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  • Discovering the Administration Area

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Info

The design of the administration area has been partially revamped with version 1.7 of PrestaShop in order to be more intuitive and ergonomic (like the module page and product page for examplepages). The navigation and main menu have also been changed compare compared to 1.6: while the features are the same, you might find it difficult to locate pages as you used to, at first.

The purpose of this redesign is, of course, to make it easier for merchants to manage their shop.

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Take the time to review the Dashboard – that is, the first page you see when logging into your back office. Not only does it present you with a summary of everything you need to know about your shop at any given time, along with quick links to the main action page, but as a first-timer in PrestaShop, it also gives you tips about what you should have a look at.

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The top bar

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At the top of the back office is a white bar containing a handful of information and links:

  • The PrestaShop logo, following the version.
  • Quick Access. This is the quick links menu, presenting the most useful links. You can customize it by clicking on "Manage quick accesses".
  • Search field with dropdown list. Enables you to search within the content of your shop.
  • Debug mode (optional). If you set your shop in Debug mode, an icon will be displayed to remind you it is enabled.
  • "Shop name" linkView my shop. Opens a new browser tab with your shop's front-end.
  • Bell icon and number. Indicates the number of new notifications, which by default will show you the last orders.
    • Orders. Opens a panel presenting the new orders since you last clicked that icon. From there on, you can either display one of the new orders , or go to the list of orders.
    • Customers. Opens a panel presenting the last registered customers. From there on, you can either display one of the new customers , or go to the list of customers.
    • Messages. Opens a panel presenting the last customer service message. From there on, you can either display one of the new messages , or go to the list of messages.
  • Personal menu with your profile picture. A simple dropdown panel with a reminder of the administrative account with which you are currently logged-in. It contains the following links:
    • "My preferencesYour profile" link. Takes you to your account's preferences page, where you can set some personal options (for instance, the language of your back office or your password).
    • "Sign out" link. Logs you out of the current user account.

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  • Dashboard. The homepage of your back office, where you can see the main statistics, live.

Sell

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It’s all about your day-to-day activity. Orders, customers, catalog, etc. This section presents the essence of your business, where you go each day to get your business going.

  • Orders. Once clients start adding products in their shopping carts, you will see orders in on this menu, with the resulting invoices. This is also where you handle  credit credit slips and abandoned carts, among other things.
  • Catalog. This is the heart of your shop, where you will add products, create categories, set up carriers and suppliers, define discounts etc.
  • Customers. Here you can access all the information about your clients, and edit their addresses.
  • Customer service. Where you handle customer service and anything post-purchase: merchandise returns, per-order customer service, etc.
  • Stats. This menu gives you access to all the numerous statistics and graphics that are gathered and generated by PrestaShop.

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  • Modules. Extend the power and usefulness of your shop by adding and activating modules: more than a hundred are available by default, and many more are available to buy on the the Addons marketplace (http://addons.prestashop.com/). 
  • Design. This is where you handle themes, and where you can position the blocks of content from your module on the theme. More generally this is where you can modify the look of your shop.
  • Shipping. Everything pertaining to carriers and shipping costs.
  • Payment. Select which payment methods are available on your shop and apply global settings to payment modules.
  • International. Helps you customize your shop with local values, such as language and translation, currency, units, taxes and tax rules, and geographical entities (regions, countries, etc.).

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  • Shop Parameters. PrestaShop is a very configurable e-commerce solution, and you can edit just about any of its behaviors using these full-featured preferences.
  • Advanced Parameters. This menu contains links to tools and informational pages that are too specific to fit in other menus, such as the Web service settings, the database backup tool, or the performance page, among others. This is also where are the settings pertaining to the back office itself; for instance, the content of the employee list and permissions.
  • Administration

These are the default menus. Note that modules can add new options to the existing pages, new pages to the existing menus, and even new menus. Some of these menus are further divided into pages with tabs to present you with the variety of features available in PrestaShop.

Also, one menu is only available when the proper option is set:

  • Stock. This menu gives you access to stock management feature, where you can handle warehouses, stock movement and supply orders.
    It can be made available through the "Products" preference page: simply activate the "Enable advanced stock management" option (in the "Products stock" section) and save your change to see the menu appear.

