Installing Magento Extensions : Pre-install Checklist

We spend a lot of time testing our extensions on fresh installs of Magento. However, there are a lot of different ways to setup, customize, and add-on to Magento, which can cause new issues - please follow this checklist before starting your install, to safeguard your site.

• You should do this before *every* extension install (not just ours!).

1. Backup your database
   • eg. using the command line (changing [bracketed words] to match your setup):
     • Make a backup of your database: mysqldump -u [database user] -p [database name] > db_backup_[todays date].sql
     • Restore from backup: mysql -u [database user] -p [database name] < db_backup_[todays date].sql
   • eg. using phypMyAdmin:
     • Export/Import your Magento database
   • With either method, test that you can restore a backup (eg. to a test blank db) before starting, if you haven't previously!
2. Backup your /app folder
   • this is the fastest way to fully revert if you need to
   • easiest to put it next to your current /app folder (e.g. 'app_bkp'), that way you only need to rename the two folders to revert
3. If you have compilation enabled for your site, disable it
   • if you're not sure if you have this turned on, check (System > Tools > Compilation).