Table contents

Exploring PrestaShop's Tools

PrestaShop's "Tools" tab provides access to various tools that enhance your PrestaShop experience, and that of your customers. Many of these tools are not simply helpers, but do provide an important service to your shop, which you should not overlook. Take the time to learn all the possibilities they offer, as you will certainly find that PrestaShop can do much more than what you first thought it did.

CSV Import

The import function enables you to easily fill your product catalog when you have a very large amount of products. When clicking the "Import" tab, the page below appears.

PrestaShop enables you to quickly import seven types of data:

Have a good look at the example displayed on the page. You will have to create a relationship between the content of your columns, and the location of the data in the PrestaShop catalog.

Data format

Imported data file must be in text-file, using a CSV-based format (Coma Separated Value), and the accompanying .cvs file extension. We recommend using a semicolon ";" as a separator.
You can create such a file using any text editor (we recommend Notepad++), but we do advise you to use a spreadsheet program, such as the commercial Microsoft Excel or the free software OpenOffice.org Calc, then save your work in the CSV format. Using a spreadsheet program enables you to have an easier and more visual grasp of your data, in comparison to the plain text file.

Here is a sample import file, for a list of products:

"Enabled";"Name";"Categories";"Price";"Tax rule ID";"Buying price";"On sale";"Reference";"Weight";"Quantity";"Short desc.";"Long desc";"Images URL"
1;"Test";"1,2,3";130;1;75;0;"PROD-TEST";"0.500";10;"'Tis a short desc.";"This is a long description.";"http://www.myprestashop/images/product1.gif"
0;"Test 02";"1,5";110;1;65;0;"PROD-TEST2";"0.500";10;"'Tis also a short desc.";"This is a long description too.";"http://www.myprestashop/images/product2.gif"
1;"Test 03";"4,5";150;1;85;0;"PROD-TEST3";"0.500";10;"'Tis a short desc. again";"This is also a long description.";"http://www.myprestashop/images/product3.gif"

The first row should be a descriptive name for the data column (you will be able to skip it during the import process). There must be the same number of columns on each row.

You will note that:

Uploading the file

Once you have all your data in CSV format, you can upload them to your store's database using the form in the "Import" sub-tab of the "Tools" tab. Load your file from your computer by clicking "Browse", confirm by clicking "Upload".

The page is updated, and a form appears:

The name of your file will appear in the drop-down menu named "Select your .CSV file". Then:

Note that all import files are uploaded directly in the admin folder's /import sub-folder. If the CSV File drop-down menu gets too crowded, you can delete old imports directly using your FTP client.

The next steps will be worked out on the screen that then loads.

Presented in this table are the rows from your CSV file, placed under arbitrary columns matched to PrestaShop's database needs. It is up to you to make sure that all the columns from your CSV file are matched with the correct column header, using each header's drop-down menu, so as to import your content correctly.

For instance, in the above screen capture:

The screen cannot contain all of your data's columns, so click the ">>" and "<<" buttons to move around the columns, and match them all correctly.

In our example, we used the first row for columns indicators. Since we don't we these imported, enter "1" in the "Skip X lines" text-field.

Once you are done match your columns, click the "Import CSV data" button, and you're done!

Matching configurations

The matching process can be a tedious task if you cannot customize your CSV file's columns order according to that used by the PrestaShop importer, and even more so if you have to do that repeatedly or frequently. That is why PrestaShop includes a small tool to save the current matching order that you have set up using all the headers drop-down menus:

Languages

PrestaShop comes multilingual out of the box: there are 5 default languages (English, French, Spanish, Deutsch and Italian), and many more are available to download.

The "Language" tab manages the languages you'll see in your back office and your shop. When you click on this tab the page below is displayed.

This screen displays the languages already installed on your shop. You can enable or disable a language by clicking on the icon in the "Enables" column.

In the "Language options" section, you can select which language will be displayed by default, both in the back office and the front office.

If you want to add a language to your store, click the “Add New” to reach the form below.

In order to add a new language:

Then you need to upload the language pack:

You can click on the flags at the top of your shop (front-office) to verify this operation. Similarly, visitors to your shop can now select an additional language by using the icons at the top of the page.

