Magento has automated log cleaning functionality built in, but it is not enabled by default. Here’s how to turn it on.

1. Firstly you need make sure Magento’s cron system is running.
   If you are unsure about this, see this article on setting up cron (scheduled tasks).
2. Once cron is enabled and running, simply enable log cleaning via the admin:

   System > Configuration > Advanced > System > Log Cleaning

As per the screenshot below, I like to save 1 days logs, and perform the cleaning at 4:00am each morning.

Magento stores it’s session files in var/session and I’ve seen too many Magento installations where the size of this directory has grown into the gigabytes. A quick browse of this directory should tell you whether you have a problem or not.

PHP has it’s own ‘garbage collection’ process for deleting old session files, but it’s disabled in Debian “due to the strict permissions on /var/lib/php5″
So, if you are using Debian then you’ll need to setup a simple cron script to do this garbage collection for you.

For this example, let’s say the path to your Magento installation is /path/to/magento and we want to delete session files over a week old.

1. Create a new file /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

   vi /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

2. Add the following 2 lines to the file

   #!/bin/sh
   find /path/to/magento/var/session -name 'sess_*' -type f -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;

3. Make sure the file is executable

   chmod u+x /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

4. Now add it to your crontab

   crontab -e

   and set it to run every day, let’s say at 3am

   0 3 * * *  /bin/sh /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

And we’re done.

Magento provides a shell script (cron.sh) which calls a PHP script (cron.php)
Both files are in the root directory of the Magento installation.
I like to bypass the shell script and run the PHP script directly, and I set it to run every 5 mins

To do this in Debian, you should open your crontab for editing:

crontab -e

Then add a crontab entry such as this (replacing with your path):

*/5 * * * * php -q /path/to/magento/cron.php

The default cron scheduling settings work fine for me but you can tweak them if you like to have more control:

System > Configuration > Advanced > System > Cron (Scheduled Tasks)

Note: A quick way to test your setup is to check the database table called cron_schedule. If cron is running, this table will have records in it. Remember to wait 5 mins after adding the crontab entry so it has a chance to run

In your admin go to:

Menu > System > Configuration > Sales > Checkout > Checkout Options

1. Set “Enable Terms and Conditions” to “Yes”
2. Click “Save Config”

Next, go to:

Menu > Sales > Terms and conditions

1. Click “Add New Condition”
2. Fill in the required fields
   • “Condition Name” is only shown in the admin so can be whatever you want.
   • Set “Status” to “Enabled”
   • Set “Show content as” to “HTML” if you want to stylize the content or have links
   • “Checkbox text” will be shown next to the checkbox, e.g. “I accept the terms and conditions”
   • “Content” will be shown in a scrolling text area above the checkbox. This could be your entire terms and conditions or a link to your terms and conditions page.
3. Click “Save Condition”

You’re all done. The terms and conditions text and checkbox will now show on the final step of the checkout. Customers will be required to check the checkbox before they can place an order.

A recent client of ours didn’t want the Wishlist feature to show up anywhere.. This includes the customer account sidebar, the product view and the category listing pages.

Rather than hunting through and editing templates, there’s a simple way to disable modules so they don’t display on your site.

In your admin, go to:

Menu > System > Configuration > Advanced > Advanced

Here you will see a list of all your installed modules:

1. Find the one you are after, e.g. Mage_Wishlist
2. Change the drop box to “Disable”
3. Click “Save Config”

And you’re all done. Too easy.

Enable logging in the admin:

Menu > System > Configuration > Advanced > Developer > Log Settings

Set “Enabled” to “Yes” and set the filename to whatever you want.
The log file will be written to the var/log/ directory.

Use Magento’s static method log() in your code:

Mage::log('hello');

Watch the logs:

tail -f var/log/system.log

Note: remember to disable loggging when you’re done so the log files don’t grow out of control.

1. Sign up for your Google Analytics account here:
   http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html
2. Make note of your Google Analytics account number,
   e.g. UA-xxxxxx-x
3. Go to your Magento admin and visit the following screen:
   System > Configuration > Sales > Google API
4. Expand the Google Analytics block, Enable and enter your Account Number

Sit back and watch those stats start rolling in..
Doesn’t get much simpler than that – cheers Mage and Goog

var _gaq = _gaq  || [];

Let’s use the following example scenario:
You want to add a drop box select element to ask the user ‘Where did you hear about us?’. The options will be: Google, Magazine, Word of Mouth, Other.

Update the Contact Us form template

Firstly you need to edit the contact form template.
If using the default theme, this code will be located in
/magento/app/design/frontend/base/default/template/contacts/form.phtml

Add the following markup to the template in the desired position:

<div class="input-box">
    <label for="where-hear"><?php echo Mage::helper('contacts')->__('Where did you hear about us?') ?> <span class="required">*</span></label><br />
    <select name="where-hear" id="where-hear" style="width:300px" class="required-entry">
        <option value="" selected>Please select...</option>
        <option value="Google">Google</option>
        <option value="Magazine">Magazine</option>
        <option value="Word of Mouth">Word of Mouth</option>
        <option value="Other">Other</option>
    </select>
</div>

Note the use of class=”required-entry” on the select element.. This tells the default javascript validation that this field is required. If the user tries to submit the form without choosing an option, then it will throw an error and highlight the field.

