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Info

If you need to download any of the previous versions, go to this address: http://www.prestashop.com/en/developers-versions. Scroll down to the "Previously released versions" section.

Note that it is never recommended to use any other version than the current stable one.

Click on the "Download now" button, and save the archive on your computer (such as on your Desktop). You should get a file named "prestashop_1.5.34.zip" (or an equivalent, depending on the version numbers).

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Using a Zip tool, extract the content of the archive to a known location on your hard-drive (such as on the Desktop again). Do not upload the Zip file directly to your server.

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Since version 1.5.4, the Zip archive has two items at its root:

  • The "prestashop" folder, which contains the PrestaShop files that you are about to upload to your web server.
  • The "Install_PrestaShop.html" file, which opens the current "Installing PrestaShop" page in your default web browser.

The HTML files should not be uploaded on your web server.

Uploading PrestaShop

You should now have a hosting space at your disposal (if not, read the "What you need to get started" chapter of this guide), and a folder on your hard-drive with the uncompressed PrestaShop archive.

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In FileZilla (or any other FTP client), browse your local folders until you find the one that contains the PrestaShop files. Keep it open in the "Local site" section on the left.

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In the "Remote site" section (on the right), browse to the location where you want PrestaShop to be publicly available (root of the domain, sub-folder, sub-domain...). This can change a lot, depending on both your host and your needs:

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On FileZilla's left side, you should now have the local folder where you keep the uncompressed the PrestaShop files from the Zip archive, and on the right side, the destination location. If you haven't done it yet, uploading is simple: select all files and folders from the local folder (use Ctrl-A), and either drag & drop them to the remote folder, or right-click on the selection and choose "Upload" in the context menu.

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After a while (this Uploading can take several minutes, as PrestaShop uses more than 7500 files and almost 1000 folders). After a while, all of PrestaShop's files and folders should be online. Great!

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Some hosts prefer to have customers use a graphic control panel, such as cPanel, Plesk or a custom-made one. Make sure you read your host's support documentation about handling MySQL databases, and create a database for your shop by following their specific explanations.

Connect to phpMyAdmin using your account credentials, which your host provided you with. It should be accessible through a standard URL, tied to your domain name, or that of your hosthost's domain name.

In the left column, you can see the databases currently available on your MySQL server. Some of them should be left alone, because they are either used by phpMyAdmin or by the host: phpmyadmin, mysql, information_schema, performance_schema and others. Read your host's documentation to know if one of these can be used as a default database.

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The installation process is quite easy, as it is streamlined by PrestaShop's auto-installer. You should be able to browser browse through it in handful of minutes. Do read thoroughly each page thoroughly so as to not miss any information.

To launch the installer, simply browse to PrestaShop's location on your hostingweb server: the script will automatically detect that it PrestaShop is not yet installed, and will take you to the auto-installer.
You can also directly type the address of the /install folder: http://your_server/prestashop_folder/install.

From there on, you just have to read and click.

There are 6 steps. At the top of the page, the installation assistant gives you a visualization of where you are in the process: the gray faces turn into smiling faces after each step is completed.

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The installer changed between version 1.5.3 and 1.5.4 of PrestaShop, as one step was added: the welcome page was split into two pages: one to choose the language, and one to agree to the license.

 

Step 1: Welcome page

This page is a quick intro into the installation process. You can choose the language in which the installer will display its instructions.

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You also get a link to the documentation site (http://doc.prestashop.com/), and the PrestaShop support phone number. You can learn more about our support service by going to http://support.prestashop.com/en/.

Select the language in which you wish the installer to be, then click the "Next" button. This will also set the default language for your PrestaShop installation – but the other languages will also be available for you to enable.

Step 2: PrestaShop's license

This second page is a simple requirement: PrestaShop is free and distributed under specific open-source license. You simply cannot use this software if you disagree with the terms of the license, and this step requires you to explicitly acknowledge it.

