Magento best practices

Magento Best Practices - 1/53 Meet Magento IT – March 5th-6th, 2015

Magento Best Practices“there are at least two ways of developing things in Magento

the best of which is usually the third”

- Alessandro Ronchi -


Magento Best Practices“there are at least two ways of developing things in Magento

the best of which is usually the third”


About me● Long term Magento Developer

– 6+ years full-time work on Magento– 2+ years MCD

● Active Community member – 10+ free extensions– PUG MoRe main founder and coordinator– Organizer of Mageday 2013 and 2014

http://www.magentocommerce.com/certification/directory/dev/6134/

https://github.com/aleron75/

http://more.grusp.org/

http://www.mageday.it/


About this talk

It's a dense technical talk:● mainly focused on Magento 1● some concepts are also valid for Magento 2● development experience required


About you

● Developers?● Programmers?● Coders?● What else?


Who we should aim to be

Software craftsmen

“Bad code can function but can bring an organization to its knees.”

“Craftsmanship comes from values that drive disciplines.” - R. Martin

“I’m just a good programmer with great habits.” - K. Beck

“Try to refactor code so that comment becomes superfluous.” - M. Fowler

http://www.cleancoder.com/

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Beck

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Fowler


Tools

There are a lot of tools which support and improve the

development process

“9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?” - The Joel Test

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html


Tools● Effective IDEs (PhpStorm, Zend Studio)● Magicento (for PhpStorm) by Enrique Piatti● Commerce Bug by Alan Storm● n98-magerun by Christian Münch● Modman by Colin Mollenhour● Composer by Jordi Boggiano● Ultimate Module Creator by Marius Strajeru● Magento Code Sniffer Coding Standard by Magento ECG● Magento Project Mess Detector by Fabrizio Branca● Judge by Netresearch App Factory● Triplecheck.io by Allan MacGregor

http://magicento.com/

http://store.pulsestorm.net/products/commerce-bug-2

https://github.com/netz98/n98-magerun

https://github.com/colinmollenhour/modman

https://getcomposer.org/

https://github.com/tzyganu/UMC1.9

https://github.com/magento-ecg/coding-standard

https://github.com/AOEpeople/mpmd

http://judge.nr-apps.com/

http://triplecheck.io/


Tools: n98-magerun

● De facto standard command line toolkit to work with Magento

● Is also very useful to automate deployment tasks

● Extensible via plugins● Available reference book by Alan Storm

https://leanpub.com/command-line-magento

https://leanpub.com/command-line-magento


Magento RuntimeWhy● to check code inside a full initialized

Magento application

How● Write a Module (slow)● Write a Shell Script (faster)● Use bash snippet (fastest)


Magento Runtime: Shell Script● Extend Mage_Shell_Abstract● Set proper store scopeprotected $_appCode = 'admin';

● Override _applyPhpVariables()● Load app area in _construct()

– Mage_Core_Model_App_Area::AREA_FRONTEND

– Mage_Core_Model_App_Area::AREA_ADMINHTML


Magento Runtime: bash snippet

<?php

if (isset($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'])) {

die('Permission denied.'); // Prevent HTTP access

}

set_time_limit(0); // Avoid any time limit

ini_set('memory_limit', 1); // Avoid any memory limit

require_once 'app/Mage.php'; // Include base class

Mage::setIsDeveloperMode(true); // Enable developer mode

umask(0); // Set the default file creation mask

Mage::app(); // Init application with default store


Magento Runtime: ready snippets

Customerhttps://gist.github.com/aleron75/190b25ea621c14a21d6b

Administratorhttps://gist.github.com/aleron75/9d6609e99153d19461f3

https://gist.github.com/aleron75/190b25ea621c14a21d6b

https://gist.github.com/aleron75/9d6609e99153d19461f3


Logging

Don't use static Mage::log()

A static method is a dependency:a hidden relation which increases coupling between classes


Logging: Log Adapter

/** @var Mage_Core_Model_Log_Adapter $logger */

$logger = Mage::getModel(

'core/log_adapter',

'my_log_file_name.log');

$logger>log("Hello World");


Logging: Log Adapter

Pros● No more Mage::log() dependency● Log file name specified once

Cons● Fixed severity for debug messages● Logs always - regardless of config


Logging: Logger Model

/** @since Version 1.8.x */

/** @var Mage_Core_Model_Logger $logger */

$logger = Mage::getModel('core/logger');

$logger>log("Hello World");

$logger>logException(new Exception('Error'));


Logging: Logger Model

Pros● No more Mage::log() dependency● No limitations on severity● Doesn't always force logs

Cons● Log file name specified always


Logging: custom

Implement only pros:● No more Mage::log() dependency● No limitations on severity● Doesn't always force logs● Log file name specified once


Logging: custom

Custom log wrapperhttps://github.com/aleron75/magelog

Monolog wrapperhttps://github.com/aleron75/magemonolog

https://github.com/aleron75/magelog

https://github.com/aleron75/magemonolog


Autoloading

Magento’s autoloader is registered at the very beginning of framework's bootstrap: it is difficult (not impossible) to extend

It's not natively PSR−0 compliant(PHP-FIG's birth follows Magento's)

http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-0/

http://www.php-fig.org/


The Magento-PSR-0-Autoloader extension registers an additional autoloader which gives the ability to include libraries adhering to PSR−0 Autoloading Standard (i.e.: Monolog)