So that takes care of the form, now you need to set up a custom email template that includes the new field.

Create a custom transactional email template

Navigate to the following screen in your Magento admin:
System > Transactional Emails

1. Click Add New Template
2. In the top block (Load default template), select “Contact Form” from the drop box and click Load Template
3. In the Template Information block, set the Template Name to “Custom Contact Form”
4. In the Template Content field, add the following line where you want it to appear in the email:

   Where did you hear about us?: {{var data.where-hear}}

Assign the custom email template

Navigate to the following screen in your Magento admin:
System > Configuration > General > Contacts

In the Email Options block, set the Email Template to “Custom Contact Form”.

Click Save Config and you’re all done.

Adding a record to directory_country_region for a specified country_id will make that new entry show up in the State/Province drop box on the address forms. It will also make that a required field, so you need to make sure you add all the possible options.

You then need to add a corresponding record to directory_country_region_name, using the region_id generated when you inserted into directory_country_region. This entry will make the new region show up when a whole address is displayed on the screen or email, e.g. in an order summary.

Example: Add North and South Island to New Zealand

So let’s say that like me, you live in New Zealand and want to add 2 regions: North Island and South Island. The country id for New Zealand is NZ, the region code is a unique identifier so I’m going with NORTH and at the moment I’m only interested in the en_US locale.

First I will insert North Island into directory_country_region as follows:

INSERT INTO `directory_country_region` 
(`region_id`,`country_id`,`code`,`default_name`) 
VALUES (NULL,'NZ','NORTH','North Island');

Note the NULL entry for the region_id field which will auto_increment. I need to find out this new region_id for my next insert so I can either browse the table manually, or this query will do the trick:

SELECT * FROM `directory_country_region` 
WHERE `country_id`='NZ' AND`code`='NORTH' AND `default_name`='North Island';

In my case, the new region_id is 320, so with that I’ll now insert into directory_country_region_name as follows:

INSERT INTO `directory_country_region_name` 
(`locale`,`region_id`,`name`) 
VALUES ('en_US','320','North Island');

Now I just repeat those steps for South Island and I’m all set.

I’ve created some code below which automates this process, you just need to make sure Magento is properly initialised in your script and modify the variables at the top as necessary.. Enjoy!

// set up array containing regions to be added (region_code => region_name)
$new_regions = array(
	'NORTH' => "North Island",
	'SOUTH' => "South Island",
);
 
// specify country code for new regions
$country_code = 'NZ';
 
// specify locale
$locale = 'en_US';
 
// create our core_write conection object
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');
 
// iterate our new regions
foreach ($new_regions as $region_code => $region_name) {
 
	// insert region 
	$sql = "INSERT INTO `directory_country_region` (`region_id`,`country_id`,`code`,`default_name`) VALUES (NULL,?,?,?)";
	$connection->query($sql,array($country_code,$region_code,$region_name));
 
	// get new region id for next query
	$region_id = $connection->lastInsertId();
 
	// insert region name
	$sql = "INSERT INTO `directory_country_region_name` (`locale`,`region_id`,`name`) VALUES (?,?,?)";
	$connection->query($sql,array($locale,$region_id,$region_name));
}

Before running any the snippets in this article,
you’ll need to make sure Magento is initialised in your script

Magento Database Models

The best way to access and manipulate data in Magento is by using the provided objects and their associated functionality..
For example, you can get a Magento category model like this:

$model_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category');

With your category model you now retrieve data
e.g. get all child categories of category ID 2 and echo the name

$model_category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category');
foreach ($model_category->getCategories($id=2) as $category) {
	echo $category->getName();
}

Magento Helper Classes

Magento has helper classes which are pretty handy also.
For example, you can get a Magento category helper like this:

$helper = Mage::helper('catalog/category');

Your helper will have a bunch of methods defined for performing common tasks.
For example, you can get all your stores top level categories as follows:

$helper = Mage::helper('catalog/category');
foreach ($helper->getStoreCategories() as $category) {
	echo $category->getName();
}

Check this file to see what methods are available in the catalog category helper:
magento/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Category.php

Raw SQL Queries in Magento

That’s a VERY brief intro into using Magento’s models and helpers. They should serve your needs most of the time, but if you really need to deal with raw queries here’s how to do it.

Depending on what sort of operation you wish to perform (read or write) you will use one of the following to get a database connection object:

$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_read');
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');

These connections are essentially Zend database objects so you can run any of the methods defined here. Probably of most interest will be query(), fetchAll(), and fetchOne().

Write directly to a Magento database table

This example creates a core_write connection object, then directly inserts a row with raw SQL via the query() method.

// insert a new US State into the region table
$sql = "INSERT INTO `directory_country_region` (`region_id`,`country_id`,`code`,`default_name`) VALUES (NULL,'US','XX','New US State')";
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_write');
$connection->query($sql);

Read directly from a Magento database table

This example creates a core_read connection object, then uses the fetchAll() method to retrieve and iterate all the rows returned by a raw sql query.

// display all regions defined for the United States
$sql = "SELECT * FROM directory_country_region WHERE country_id='US'";
$connection = Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection('core_read');
foreach ($connection->fetchAll($sql) as $arr_row) {
	echo $arr_row['default_name'];
}