Magento

Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform that provides online merchants with a flexible shopping cart system, as well as control over the look, content, and functionality of their online store. Noted for its powerful marketing, search engine optimization, and catalog-management tools, it’s a common choice for online businesses.

Introduced in 2008 by Varien Inc., it quickly became a popular platform due to its feature-rich and open architecture. Magento uses the PHP programming language and elements from the Zend Framework. In terms of databases, it can be configured to use either MySQL or MariaDB.

CREATE DATABASE magento;
GRANT ALL ON magento.* TO 'magento'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

The domain model of Magento is based on Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) model. This EAV model architecture allows Magento to be highly flexible when it comes to customizing data.

$product = \Magento\Framework\App\ObjectManager::getInstance();
$product->create('\Magento\Catalog\Model\Product')->load($id);  

Routing for Magento is primarily handled by the Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Standard class. Magento’s default routing pattern looks like: [frontname]/[controller]/[action].

public function match(Zend_Controller_Request_Http $request)
{
    //logic for router match
}

One highlight of Magento is that it’s a very SEO-friendly platform. It has built-in SEO features like SEO-friendly URLs, sitemaps, layered navigation, URL rewrites, meta tags, descriptions, and so on.

Its other key feature is Magento’s inherent support for extensions and modules. This allows developers to extend its functionality far beyond its core offering. Whether developing shipping methods, payment methods, or managing inventory, these modules can make Magento incredibly dynamic.

class Company_Module_Model_Shipping_Carrier extends Mage_Shipping_Model_Carrier_Abstract implements Mage_Shipping_Model_Carrier_Interface
{
    //Module's specific code goes here
}

Choosing Magento for your eCommerce platform requires realistic expectations and resources. While it’s high capabilities cater to the needs of large-scale online stores, this also means that it’s not the easiest platform to manage. It’s highly recommended to have a dedicated team of Magento-trained developers if you plan to implement this platform.

In conclusion, Magento stands out as a robust, enterprise-grade eCommerce solution. With its flexibility, extensive range of features and high level of control provided to administrators, it is no surprise that it is the preferred choice for many developers and eCommerce business owners alike.