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Many of the advices in this guide require you to edit the php.ini file, found in your server's PHP install folder (not in PrestaShop's folder).

Not all host hosts will allow you to edit or even access this file, so contact your host if you cannot access it.

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The Mcrypt provides PHP with a hardened security layer, enable which enables the use of more hashing and cryptography algorithm.

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• Enable MySQL's cache (or ask your web host to do it for you), and give it a high value (for instance, 256M).
• Do not forget to put the $smarty->force_compile to "false" when in production mode, either via the smarty.inc.php file or the back-office.
• Whenever possible, use an opcode cache (or ask your web host to install one for you), in order to alleviate the server's processing load. PrestaShop is compatible with eAccelerator. Opcode means "operation code", and defines the compiled state of the dynamic files, which can be processed faster.

• If possible, split your static elements betweens different domains and sub-domains, in order to get parallel HTTP connexions. To put that in place, open the /config/defines.inc.phpfile and add these lines (adapted to your needs):

  Code Block
  html html
  if ( $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] != '127.0.0.1' ) { define( '_THEME_IMG_DIR_', 'http://img2.xxx.com/' ); define( '_THEME_CSS_DIR_', 'http://css.xxx.com/' ); define( '_THEME_JS_DIR_', 'http://js.xxx.com/' ); define( '_THEME_CAT_DIR_', 'http://img1.xxx.com/c/' ); define( '_THEME_PROD_DIR_', 'http://img1.xxx.com/p/' ); define( '_THEME_MANU_DIR_', 'http://img1.xxx.com/m/' ); define( '_PS_IMG_', 'http://img1.xxx.com/' ); define( '_PS_ADMIN_IMG_', 'http://img1.xxx.com/admin/' ); } else { define( '_THEME_IMG_DIR_', _THEMES_DIR_ . _THEME_NAME_ . '/img/' ); define( '_THEME_CSS_DIR_', _THEMES_DIR_ . _THEME_NAME_ . '/css/' ); define( '_THEME_JS_DIR_', _THEMES_DIR_ . _THEME_NAME_ . '/js/' ); define( '_THEME_CAT_DIR_', __PS_BASE_URI__ . 'img/c/' ); define( '_THEME_PROD_DIR_', __PS_BASE_URI__ . 'img/p/' ); define( '_THEME_MANU_DIR_', __PS_BASE_URI__ . 'img/m/' ); define( '_PS_IMG_', __PS_BASE_URI__ . 'img/' ); define( '_PS_ADMIN_IMG_', _PS_IMG_.'admin/' ); }

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PHP's Safe Mode is deprecated in the latest version of PHP, and should not be used anymore. For PrestaShop in particular, having the Safe Mode on enabled can render your payment modules useless.

Updates

Your applicationsapplication's PHP code is the only vulnerable path to your server. It is therefore strongly recommended to always update your server's applications: PHP, MySQL, Apache and any other application on which your website runs.

Nginx friendly URLs

Most of the server instructions in this page pertain to the Apache web server. But some of you might prefer to rely on the Nginx web server. PrestaShop works well with Nginx, but is not able to generate the correct redirection rules for its Friendly URLs.

Here are the direction you should put in your nginx.conf file in order to make friendly URLs work:

location /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/ {
  index /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/index.php;

  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/api/?(.*)$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/webservice/dispatcher.php?url=$1 last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$1$2.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$2/$1$2$3.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$2/$3/$1$2$3$4.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$1$2$3$4$5.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$1$2$3$4$5$6.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6  /$7/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$7/$8/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/c/([0-9]+)(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/c/$1$2.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/c/([a-zA-Z-]+)/[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/c/$1.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/([0-9]+)(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/img/c/$1$2.jpg last;
  try_files $uri $uri/ /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/index.php?$args;
}

Note that this example uses /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/ as the marker for PrestaShop folder. You must replace all instances of /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/ by the correct path to your installation of PrestaShop.

