Q. Explain how Magento loads and manipulates configuration information?
$this->loadBase(); //config.xml and local.xml
$this->loadModules(); //load all modules xml from app/etc/modules/ directory
$this->_loadDeclaredModules(); //load each modules xml file
$this->loadDb(); //load configuration from db
load data from core_config_data into our configuration:
1. We add data about websites (see core_website table)
2. We add data about stores for the existing websites (see core_store table)
3. We add data from core_config_data according to the scope
a. Create <default> block first
b. Then create <websites> block
c. And, finally – <stores>
d. Each iteration replaces data from more general area of the scope with more specific one