Translations

PrestaShop provides you with full translation tool for your shop. This helps you add and edit the current translations. This way, you are the master of your shop, and can handle your translated strings without having to wait for translators to publish their corrections.

Even if you do not want to correct the translators' work, you might want to change the wording they chose to use (less formal, less wordy, etc.), and customize the various available text, thus tailoring your website to your audience (for instance, a hip-hop clothing shop might be better off using expressions different from that of a luxury watches shop).

"Translation exchange" section

The "Translation" sub-tab provides a few tools for your translation needs.

Add / Update a language

Many languages are available for you to download and install, directly from the PrestaShop servers. Your PrestaShop install will take care of downloading the language pack, unpacking it and create the correct sub-folder in your installation's /translation folder.

You can also update the currently installed languages, likewise directly from the PrestaShop servers. But be reminded that any change that you might have made to a language pack will be lost if you update it.

Import a language pack manually

In the case where you do not want to use an official PrestaShop translation pack, but rather a custom one (either provided by someone you know, or one that you exported from another PrestaShop install), then this form is for you. Select the Zip file, click the "Import" button, and it will install the pack in the /translation+ folder. Warning: if there already exists a language folder with the same ISO 639-1 code, it will be replaced by the files from the archive you are importing.

Export a language

Either as a way of making a backup of your customizations, or of sharing them with other PrestaShop installs, you can create your own language pack using this form.

Note that the pack will contain the theme that your translation is supposed to support.

Copy

You can copy the content of one language to another. This is especially useful when you wish to replace a theme language with the same language from another theme.

Modifying a Translation

The most important tool of the "Translation" sub-tab is in the "Modify translations" section. This is where you can choose to edit a translation, and completely customize each and every sentence if you wish.

Select the part of the current translation that you wish to edit:

A long form then appears. It contains, split in tens of section, the hundreds of available strings.

Click on a section title to open or close it, edit at will, and click on the "Update Translation" button at the top of the page when you are done.

At the right of each text field is an icon:

Generators

This sub-tab contains two tools that generate complex server files, so that you don't have to create them by hand – and risk breaking your shop.

.htaccess file generation

A .htaccess file (short for "hypertext access") is a server configuration file, mostly found on the Apache line of servers, and few others. It is commonly used to control folder authorization, URL rewriting, blocking, directory listing and cache control. Contrary to global configuration files, such as Apache's httpd.conf file, it can act locally, as its rules apply to the directory it is in, and its sub-directories.

Warning: since a .htaccess file only works with servers that support it (Apache, iPlanet, Zeus), DO NOT use this tool if your shop runs on any other server (Microsoft IIS, nginx, lighttpd...).

This tool is mostly useful when you choose to use friendly URLs: it will generate the correct rules. It also adds a few optimization rules.

All fields are optional.

Warning: your current .htaccess will be delete and replaced by the one generated by PrestaShop! Be sure to copy/paste your specific configuration rules in the text-field!

Robots file generation

A robots.txt file enables you to block specific automated bots and web spiders, which crawls the web in order to find more web pages to add to their company's servers. Some bots you want to have full access to your website, such as Google's or Yahoo's, and some others you'd rather not, such as spam bots, content stealers, e-mail collectors, etc. Note that the worst of bots do not respect this files directive, as it is purely advisory.

PrestaShop's robots.txt generation tools simply create a file with exclusion directives for files and directories that are not meant to be public, and should not be indexed.

These rules apply to all bots (note the "User-agent: *" string).

If you want to add your own rules, do it after PrestaShop has generated this file, as it will delete any existing version of it.

Subdomains

Authentication on PrestaShop is partly based on HTTP cookies, which are very small files stored by your browser to remember crucial parts of your login credentials, or of your navigation state. By design, cookies are limited to a single domain (or sub-domain): a cookie created on www.myprestashop.com will not work for www.myprestashop2.com or www2.myprestashop.com.

A solution to this is to have PrestaShop cater for all of your shop's sub-domains, in order to create coherent cookies on each. That is exactly what you can do with this sub-tab.