Read PrestaShop's license

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, the Open Software License 3.0

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. You can also read the full license here: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/OSL-3.0

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. You must agree to

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the license in order to install PrestaShop.

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To access the next step, you must check the "I agree to the above terms and conditions" box, then click "Next". If you do not explicitly agree to the license, you cannot install PrestaShop: the "Next" button will not even be clickable.

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If you want to help the development team improve PrestaShop with anonymous usage data, please check the "I agree to participate in improving the solution by sending anonymous information about my configuration" box too.

Step

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3 &

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4: System compatibility & system configuration

The second third page makes a quick check of all the server parameters on your host, and . In most, you will not see it, because if nothing wrong is found, takes you are taken directly to the third fourth page, "System configuration". If so, you can go have a look at the third page by clicking on the "System compatibility" link in the left sidebar.

If something does go wrong during the server check that happens in the third step, the installer displays the "System compatibility" page, where you can see all the checks that were performed, with the failed one being marked in red.

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This page checks that everything is OK with your server configuration: PHP settings, permissions on files and folders, third-party tools.

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If anything goes wrong, the installer stops you here, enabling you to see the few technical details that need fixing, be it changing the PHP configuration or updating the file permissions.

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Since version 1.5.4, the installer only displays the settings that are problematic. If all settings are correct, you will not see any issue, even when explicitly going to the "System Compatibility"

Here is a list of the checks that are performed during this third step:

 

CheckHow/where to fix it?
Is PHP 5.1.2 or later installed?Web server
Can PrestaShop upload files?php.ini (file_uploads)
Can PrestaShop create new files an folders?File browser / FTP client / command line
Is the GD Library installed?php.ini (extension=php_gd2.so)
Is MySQL support is on?php.ini (extension=php_pdo_mysql.so)
Recursive write permission on ~/config/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/cache/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/log/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/img/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/mails/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/modules/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/themes/default/lang/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/themes/default/pdf/lang/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/themes/default/cache/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/translations/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/upload/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/download/File browser / FTP client / command line
Recursive write permission on ~/sitemap.xmlFile browser / FTP client / command line
Can open external URLs? php.in (allow_url_fopen)
Is PHP's "register global" option off?php.ini (register_globals)
Is GZIP compression activated?.htaccess
Is the Mcrypt extension availabl?php.ini  (see http://php.net/manual/en/mcrypt.setup.php)
Is PHP's "magic quotes" option deactivated?php.ini (magic_quotes_gpc)
Is the Dom extension loaded?--enable-dom compile time option.
Is the PDO MySQL extension loaded?php.ini (extension=php_pdo_mysql.so)

While changing the PHP configuration can only be done on a case-by-case basis depending on your level of access to your server, and therefore cannot can only be explained herein full details, updating the file permissions is easier to explain. Permission is Permissions are the way a filesystem grants access rights to specific users or user groups, controlling their ability to view or make changes to files and folders. The installer needs to make several changes to the files that you uploaded, and if the filesystem does not allow for these changes through proper permissions, then the installer cannot complete its process.

Hence, if the installer shows that some files or folders do not have proper permission, you have to changer these manually. This will require you to access your files on your web server, and therefore use your FTP client (such as FileZilla) or the command line.

Log-in to your server account using your FTP client, browse to the PrestaShop's folder, and find the folders that are marked by the installer as in need of a permission change.

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titleCHMOD

Changing file/folder permission on a Unix/Linux system is called a "CHMOD", after the command of the same name (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod – you can find an explanation of file permissions here: http://www.elated.com/articles/understanding-permissions/).
Giving them files or folders a "write permission" is called "doing a CHMOD 755" or "a CHMOD 775", depending on the host.

Warning

Some hosts might require you to use CHMOD 777, although it is not recommended for anything more than a one-time need.
If you have to use CHMOD 777 in order to install PrestaShop, make sure to switch to a safer setting (775, 755 or even 644) once you are done installing.
Read your host's documentation carefully.

