Magento Request - Frontend or Backend?

Question

How can I tell if the current request is for a backend or frontend page? This check will be done inside an observer, so I do have access to the request object if that helps

Answer 1

Have a look at the methods inside Mage/Core/Model/Store.php you'll want to use:

Mage::app()->getStore()->isAdmin()

In conjunction with

Mage::getDesign()->getArea() == 'adminhtml'

To act as a fallback where the store ID isn't set as you expect (Magento connect etc.)