.(Did you noticed the double admin words in the action value?)

If you request, then i can explain and provide code in details how i manage to login from frontend using vendor credentials, and after logout redirected to the frontend in case the vendor is logged in from frontend.

setting session variable in php file outside magento structure

Hi,
today i was working on a project and i had to redirect user('vendor') to frontend from where he has logged in to the system.I already created user registration from frontend. Now i had to maintain session variable so that i can check whether the particular vendor was logged in from frontend. If so, he will be redirected to the frontend.

To store session variable i sent an ajax hit to  http://www.mywebsite.com/setSessionVar.php  file. As you can see that file is situated in root directory.

setSessionVar.php


<?php
require 'app/Mage.php';
Mage::app();
Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name' => 'adminhtml'));

 Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->setMyloginvalue('vendor');

 ?>


To redirect to frontend i  put a check when user click on "logout" link in the dashboard area.
i.e. in file IndexController.php under
/app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/controllers

public function logoutAction()
 {
    //GET LOGIN TYPE  . if vendor loggedin from frontend then it's "vendor"
$loginvalue=Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->getMyloginvalue();
 if($loginvalue=="vendor")
   {
 Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->unsMyloginvalue();
 $location=Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_WEB);
 header("location:$location");exit;
}
  //END VENDOR LOGIN CHECK
              //....rest of the code here
            //....
  }

get agent status in zopim using javascript

I implemented zopim in a site and had to change class of a div according to the current agent's status.

 <div class="chatbox"   onclick="$zopim.livechat.window.toggle();">sow chat</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
//YOUR ZOPIM SCRIPT HERE
</script>

$zopim(function() {

    $zopim.livechat
      .setOnStatus(updateStatus);
    });

//updatestatus function
 function updateStatus(s) //NOTICE  "s" here it contains agent's current status
  {
  
      switch(s)
      {
        case 'online':
            jQuery('.chatbox').addClass('online');
        break;
        case 'offline':
            jQuery('.chatbox').removeClass('online');
        break;
        case 'away':
            jQuery('.chatbox').removeClass('online').addClass('away');
        break;
  }

Calendar._MN is undefined magento

Today i was implementing caledar feature in frontend. I have included all the required js and css file for that.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.beds.sg/v2/js/calendar/calendar-win2k-1.css" />

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.beds.sg/v2/js/calendar/calendar.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.beds.sg/v2/js/calendar/calendar-setup.js"></script>

Still it was showing this error."Calendar._MN is undefined"
After some R&D i found out that i missed to include some javascript that is necessary for calendar to work.
I just included following lined on the page and it begins to work smoothly.

<script type="text/javascript">

//<![CDATA[

enUS = {"m":{"wide":["January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"abbr":["Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"]}}; // en_US locale reference

Calendar._DN = ["Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday"]; // full day names

Calendar._SDN = ["Sun","Mon","Tue","Wed","Thu","Fri","Sat"]; // short day names

Calendar._FD = 0; // First day of the week. "0" means display Sunday first, "1" means display Monday first, etc.

Calendar._MN = ["January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"]; // full month names

Calendar._SMN = ["Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"]; // short month names

Calendar._am = "AM"; // am/pm

Calendar._pm = "PM";

// tooltips

Calendar._TT = {};

Calendar._TT["INFO"] = "About the calendar";

Calendar._TT["ABOUT"] =

"DHTML Date/Time Selector\n" +

"(c) dynarch.com 2002-2005 / Author: Mihai Bazon\n" +

"For latest version visit: http://www.dynarch.com/projects/calendar/\n" +

"Distributed under GNU LGPL. See http://gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html for details." +

"\n\n" +

"Date selection:\n" +

"- Use the \xab, \xbb buttons to select year\n" +

"- Use the " + String.fromCharCode(0x2039) + ", " + String.fromCharCode(0x203a) + " buttons to select month\n" +

"- Hold mouse button on any of the above buttons for faster selection.";

Calendar._TT["ABOUT_TIME"] = "\n\n" +

"Time selection:\n" +

"- Click on any of the time parts to increase it\n" +

"- or Shift-click to decrease it\n" +

"- or click and drag for faster selection.";

