Table of content
Manual update (experts only)
Doing a manual update is a long and detailed process, which should only be use out of necessity – for instance, if you cannot make an automatic update.
Therefore, manual updates should be reserved to experts.
Quick instructions
This small section is aimed at those who are already familiar with installing and updating PHP-MySQL web applications on a server. Should you not feel comfortable with their lack of details, you will find detailed instructions in the section following this one.
- Save and Backup Your Current Store
- Deactivate your store ("Maintenance" page of the "Preferences" menu).
- Back up your files to your desktop, using your FTP client.
- Back up your database ("Advanced Parameters/DB Backup" page, or using phpMyAdmin).
- Back up your customized translation ("Export a language" section in "Tools/Translations" tab).
- Getting ready for the new version
- Download and unzip the latest version of PrestaShop: http://www.prestashop.com/en/download.
- Copy the files that you backed up during Step 1 to the "prestashop" folder in your desktop.
- Transfer the "prestashop" folder from your desktop to your FTP server (keeping your original files intact for now).
- Checks to perform before going any further:
- Edit the
config/settings.inc.php
file and change the__PS_BASE_URI__
to match to the/prestashop/
folder that you just uploaded. Change others settings as needed. - Access the
/prestashop/
folder with your browser and check that everything works fine before going to the next step. - Access the back-office.
- Edit the
- Starting the Update
- Launch the update script by accessing it with your browser. In version 1.5, it is located at
/install/upgrade/upgrade.php
. - Verification of all parameters before the update: follow the instructions on screen and make sure your server conforms to the new version technical requirements.
- Finishing the update: once the updater has finished, delete the
/prestashop/install
folder and access both your front and back-office to make sure it works.
- Launch the update script by accessing it with your browser. In version 1.5, it is located at
- QA and Testing
- Import your translations ("Import a language pack manually section in "Localization/Translations" page).
- Check that the main domain name is correct ("Preferences / SEO & URLs" page, "Shop URL" section).
- Regenerate your robots.txt files ("Preferences / SEO & URLs" page, "Generate robots.txt" section).
- Check that your theme still works as expected. If not, you will have to edit its files.
- Test your shop thoroughly: create accounts, buy products, cancel orders, check invoices, etc.
- Going live with your up-to-date store
- Swapping your updated store and your production store: your shop is updated and fully functional in the
/prestashop
folder, and your older store is deactivated at its normal URL. They both have the same content: products, pages, images, theme, modules, etc. It is time to swap the two. Either:- Move all files from
/prestashop
to the normal URL, replacing the old files with the new ones. - Upload your files from your desktop to the old version's URL, replacing the old files with the new ones.
- Move the old files to a new folder (i.e.
/oldshop
) and move the updated shop from the/prestashop
folder to the normal one.
- Move all files from
- Activate your shop ("Maintenance" page under the "Preferences" menu).
- Swapping your updated store and your production store: your shop is updated and fully functional in the
You're done! Enjoy all the new features brought by this update!
Step 1 – Save and Backup Your Current Store
Caution
Not backing up your store constitutes a very important risk if you encounter any difficulties with the upgrade. You could lose your data and never be able to recover it.
Do not ever skip this step. Do not proceed to step 2 unless you are absolutely certain that your backups are completed, successful, and fully functional. Do check several times.
Backing Up Your Files
You must save all of the files related to your PrestaShop store.
There are two main ways of backing up your files:
- Ask your hosting company to back up your files.
Make sure that this backup is fully functional, recent, and more importantly that it reflects the content of your current store.
...or...
- Copy all of your files from your server to your local computer using an FTP client.
This method is only possible if your hosting provider has provided you with an FTP access to your server. Create a "Backup" folder on your computer, then, using an FTP client (such as the free FileZilla client, which you can download at http://filezilla-project.org/), select all the PrestaShop files and folders on your server (use the Ctrl-A command) and copy them to your "Backup" folder.
Deactivating Your Store
Caution
Disabling your store is very important.
By doing so, you make sure that there is no activity on your store while you are updating it. Therefore, if you ever have to revert the update to a backup, however recent, you won't have lost any unfinished carts or orders.
Go to your store's back-office, open the "Maintenance" page under the "Preference" menu, then select "No" for the "Enable Shop" option.
In the "Maintenance IP" field, located just below the "Enable Shop" one, enter your own IP address, so that you can keep on using your store during the update. This will allow you to test the store, while still making sure visitors cannot access the website.
In order to find out your IP address, visit this page: http://whatismyipaddress.com/
Backing Up Your Database
You must absolutely back up the whole database for your PrestaShop store.
There are three different ways to back up your database:
- Ask you hosting provider to back up your database.
Be sure that your database backup is functional, recent, and especially that it contains all of your data for your PrestaShop Store.
