Magento
Running Magento in PHP 5.4's built-in web server
Whilst this isn't a good idea for a production store, if you want to just experiment or develop locally, this works just fine. Instructions for Debian cat >> /etc/apt/sources.lst <<EOF deb https://packages.dotdeb.org squeeze-php54 all deb-src https://packages.dotdeb.org squeeze-php54 all EOF wget -qO - https://www.dotdeb.org/dotdeb.gpg | apt-key add - apt-get update apt-get install php5-cli php5-mysqlnd php5-mcrypt php5-common … Continue reading
Deconstructing the cache image path on Magento
Deconstructing the cache image path /media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/e/me-d1_2.jpg |___________________________|_|_____|________________________________|_|_|__________| | | | | | | | Cache Directory | | | | | | Mage/Catalog/Model/Product/Media/Config.php | | | | getBaseMediaPath() | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Store ID | | | | Mage::app()->getStore()->getId() | | … Continue reading
APC and Memcache with Magento
You need to understand the clear distinction between these two products to understand how to use them. APC is both an OPCode Cache and Fast Backend Memcache is just a Fast Backend Using APC as an OPCode Cache Simply install the module on your server pecl install apc And enable it in your php.ini echo … Continue reading
Multiple SOLR Cores for Magento on Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS/RedHat
On Debian/Ubuntu The most straightforward installation is pretty easy using tomcat and your package manager. The dependencies will be met automatically. apt-get install tomcat6 On CentOS/RedHat You need to grab some alternative repo's to make this possible Eg. rpm -Uvh https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/x86_64/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm rpm -Uhv https://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/x86_64/rpmforge/RPMS/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm rpm -Uvh https://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/x86_64/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm Then you can install the package from yum … Continue reading
Magento with Varnish
Is Varnish right for you? Varnish isn't the be-all and end-all of Magento performance. Its great to offset load from bots & window-shoppers - but it shouldn't be your first port of call to actually making your store faster. In fact, implementing Varnish should be the last performance modification to your store. Only drop it … Continue reading
The Best Magento Server Set Up
We recently came across an all-too-commonly asked question over at Stack Exchange - that was worthy of a lengthy answer on our blog. Our client we are currently working with has a requirement that first response from the web server must come in under 200ms in the UK. Currently under 2 dedicated web servers under … Continue reading
Magento Debug Process
Debugging is a bit of an art, but something that can easily be mastered by following a simple regimen. Follow each point until you finally reach a solution. Enable PHP Errors This is key to most issues. For security or other reasons, PHP error display could likely be disabled by default by your PHP configuration. … Continue reading
Magento MySQL Replication
We've got a fairly vast experience of MySQL clusters - and Percona have worked with us on a number of occasions when pushing the boundaries of complex configurations. Can Magento natively handle read-only slaves Magento is natively capable of splitting off reads/writes to different database servers (with the exception of a few broken releases, eg. … Continue reading
Our Magento Git Guide and Work Flow
We have long been advocates of using SVN - but times have changed and so has the style of the way we work - which is what makes Git such an appealing choice for us. So if you're coming from SVN too, some things worth knowing are: Repositories are de-centralised - With SVN, you have … Continue reading
Quicker Dumping of a Magento MySQL Database for Branching
Any experienced Magento developer will certainly have felt the pain of dumping a multi-gigabyte MySQL database for a Magento store. Which is certainly a tedious process when you want to make a quick branch or rapidly update your staging environment. We're big advocates of branch often and merge often - but this also means updating … Continue reading