Autoloading: enable PSR-0

https://github.com/magento-hackathon/Magento-PSR-0-Autoloader

https://github.com/Seldaek/monolog


Effective MVC

MVC is a good exampleof separation of concerns principle

That doesn't mean we don't have to pay attention to avoid messing up

things anyway


Effective MVC: Models

A Model is the entity which describes the problem we want to solve in terms

of states and business logic



● Keep Models simple and focused on a single concern

● Choose the least visibility scope for methods and declare classes final

● Prefer composition over inheritance (as far as possible)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_responsibility_principle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns

http://ocramius.github.io/blog/when-to-declare-classes-final/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_over_inheritance



Benefits of keeping Models simple:● fewer reasons to change● easier to upgrade● easier to test● clean interface● smaller method signatures


Effective MVC: Blocks & Templates

Blocks are responsible for presentation data logic

Templates are responsible for presentation logic


Effective MVC: Blocks & Templates

Prefer single points of definition:● No direct data/config access in Blocks;

use Models and Helpers instead● Delegate to children Blocks whenever possible

(i.e.: Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_Price)

● Templates should only interact with their Blocks● Enable cache on custom Blocks


Effective MVC: Controllers

“a Controller accepts input and converts it to commands for the Model

or View” - Wikipedia

Controllers manage application flow


Effective MVC: Controllers

● Check user input is well-formedi.e.: 16 digits required for a MasterCard number

● Don't perform business domain checksi.e.: whether a MasterCard number is authorized


Effective MVC: Helpers

They are not waste baskets :)● utility methods containers

(Core Helpers represent a very good example)

● shouldn't implement logic.For complex logic use service Models@see Mage_Sales_Model_Service_Quote


Working with Data

Adopting best practices can avoid unexpected performance downgrade or behaviour.

Simply put: write scalable code


Working with Data: EAV and Flat

● Flat is never used for EAV entities in Admin Panel

● load() method always performs joins on EAV tables

● Flat for EAV entities is only used for Collections (unless filtering on non-flat attributes)


Working with Data: Products

Don't try this at home: $products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')

>getCollection();

foreach ($products as $prod) {

$prod>load($prod>getId()); # doesn't scale!

echo $prod>getDescription();

}



The following code is better for scalability: $products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')

>getCollection()

>addAttributeToSelect(array('description'));

foreach ($products as $prod) {

echo $prod>getDescription();

}



Comparison table*:

Load type # queries # joins Time Memory

In loop 875 1072 ~4 sec ~7 MB

Outside loop 8 1 ~0.4 sec ~2.5 MB

* on a development machine with official sample data


Working with Data: Collection size

Comparison table*:

Count type Time Memory

count() ~0.966 sec ~25 MB

getSize() ~0.081 sec ~1.8 MB

* on a development machine with ~8000 products


Working with Data: iterate Collection

Iterating: non-scalable approach$products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')

>getCollection();

/** @var Mage_Catalog_Model_Product $product */

foreach ($products as $product) {

// do something lazy loading is triggered

}



Iterating: scalable approach$products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')

>getCollection();

/** @var array $productData */

foreach ($products>getData() as $productData) {

// do something

}



Iterating: alternative scalable approach$products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')

>getCollection();

/** @var Varien_Object $object */

while ($object = $products>fetchItem()) {

// do something

}



Comparison table*:

Fetch collection items Time Memory

standard ~1.913 sec ~25 MB

getData() ~0.017 sec ~1.3 MB

fetchItem() ~0.026 sec ~1.1 MB



Working with Data: save attribute value

The following code takes ~1.5 seconds to be executed on a development machine:

$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')

>load(<existing_product_id>);

$product

>setDataChanges(true) // force save

>save();



To save only some values a better approach is: $product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')

>load(<existing_product_id>)

>setName('New name')

>setDescription('New description')

>getResource()

>saveAttribute($product, 'name')

>saveAttribute($product, 'description');



Comparison table*:

Save method Time Memory

save() ~1.5 sec ~5 MB

saveAttribute() ~0.02 sec a few KB



Extending Magento

Never touch the core files!


Extending Magento: monkey patch

Monkey patches are a (non upgrade safe) way to change a core class without touching the original file by copying it from the core code pool to the local one.

Possible use cases:● patching the core● rapid prototyping


Extending Magento: rewrites

Rewrites are the first step towards extending Magento according to best practices.

Pros● upgrade safe

Cons● only one rewrite of same class → potential conflicts● not compliant with the open/closed principle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open/closed_principle


Extending Magento: events

Events represent the standard best way to extend other classes behaviour.

Pros● upgrade safe● no conflicts: multiple observers on same event

Cons● no event → no observer


Extending Magento: interceptors

Interceptors are a way to change the behavior of any public or protected method, by either executing code before or after that method.

They are native on Magento 2 but can be also added to Magento 1 thanks to: https://github.com/danslo/Danslo_Aop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interceptor_pattern

https://github.com/danslo/Danslo_Aop


Extending Magento: interceptorsPros● Upgrade safe● No conflicts● Any public/protected method can be

intercepted, no need of events

Cons● Logic can be injected only at the beginning or

at the end, not in the middle of a method


Conclusions● Use the best available tools

● Use runtime outside Magento modules

● Don't use Mage::log()

● Extending autoloading is possible and useful

● Write effective and solid MVC components

● Data: write scalable code

● Never touch the core, prefer events to rewrites, familiarize with interceptors


The Handbookhttps://leanpub.com/magebp

● If you liked this talk you'll love the e-book :)

● Special 25% discount code for you: mm15it

● Release date: ~June 2015

https://leanpub.com/magebp


Thank you!

QUESTIONS?

https://twitter.com/aleron75

https://github.com/aleron75

https://twitter.com/aleron75

https://github.com/aleron75

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