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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 shop hosted by an Internet hosting service, who which provides you with an online home for a few dollars per month.
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PrestaShop can work with PHP 5.1 or later, but versions inferior to 5.2 have bugs that might prevent some functionalities to work as expected (such as invalid date timezone).
PrestaShop can also work with Microsoft's IIS Web server 6.0 or later, and nginx 1.0 or later.
More information are is available for system administrators in the System Administrators Guide.
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This would require you to be quite technical, ; luckily there exist many pre-built packages that you can install easily. It does not prevent you from having to get technical here and there, but they do provide a huge help. Here is a selection of free AMP installer:
- XAMPP (Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris)
- WampServer (Windows)
- EasyPHP (Windows)
- MAMP (Mac)
Choose the package the that you feel the most comfortable with, install it, and make sure that it does work before going on with this installation tutorial:
- The web server should be up and running. You should be able to access it through your browser, by typing "127.0.0.1" in the address bar. 127.0.0.1 is the "localhost", meaning "your computer": it is a loopback address that direct which directs the browser to any local server. In effect, 127.0.0.1 and localhost are synonymous: you can use one or the other interchangeably.
- The database server should be up and running. MySQL is where all your data is stored. The AMP package should provide you with a clear indicator whether MySQL is running or not.
- The phpMyAdmin tool should be accessible. This is the web application that helps you handle data stored in MySQL. It's Its location depends on which AMP packaging you chose: it can be found at 127.0.0.1/phpmyadmin (XAMPP, WampServer, MAMP), 127.0.0.1/mysql (EasyPHP), or maybe at another location. Check your packages documentation – it might even provide a phpMyAdmin button of sort that would open the correct URL in your browser.
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With all that clear and done, you can follow up on the rest of this documentation, keeping in my mind that files are not to be uploaded via FTP to a server, but simply to be moved in the correct local folder.
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You can download the latest version of PrestaShop at http://www.prestashop.com/en/downloads. This page presents you with a an informal form, which helps the PrestaShop team better know its users. Whether you fill the form or not, click the "Download" button to display the download choices.
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Extract the content of the archive to a know known location on your hard-drive (such as on the desktop again). Do not upload the Zip file to your server.
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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.
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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, susub-domainedomain...). This can change a lot, depending on both your host and your needs:
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Before you can actually install PrestaShop, you need to make sure your MySQL server has a database ready for PrestaShop's data, and if not, create one. This can be done using the free phpMyAdmin tool, which should come pre-installed on your web server most of the time (read you host's documentation). Connect to it using your account credentials, that which your host provided you with. It should be accessible through a standard URL, tied to your domain name, or that of your host.
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This is where you can already 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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