For instance, if PrestaShop is at the root of your of your server, replace /PRESTASHOP_FOLDER/ with simply / :

location / {
  index /index.php;

  rewrite ^/api/?(.*)$ /webservice/dispatcher.php?url=$1 last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$1$2.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$2/$1$2$3.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$2/$3/$1$2$3$4.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$1$2$3$4$5.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$1$2$3$4$5$6.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$7/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$7/$8/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/c/([0-9]+)(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/c/$1$2.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/c/([a-zA-Z-]+)/[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.jpg$ /img/c/$1.jpg last;
  rewrite ^/([0-9]+)(-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)/[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*.jpg$ /img/c/$1$2.jpg last;
  try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}

Miscellaneous

The PrestaShop file structure

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1. Put your shop in maintenance mode, so as to not lose new customers or orders while moving the data.
   Go to your back-office, and under the "Preference" tab, set the "Enable shop" option to "No".
2. Move your files
   1. Make a backup of all the files: connect to your FTP server, and copy all the files and folders to your local hard-drive.
   2. Transfer your files to your new host: Connect to the FTP server for your new host, and copy all the files and folders that you just downloaded to your local hard-drive, as is.
3. Move your data
   1. Make a backup of you database (a "dump"): connect to phpMyAdmin, click on the "Export" tab, select the database of your PrestaShop installation, and click the "Go" button. Save the downloaded file on your hard-drive. If phpMyAdmin times out before it is able to export all your data, contact your host.
   2. Transfer the SQL dump to the new database: connect to the new server's phpMyAdmin, click on the "Import" tab, click the "Browse..." button, find the SQL file you just downloaded, and click the "Go" button to upload it. If phpMyAdmin times out before it is able to import all your data, contact your new host.
4. Configuration
   1. On the new server, open the /config/settings.inc.phpfile and update the settings for the new database server (with your own settings instead of the examples here):
      • define('_DB_SERVER_', 'sql.domainname.com');
      • define('_DB_NAME_', 'prestashop');
      • define('_DB_USER_', 'PS-user');
      • define('_DB_PASSWD_', 'djsf15');
      • define('_DB_PREFIX_', 'ps_');
   2. (1.4 and earlier) In that same file, update the Base URI setting ('/' being the server root):
      • define('__PS_BASE_URI__', '/prestashop/');
   3. Log in to your Back Office, go to the "Preferences" tab, select the "SEO & URLs" sub-tab, and change the domain name to your new domain. Do the same for the SSL domain.
      In effect, this will update the "PS_SHOP_DOMAIN" and "PS_SHOP_DOMAIN_SSL" rows in the "ps_configuration" SQL table.
   4. In your back-office, go to the "Tools" tab, "Generators" sub-tab, and regenerate both the .htaccess and robots.txt files.
5. Connect to your new FTP server and delete everything except the index.phpfiles in the following folders:
   • /tools/smarty/cache
   • /tools/smarty/compile
   • /tools/smarty_v2/cache
   • /tools/smarty_v2/compile
6. Go to your back-office, and under the "Preference" tab, set the "Enable shop" option to "Yes".

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1. Put your shop in maintenance mode, so as to not lose new customers or orders will moving the data.
   Go to your back-office, and under the "Preference" tab, set the "Enable shop" option to "No".
2. Move your files
   1. Make a backup of all the files: connect to your FTP server, and copy all the files and folders to your local hard-drive.
   2. Transfer your files to your new host: Connect to the FTP server for your new host, and copy all the files and folders that you just downloaded to your local hard-drive, as is.
3. Configuration
   1. On the new server, open the /config/settings.inc.phpfile and update the settings for the new database server (with your own settings instead of the examples here):
      • define('_DB_SERVER_', 'sql.domainname.com');
      • define('_DB_NAME_', 'prestashop');
      • define('_DB_USER_', 'PS-user');
      • define('_DB_PASSWD_', 'djsf15');
      • define('_DB_PREFIX_', 'ps_');
   2. (1.4 and earlier) In that same file, update the Base URI setting ('/' being the server root):
      • define('__PS_BASE_URI__', '/prestashop/');
   3. Log in to your Back Office, go to the "Preferences" tab, select the "SEO & URLs" sub-tab, and change the domain name to your new domain. Do the same for the SSL domain.
      In effect, this will update the "PS_SHOP_DOMAIN" and "PS_SHOP_DOMAIN_SSL" rows in the "ps_configuration" SQL table.
   4. In your back-office, go to the "Tools" tab, "Generators" sub-tab, and regenerate both the .htaccess and robots.txt files.
4. Connect to your new FTP server and delete everything except the index.php files in the following folders:
   • /tools/smarty/cache
   • /tools/smarty/compile
   • /tools/smarty_v2/cache
   • /tools/smarty_v2/compile
5. Go to your back-office, and under the "Preference" tab, set the "Enable shop" option to "Yes".

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