Configuring Magento for development

New to the Magento or just used to doing things one way? Here are few tips for configuring Magento for development, in case you overlooked them. Please note, the more proper title of this article would be something like: Configuring Magento for development on local machine (after installation config). Meaning the tips outlined here only apply after the Magento is already installed.

Here are the steps that you should do in order to set your Magento more suited for development:

• System > Cache Management > Disable All
• System > Configuration > Advanced > Developer > Log Settings > Enabled => Yes
• System > Configuration > Web > Search Engine Optimization > Use Wbe Server Rewrites => Yes
• System > Index Management > Reindex All
• Open .htaccess and set: SetEnv MAGE_IS_DEVELOPER_MODE “true” at the end of the file
• Open .htaccess and set: php_value display_errors On somewhere within <IfModule mod_php5.c>
• Rename /errors/local.xml.sample to /errors/local.xml
• Create one sample customer with full valid American address (for example use US/California, city Alamo with ZIP 94507), and one with full valid non American address (other country) to test payment and shipping gateways properly
• Compensate for the possible lack of email server by doing something like explained in this article

Hope it helps.

Cheers.