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.

Each of these steps are important, don't be tempted to skip!

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

1. Backup your database

• eg. using Magento's built-in backup system:
  • Head to SystemToolsBackups and click Database Backup

You'll see a popup option to 'Put store in Maintenance Mode?' : this will show the Magento Maintenance Page to site visitors. See section below for pros/cons.

• 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

Make sure you "Disable Foreign Key Constraints".

• With either method, test that you can restore a backup (eg. to a test blank db) before starting!

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 SystemToolsCompilation

4. Turn on Configuration Cache

In SystemCache Management enable Configuration Cache and disable the other caches.

• This can help avoid errors if Magento attempts to start the extension installation before all files are uploaded.

Maintenance Mode?

What is it?

• Magento has a built-in system to turn off the website frontend for visitors, and still allow admin access to the backend.

How to turn it on

• Just create an empty file in your Magento root with the filename maintenance.flag

Delete that file to turn off the Maintenance Mode.

• Before you do turn it on, make sure that you customise it to match your store (see section below).

Why would we do this?

Pros

You're about to backup the database:

• If there is any customer activity between making the backup and potentially restoring it, you'll lose that activity.
• This could include new orders.
  • If they are then issued an Order/Invoice ID, you then turn on the store and another customer makes an order (before you can manually enter the new order(s), then multiple people will have the same Order/Invoice ID, which can make accountants anxious, and customer support tricky.
  • You may lose track completely of those orders which arrived in between (or have to work them out via Payment Receipts, emails, etc).
• If your new extension involves database activity in the setup, if an order comes in halfway through, you could potentially include inconsistencies into the database.

Cons

• Your site is temporarily 'closed for business' and you may lose customers (if they don't come back later).
• It's harder for you to test any frontend changes that the new extension has made (as the frontend will also be locked out to you).
  • To enable frontend access for yourself (while still showing the Maintenance Page to other visitors) edit the index.php file:

Change :

if (file_exists($maintenanceFile)) {
    include_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/errors/503.php';
    exit;
}

To :

$this_ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$allowed_ips = array('127.0.0.1','111.22.33.44');
if (file_exists($maintenanceFile) && !in_array($this_ip, $allowed_ips)) {
    include_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/errors/503.php';
    exit;
}

and then edit the $allowed_ips section to match your own local IPs.

Customising the Maintenance Mode page in Magento

If you don't edit the look of your Maintenance Page, visitors to your site will see this pretty unexciting page: Importantly there is no immediate sign that it is even the correct store (no branding), that it is a problem that will be fixed (no ETA of site online), and if there is any way to contact you (no email or phone details). Let's customise this page! Have a quick look at what your site page looks like at the moment

• To show a custom Maintenance Page, edit the index.php file:

Change :

    include_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/errors/503.php';

To :

    include_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/errors/maintenance.html';

and then create and style that maintenance.html file.

Quick way to make a well-styled page: open your your home page html in a text editor and remove the nav bars and central content

• Make sure your Maintenance Page:
  • Is styled for your store, including your store logo, font, and general style.
  • Explains what is happening.
  • Gives a timeframe for completion.
  • Has a contact email/phone number.

Check 503 Header

• It's worth checking that your Maintenance Page has the correct 503 header set (before turning it on!).
• This ensures that visiting search engines see the correct status of "Temporarily Unavailable" to save you any ranking issues.
• Easy way to check the 503 header, is to visit that page in Firefox and inspect with Firebug (described in the Optimising Tools for Magento section).