Calendar._TT["PREV_YEAR"] = "Prev. year (hold for menu)";

Calendar._TT["PREV_MONTH"] = "Prev. month (hold for menu)";

Calendar._TT["GO_TODAY"] = "Go Today";

Calendar._TT["NEXT_MONTH"] = "Next month (hold for menu)";

Calendar._TT["NEXT_YEAR"] = "Next year (hold for menu)";

Calendar._TT["SEL_DATE"] = "Select date";

Calendar._TT["DRAG_TO_MOVE"] = "Drag to move";

Calendar._TT["PART_TODAY"] = ' (' + "Today" + ')';

// the following is to inform that "%s" is to be the first day of week

Calendar._TT["DAY_FIRST"] = "Display %s first";

// This may be locale-dependent. It specifies the week-end days, as an array

// of comma-separated numbers. The numbers are from 0 to 6: 0 means Sunday, 1

// means Monday, etc.

Calendar._TT["WEEKEND"] = "0,6";

Calendar._TT["CLOSE"] = "Close";

Calendar._TT["TODAY"] = "Today";

Calendar._TT["TIME_PART"] = "(Shift-)Click or drag to change value";

// date formats

Calendar._TT["DEF_DATE_FORMAT"] = "%b %e, %Y";

Calendar._TT["TT_DATE_FORMAT"] = "%B %e, %Y";

Calendar._TT["WK"] = "Week";

Calendar._TT["TIME"] = "Time:";

CalendarDateObject._LOCAL_TIMZEONE_OFFSET_SECONDS = -28800;

CalendarDateObject._SERVER_TIMZEONE_SECONDS = 1333496531;

//]]>

</script>

USING SPECIAL CHARACTERS IN MAGENTO EMAIL TEMAPLATES

It took me quite a few hours to figure out that email templates does not support special characters ,
So i replaced special characters in all phtml file with the corresponding character code.

You can find all character code in the below mentioned site.

http://www.utexas.edu/learn/html/spchar.html

Magento cron jobs and cron scripts

http://fishpig.co.uk/magento-tutorials/magento-cron-jobs 


http://inchoo.net/ecommerce/magento/creating-cron-script-in-magento/ 

Magento Add to Cart via Ajax

http://www.excellencemagentoblog.com/magento-add-product-to-cart-ajax 

magento:set custom theme for a particular page

We can set custom theme for a particular page in magento by adding following code in the corresponding controller:

In the example below i have applied  custom theme for subscribe action, You can apply to your action e.g. indexAction,checkoutAction..etc.

 public function subscribeAction()  

   {
          ..

          ..

 

              Mage::getDesign()->setTheme('fYour theme name');   /* Now you know the secret */               
               $this->loadLayout();                        
               $this->renderLayout();

       }

magento get store email address and name code

$frm_name = Mage::getStoreConfig('trans_email/ident_general/name'); //fetch sender name in Admin
$frm_email = Mage::getStoreConfig('trans_email/ident_general/email'); //fetch sender email Admin

REMOVING FACEBOOK COMMENT PLUGIN WARNING

My problem solved by adding a forward slash "/" in href attribute value.

<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script>

<fb:comments href="http:www.mywebsiteurl.com/xyz/prodcuct.phtml/"  width="670" ></fb:comments>

REMOVING ERROR: llegal scheme supplied, only alphanumeric characters are permitted

HI, this error occured when i was installing magento 1.6 on the server. But the solution in the following post worked for me like charm.
All you have to do is
step1: clean your  cache i.e. var/cache folder

step2: clean browser cookies

step3: download the attachment in the following post and upload the folder to your server.That's all.

http://www.danneh.org/2011/11/bug-magento-1-6-1-0-affecting-development-sites-base_url/ 

CREATING NEW TAB IN MAGENTO ADMIN

Please refer to  the Article

http://khusyalsingh.blogspot.in/2012/03/create-own-tabs-to-magento-product.html

MAGENTO set default zoom level in unirgy store locator

This will work in case of unirgy store locator, if you have already  configured store locator and the map is successfully displaying store location.