All the default standard menus are explained in depth in this user guide.

The buttons

Many of the back-end pages use recurring buttons, either at the top or at the bottom of the screen. For instance, the product edition page can have up to 8 buttons available at the same time.

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Data tables (lists of products, of categories, of customers, etc.) have their own set of buttons to manage the listed items:

 

  • Add new. Creates a new item in the current context.
  • Export. Downloads a CSV file of all the items.
  • Import. Sends you to the CSV Import option page, from where you can import your CSV files.
  • Refresh List. Reloads the list of items to display the latest changes.
  • Show SQL Query. Provides the SQL query to reproduce your search or filter in your own SQL manager.
  • Export to SQL Manager. Opens PrestaShop's SQL Manager tool (in the "Advanced Parameters") menu, from which you can query PrestaShop's database with SQL statements ("SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE ...").
    If your list of items was filtered (by name, for instance), then the default SQL statement will take this into account (for instance, "WHERE 1  AND b.`name` LIKE '%blouse%'" for product list).

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Another click on the "Help" button closes the contextual help. If you do not close the help column, PrestaShop understands that you want it displayed on every page of the back office , and thus will maintain the column open until you have clicked to close it.

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At the bottom of the help column, a small form enables you to tell the PrestaShop team whether the help section has been helpful to you or not. Rate the help page by clicking on one of the 5 five levels of satisfaction. If you click on one of the two lowest levels, PrestaShop will open a short form allowing to detail your thoughts? You can either fill it and click on the "Submit" button, or close the form by clicking on the cross, in which case only your rating will be sent to our server.

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Dashboard

Let's now explore the content of the Dashboard dashboard itself. It can feel crowded to a first-time user, but you will find that it gives an excellent summary of your shop's daily activities at a glance.

The Dashboard dashboard is divided into 4 main areas: a horizontal bar, and three columns.

Note
titleDemo mode

By default, the Dashboard dashboard uses fake data so that you can better visualize what the various stats are for.

When using PrestaShop for a real online store, you must disable this fake data so that your real data is used: deactivate the "Demo mode" option at the top right of the screen, next to the "Help" icon.

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You can also compare two periods of time together by checking the "Compare To" box. Select the second period as would do for the first one (the two can even overlap), then click on the "Apply" button. 
When comparing two periods, some of the content blocks will update to indicate the evolution of the data (see for instance the main "Dashboard" block, which presents data from the Dashboard Trends module).

The left column

Image RemovedThe left column is divided into two parts: the tips & updates part and the activity overview.

First, the Addons Connect module allows is a very important tool because keeping you Addons account connected helps to keep all your shop’s modules up-to-date. In addition, this module displays a weekly tip at the top left side of your back office dashboard. Your business is constantly evolving, and PrestaShop evolves alongside you!

Also, this column Image AddedThis column presents you with data from the Dashboard Activity module, which gives the main figures from your database in a quick glance:

  • Online visitors in the last 30 minutes.
  • Active shopping carts in the last 30 minutes.
  • Currently pending orders, return/exchange inquiries, abandoned carts and out of stock products.
  • Notifications for new messages, order inquiries, and product reviews.
  • New customers and new newsletter subscriptions.
  • Traffic statistics: visits, unique visitors, traffic sources and direct links.

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The central column is where the term "dashboard" takes its importance: this area of the Dashboard dashboard presents the user (you) with the most important numbers pertaining to his shop's daily activities, along with a graph of sales and a list of the latest orders. Every time you log into your shop's administration area, you will be first and foremost looking at the evolution that these numbers take. This is where you see your shop live and breathe.

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  • Dashboard (Dashboard Trends module). This is the main block of information on the dashboard. With its various graphics, it really helps you see if your shop is headed in the right direction or not. Click on one of the graphic type types to display it. Additionally, when comparing two time periods, it displays the evolution of each figure in percentages. Hover the graphic with your mouse to see the details.


    Clicking on its configuration icon (top right) open a new page where you can set various expenses that your shop has (bank wire fee, average shipping fee, hosting expenses, etc.), in order to better indicate your trends.
  • Your Forecast (Dashboard Goals module). This block presents you with the goals you have for the coming months, and how your shop is doing as compared to them. Hover the graphic with your mouse to see the details.

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