Thanks to FileZilla (and most FTP clients), you do not have to use any Unix command, as it makes it . Most FTP clients make it possible to change permissions easily and graphically: once you have found a file or folder that needs such a change, right-click on it, and in the context menu choose "File permissions...". It will open a small window.

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Depending on your server configuration (which you don't always have a hand at), you will need to check both the "Read" and "Execute" columns of boxes, and at least the "Owner" and "Group" rows for the "Write" column. Some hosts might require you to have the public "Write" box checked, but be careful with that: it is rarely a good thing to have anyone on your server be able to edit the content of your PrestaShop installation.

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This page contains a form that enables you to tell PrestaShop where the database server is, and which database it should use, along with a few other details. All this information should have been provided to you by your web host.

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Fill all the fields with the database connection information provided by your web-host:

  • Database server address. The hostname of your MySQL server. It can be tied to your domain name (i.e. http://sql.mydomainname.com), tied to your web host (i.e. http://mysql2.alwaysdata.com), or simply be an IP address (i.e. 46.105.78.185).
  • Database name. The name of the database where you want PrestaShop to store its data. This is either an existing database on your MySQL server, or the one that you created using phpMyAdmin (or any other SQL tool) in the "Creating a database for your shop" section of this guide.
  • Database login. The name of the MySQL user that has access to your database.
  • Database password. The password of the MySQL user.
  • Database engine. The database engine is the core of your database server. InnoDB is the default one and you should use it, but the more technical among you might want to choose another engine. Generally, there is no need to change the default setting.
  • Tables prefix. The prefix for your database tables. "ps_" is the default, resulting in the PrestaShop SQL tables having names such as "ps_cart" or "ps_wishlist"; but if you need to install more than one instance of PrestaShop on the same database, then you must use a different prefix for each installation. However, we do recommend that you create one database per installation of PrestaShop, if your web host allows it. Better yet: make one installation of PrestaShop, and enable the multistore feature in order to manage many stores from the same PrestaShop back-end.
  • Drop existing tables. This is only available in "Dev mode". When re-installing PrestaShop, you can choose to drop the existing PrestaShop database table in order to start on a clean slate.

Click the "Verify Test your database connection now!" button in order to check that you did use the correct server information.

Finally, there is the "E-mail delivery set-up" section. PrestaShop relies heavily on e-mail for notifications, both for the shop owner and its customers. This form enables you to test whether the current server configuration lets you send e-mail using PHP's mail() function. If this is not the case, then you should check the "Configure SMTP manually" box in order to configure your own mail server. Note that this is reserved to advanced users.

Click "Next" to continue.

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This is where you can start customizing your shop: give it a name and a logo, indicate its main activity, and indicate the personal information for the shop owner (which has legal binding in most countries)...

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Until version 1.5.3, you could choose to install a

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handful of demo products, or start with a clean slate.

Since version 1.5.4, these demo products are installed by default. This is great if you are discovering PrestaShop, as it helps you learn how to use the various features... and it can of course serve as a good basis for your own shop, after removing the demo products and categories!

If you know what you are doing and do not need sample products, choose "No".As for Concerning the logo, you should note that it will appear:

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Click "Next", and the installer will start filling the database with tables and data, and updating the configuration files. This might take a few minutes in a slow server.

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Once it is done, your shop is installed and ready to configurebe configured!

Completing the installation

As you can read right on the final page of the installation process, there are a couple of last actions to perform before you can leave the installer.

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An easy way to improve your installation's security is to delete or rename some key files and folders. This is done using your FTP client, directly on the server.

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  • The "install" folder (imperative).
  • The "readme_.md" filedocs" folder (optional).
  • The "CHANGELOGREADME.md" file (optional).

Item to rename:

  • The "admin" folder: This is the folder to open in order to reach PrestaShop's administration pages. You should give it a unique name, so that no attacker can access your admin files. For instance, "admin42", "secretFolder" or "xyz123" – anything unique to you.

Write down the new name for your admin folder, as because from now on you will from now on access your administration pages using this address.

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