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Before downloading or installing anything, you need to provide a home for your PrestaShop online store. This means its files need to reside on a web server. You might have a web server of your own, but it is more likely that you have or will have your store hosted by an Internet hosting service (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_hosting_service), which provides you with an online home for a monthly or yearly fee.
If you 've have never had a web host, here are some that you can trust:
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There can be an issue with host-provided domain names: if you find yourself not satisfied with the host's service, you will want to switch to a better host. This means moving your files, data and domain name to that other host. The files and data are easy to move, but depending on the host, you might have a hard time getting your domain name back. Since they bought the domain name for you, technically the domain belongs to them, and they can either forbid you to transfer it to another host, or they can make you pay for it. And since the domain name is your brand and your address on the web, you must obey the web host's rules. That is why it is often recommended to get your domain name from an independent domain name registrar (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar). Technically, you can never buy a domain name; you can only rent it, most of the time for a yearly fee. This gives you the right to use that domain name, but as soon as you stop paying for it, it is not yours anymore and anyone can grab it for himself. So you pay for the registration of the domain name, but at least you are free to move to a better host at any time, for no supplementary fee: just change the domain name's DNS addresses, and within 24 hours the move is propagated to the world. |
If you 'd would rather get your domain name from an independent registrar, here are some that you can trust:
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More information is available for system administrators in the System Administrators Guide. Make sure to read it!
Tools
You will need two tools: a text editor, in order to edit text files, and a FTP client, in order to transfer files from your machine to your server and vice-versa.
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- Click the "New Site" button. A new entry is created in the site list. Give it a recognizable name.
- On the right side, in the "General" tab, enter the parameters your host provided you with: host, user, and password. You should not have to change the other default parameters, unless told so by your host.
- Once all the fields are properly filled, click the "Connect" button. This will both save your site in the list, and log you into your account, so that you can make sure everything works right.
If FileZilla doesn't does not suit you, here are a few other well-known FTP clients:
- Windows:
- CoreFTP: http://www.coreftp.com/
- WinSCP: http://winscp.net/
- SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/
- Mac OS X:
- Cyberduck: http://cyberduck.ch/
- Transmit: http://www.panic.com/transmit/
- Fetch: http://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/
- Unix/Linux:
- gFTP: http://gftp.seul.org/
- kasablanca: http://kasablanca.berlios.de/
- NcFTP: http://www.ncftp.com/ncftp/
Making a plan
You might want to know should decide right away were you'd rather where you want to host PrestaShop. There are four possibilities relating to your domain name:
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Note that thanks to the multistore feature, you can have as many stores as necessary with a single installation of PrestaShop 1.5, each with its own specific domain name if necessary. You should take that into account when deciding what goes where.
Whatever your plan, the default store will always reside where PrestaShop itself is located.
Installing PrestaShop
Finally, now that all the requirements are in place, you can you the installation guide: http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS15/Installing+PrestaShop.
Installing PrestaShop on your computer
You may wish to install PrestaShop on your local machine, either in order to test it before investing money in a server and domain name, or to customize your store locally before you push your modifications to the PrestaShop installation that would already you have online.
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Once you have checked that the package is correctly installed and that all of its parts are running, you need to find the root folder. That 's is the local folder where you will place your files, and can be compared to the root folder of your online server, only its content is accessed with http://127.0.0.1. The actual local location of the folder depends greatly on the AMP package, and can be customized:
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