...or...
- Download a database backup from your PrestaShop back-office.
Go to the "Advanced Parameters" menu en open the "DB Backup" page, then follow the instructions on the page. This process will take between 1 and 20 minutes depending on the size of your database. Make sure this backup is functional, recent, and especially that it contains of all the data of your website. Open the zip file and make sure that there are absolutely NO ERRORS before proceeding to the next step.
...or...
- Download a copy of your database via phpMyAdmin.
Be sure that your database backup is functional, recent, and especially that it contains all of your data for your PrestaShop Store. If your database is too big, you might receive an error. If that is the case, you will need to contact your hosting provider.
Backing up Your Customized Translation
If you did not edit the available translations or add new ones (either PrestaShop's or your modules'), please proceed to step 2.
To save your translation changes:
- Navigate to the "Translations" page under the "Localization" menu in your back-office.
- In the section "Export a Language" select the language to which you have made any modifications, then select your current theme, and click "Export".
- Save the downloaded file into a backup folder of your choice, on your local computer.
Do this for all your custom languages, both those you created/added and those you modified/corrected.
Verify your Backup folder
Does it contain...
- ...a complete copy of all of your files?
- ...a complete and error-less copy of your database?
- ...a copy of your customized translations (optional)?
You have checked the entire backup folder, and made sure that they are all correct and that you would be able to return to your current version / restore all of your data.
If you answered yes to all of the questions above, then proceed to Step 2.
Step 2 - Getting Ready for the New Version
Downloading and Unzipping of the Latest PrestaShop Version
Visit http://www.prestashop.com and download the latest version of PrestaShop (click the "Download" button on the homepage, fill in the form then validate).
You now should have a file: prestashop_1.x.x.zip (where "x" is a digit of the version number).
Unzip the file to your computer. If you do not yet have an unzipping tool, you can download a free one here: http://www.7-zip.org/.
Once unzipped, open the "/prestashop
" folder that was inside the Zip archive.
In that "/prestashop
" folder, select the "/admin
" folder and rename it to something unique to you (for instance, "/admin436
"). Your online store currently also has a unique "admin" folder, from its original installation; you can use that unique name if you wish, or use whichever name you want.
Copying the files backed up during Step 1 to the "prestashop" folder
Some of the folders that you have backed up will need to be copied to the "/prestashop
" folder the you just unzipped from the archive.
Caution
You will be copying files from your "Backup" directory to the "/prestashop
" directory. Answer "Yes" when the system asks you to replace the existing files.
The following folders must be copied from your backup to the recently unzipped /prestashop
folder:
/mails
. Has all the mails templates, including those that you have modified.
If you have never made any mail template modification, do not worry about this folder./img
. Contains your logo and all the pictures of your store (categories, products, etc.)./modules
. Only copy the modules that you have added./themes/yourtheme
. Only copy your current theme. If you use the default theme from PrestaShop (unchanged), do not copy it, you must use the one from the new version. If you have made changes to the default it, do copy this folder, but rename the folder, do not keep the/default
name./download
and/upload
. Contain all the downloadable products, the attached files and the customizable products. If you do no use any of these functionalities, do not copy these folders./classes
. In case you have added customized classes to this folder, copy them to the new/classes
folder.When updating from a version below 1.4, you must manually edit PrestaShop's classes. In order to function properly with the latest version of PrestaShop, all these class files need to have their class name suffixed with "Core":
-
- Open each and every one of the class files, and find the ones where the class name is not
Core
-suffixed. If you are upgrading from PrestaShop 1.4.x, you shouldn't have any (except for custom classes). - Rename the class name, adding the "Core" suffix. For instance, "
MyClass
" becomes "MyClassCore
".
Only change the name in the PHP class within file, not the name of the file itself! - If all the files already have "Core" in their classname (such as "
class AttributeCore extends ObjectModel
"), then you do not need to change anything. - Save the edited files.
- Open each and every one of the class files, and find the ones where the class name is not
-
/config
folder, only copy thesettings.inc.php
file, then modify the following lines:- The line that contains "
PS_BASE_URI
" must contain the name of the subfolder where you are going to do your update. For instance, "/prestashop/
" instead of "/
", or the name of current folder for your current store. - If you modified your database credentials (you should not have had to do that normally), update all the lines that contain "
DB_NAME
", "DB_USER
" and "DB_PASSWD
" too.
- The line that contains "
Moving the "prestashop" folder to your FTP server
The "prestashop" folder that you have unzipped, now contains all the modifications from your "Backup" folder (and therefore, from your current live store). This next step will have you upload that folder on your FTP server.
Caution
If the folder of your online store is already named "prestashop", rename the "prestashop" folder on your hard drive to something else before sending it onto your FTP server.