You have to make small change in map.phtml

Here are the steps:



1.Go to frontend/default/default/template/unirgy/storelocator

2.In function searchLocationsNear() you will see  map.setCenter(bounds.getCenter(), map.getBoundsZoomLevel(bounds));

3.just change  map.setCenter(bounds.getCenter(), map.getBoundsZoomLevel(bounds)); 
                          To  
map.setCenter(bounds.getCenter(), map.getBoundsZoomLevel(bounds)-5);  //I used 5 here , you can user any no. u want acording to the zoom level.

MAGENTO GENERATE COUNTRY DROPDOWN

please refer to the site below

click here

Prototype document.ready equivalent

 Event.observe(window, 'load', function() { 

 //do your stuff here

});

MAGENTO SET SUCCESS MESSAGE

Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session')->addSuccess("Your Event has been created successfully!");

 

GET CKEDITOR VALUE JQUERY

   jQuery("#cke_contents_comments iframe").contents().find("body").text();

In my case the textarea id was comments so i have used #cke_contents_comments

jQuery restrict upload file types

  var  ExtensionList = ['jpeg', 'jpg', 'png', 'gif', 'bmp'];

           jQuery("#file").change(function () {

               if (jQuery.inArray(jQuery(this).val().split('.').pop().toLowerCase(),  ExtensionList  ) == -1) {

                   alert("Only \'jpeg\', \'jpg\', \'png\', \'gif\', \'bmp\' are allowed.");
  jQuery(this).val('');

               }
               });

SET DEFAULT STORE VIEW FOR CATEGORY AND PRODUCT LIST IN ADMIN MAGENTO

adminhtml/default/default/template/store/switcher.phtml

CHANGE  THE FOLLOWING LINE OF  CODE

<option value="<?php echo $store->getId() ?>"<?php if($this->getStoreId() == $store->getId()): ?> selected="selected"<?php endif; ?>>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<?php echo $store->getName() ?></option>

TO


<option value="<?php echo $store->getId() ?>"<?php if($this->getStoreId() == $store->getId()): ?> selected="selected"<?php elseif($store->getId()==4):echo "selected='selected'"; endif; ?>>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<?php echo $store->getName() ?></option>

PROTOTYPE /JQUERY CONFLICT IN MAGENTO.

  To rectify the error just open the jquery’s js file ,scroll down to bottom and write
  jQuery.noConflict();
 at the end of file.

REMOVE WARNING : event.layerX and event.layerY are broken and deprecated in WebKit. They will be removed from the engine in the near future.

Use the following code:

jQuery(function(){

    // remove layerX and layerY

    var all = jQuery.event.props,

        len = all.length,

        res = [];

    while (len--) {

      var el = all[len];

      if (el != 'layerX' && el != 'layerY') res.push(el);

    }

    jQuery.event.props = res;

}());

CHANGE LANGUAGE DROPDOWN INTO LINKS MAGENTO

GOTO: /app/design/frontend/*/template/page/switch   

There You will find languages.phtml


Replace the code with:


<?php if(count($this->getStores())>1): ?>
<div class="form-language cls-lang">
  <ul class='cls-ul-lang'>
<?php foreach ($this->getStores() as $_lang): ?>
        <?php $_selected = ($_lang->getId() == $this->getCurrentStoreId()) ? ' selected="selected"' : '' ?>
       <li>
  <a href="<?php echo $_lang->getCurrentUrl() ?>"><img src="<?php echo $this->getSkinUrl('images/flags/' . $this->htmlEscape($_lang->getCode()) . '.jpg') ?>" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_lang->getName()) ?>"/></a>
  </li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
    </ul>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>




Now in the frontend you will see links instead of dropdown.
upload images for the links in the path by inspecting those links.


create flags folder under
/skin/frontend/base/default/images/
and upload images there

Removing cart from magento home page

Please visit the site below for this.

http://anasabdullatheef.com/magento/how-to-remove-mini-cart-from-magento-home-page/

Using toplinks in footer or in any phtml file

 <?=$this->getLayout()->getBlock('top.links')->toHtml()?>