If you rename the "prestashop" folder, do not forget to update the config/settings.inc.php
file accordingly, as explained in step 2-B.
Using your FTP client, upload the "prestashop" folder to your server, at the same level as the folder of your current shop if it is not at server root.
Checking before going further
Let's say your store's domain name is: http://www.myprestashop.com.
- To test the update, you first downloaded the latest version of PrestaShop.
- You unzipped this version, which contained a folder called "prestashop".
- You copied your customized files from your backup to this new "prestashop" folder.
- You modified the file
config/settings.inc.php
on line "PS_BASE_URI" so that it has the name of the folder on your server (should be "prestashop").
For instance:...was replaced by...define('__PS_BASE_URI__', '/');
define('__PS_BASE_URI__', '/prestashop/');
- You uploaded your "prestashop" folder to your FTP server, and it can be accessed at: http://www.myprestashop.com/prestashop
Did you follow these 5 steps?
- Downloaded PrestaShop
- Unzipping the downloaded .zip file
- Manual copy of the folder of step 2.B
- Transfer the whole directory "prestashop" onto your FTP
- Edited the PS_BASE_URI line from the
config/settings.inc.php
file
If you answered yes to all the questions above, then proceed to step 3.
Step 3 – Starting the Update
Launching the update script
Visit your shop's update script URL; for instance: http://www.myprestashop.com/prestashop/install/upgrade/upgrade.php (Replace "myprestashop.com" with the actual URL of your store, and "prestashop" with the name of the folder that you have just transferred to your FTP).
If it returns a 404, then you might not have copied all the files from the latest PrestaShop 1.5 version. Go through this previous step again.
Finishing the update
Once the update is finished, a XML file should be displayed in your browser. This is expected. It should begin with the following node:
<action result="ok">
On your FTP server, inside the "prestashop" folder, you should delete:
- The {{/install} folder, which contains the install script.
- The
README
files, which contain information about the PrestaShop install. - The
CHANGELOG
file, which contains information about the latest changes in PrestaShop.
You can now access your store's public address (in our example http://www.myprestashop.com/prestashop).
Did you follow these 3 steps?
- Launched the Update tool
- Verified the parameters and started the update
- Finished the installation and removing the unneeded folders and files.
If you answered yes to all the questions above, then proceed to step 4.
Step 4 - QA and Testing
Import your Translations
If you did export your custom translations during step 1 (Backups), import them back into your new store by going to the "Localiztion" menu, then the "Translations" page, then use the "Import a language pack manually" section.
Verification of the main Domain Name
You should verify that the domain name assigned in the database is indeed the one that you are working with. To do so, visit the "Preferences" menu, then the "SEO & URLs" page.
You must check the following information, from the "Set shop URL":
- "Shop domain": This should be the domain name to which you are currently connected. Otherwise, all your links will be invalid and will use an incorrect domain name.
- "Base URI": This folder should be the one that you have transferred onto your FTP server; in this tutorial, it would be
/prestashop/
Tests to be done on your new store
To make sure that everything is working properly on your updated store, you should perform a few tests:
- Make sure all page types load properly (home, categories, products, comparison, CMS, etc.)
- Create a customer account
- Place an order (add to cart and order)
- Verify that payments work properly (credit card, PayPal, etc.)
- In the Back Office, check that the order was properly placed and received
- Send an email from the contact page or "Forgot my password"
- Check the resulting invoice
- Check all the modules that you have activated
This is not a complete list, you perform do as many testing as possible.
If every test is successful, congratulations! Proceed to step 5.
Step 5 - Going live with your Up-to-Date Store
Swapping your updated store and your production store
Congratulations, you have achieved all the essential steps to update your store!
But the updated store is still out of reach from your customers: for now, you are the only one to know that the /prestashop
folder contains the latest version, while all your visitors are still using the regular public address.
You now need to swap your updated store with your production store.
Ever since you started the upgrade process, your main should have been temporarily disabled! It is even more important in this step!
You have two options to do so:
- On your FTP Server, select the entire content of the "prestashop" folder and drag-and-drop it to the folder of your production store. This option is fast. If your FTP client offers to do it, ask to have it overwrite all existing files
...or...
- You can also download your whole updated store directory ("prestashop") from the FTP server into your local computer, and then upload all the files back onto your production folder. This option will take a little bit longer, and you should again select the option to overwrite all the files.
At the end of the process, edit the file config/settings.inc.php
: look for the line containing PS_BASE_URI
, and replace its value (should be "/prestashop/
") by "/
" (or wherever your current store is at). If you don't do that, your images and theme will not appear correctly.
Activating your store
Visit the "Preference" tab in the back-office of your production (now up-to-date) store and click "Yes" for the option "Enable Shop".