Add a new sub-domain is trivial.

CMS - Creating a Text Page

PrestaShop enables you create content pages just like you create product pages, using its CMS tool (Content Management System). The pages will appear to customers in the "Information" block on your homepage.

The "CMS" sub-tab presents you all the content pages that were previously created on your shop, for the currently selected category (by default, the home page).

Do not forget to create one version of each page for each of your supported languages! Click on the flag for each field in order to change language.

Creating a New CMS Page

Clicking the "Add a New Page" link takes you to a form.

Here we find the usual fields:

Once all the fields are filled out, click on "Save." If activated, you can then view the result directly on your online
store.

Creating a New CMS Category

Click the usual link to create a CMS category – actually, a sub-category of the root category, "Home". You can create as many categories as needed.

Click "Save and back to parents CMS category" to keep on configuring your CMS content.

Stores

PrestaShop provides a complete store-locating tool for your customers.

They can reach form by clicking on the box on the front-office.

You can choose how these stores are displayed in the front-office.

All your stores are listed in a handy list.

As usual, click "Add New" to reach the creation form.

Fill-in as many of the fields as possible, as it will be displayed to your customers within the map.

Webservice

A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over a network. It relies on a known set of methods, formats and access rights, so as be able to use the webservice's content on any other authorized tool, and build upon the original content.

You can enable your PrestaShop install's webservice, so that third-party tools can access your data. This potentially makes it possible for interesting tools to help you or your customers make better use your shop (such as mobile applications).

The configuration has two options:

The configuration form will only appear if your .htaccess file has been correctly generator (from the "Generators" tab).

Warning: For security reasons, make sure your shop supports secure SSL connection!

Not any app can access your store through the PrestaShop webservice: you decide which can, and what they can do. Every app has a unique connection key, with specific access rights.

You can add more apps with the usual "Add New" link and form:

Developers: here is the link to the tutorial for PrestaShop's webservice.

DB backup

You must perform regular backups of your shop, so that in case of a crash, you can reboot your shop quickly and in the best conditions. The database contains all the information in your shop. To create database backups of your shop, you have several solutions. You can use tools such as phpMyAdmin (reserved for advanced users) or use the tool integrated into PrestaShop, such as the one available on the "DB Backup" tab displayed below.

The table above lists all backups that have already been made, specifying the date of creation, age, file name and size.
To create a new backup of the database, click on "Create a new backup". The process starts, and you then receive a notification.

You are then prompted to click on the link "download the backup file" to save your database in the SQL format (and .sql file extension), archived in BZip2 format (.bz2). Put your backup in a safe place, for you might need it at any given time. Furthermore, you can find these backups directly on your server, in the /backup folder, under the custom-named /admin folder.

Logs

Errors happen. Most of the time, you are not aware of them because the system handles them silently. But you might want to know about them, in order to be able to correct the most regular ones, and insure a better stability for your shop.

The "Logs" sub-tab is where you can have a look at the PHP errors that happen. They are logged in the sub-tab's central table, and are presented in 4 types (here with original explanations from PHP.net):

You can also receive a notification about the latest error. Notifications are sent to the shop owner's e-mail address, and you can configure the degree of importance at which you should start receiving such e-mails: use "3" if you only want to know about major issues, "1" if you want to know about everything, even the smallest notice. The default is "5", meaning that no notification is sent.

Choose the level, and click "Save".

Configuration Information

This sub-tab serves as a handy reminder of your PrestaShop configuration: version, server info, PHP version, MySQL version. All these prove really useful when you need to report an issue to the PrestaShop developers, or simply your webmaster.

Upgrade

This sub-tab features a tool introduced with version 1.4.4 of PrestaShop, and which is still considered experimental: the One-Click Upgrade, which makes it incredibly easier to upgrade your PrestaShop installation to the latest version... provided you already have at least version 1.4.4 of PrestaShop installed.

PrestaShop versions below 1.4.4 still need to be upgraded manually. Refer to our Updating PrestaShop guide.

The One-Click Upgrade feature is natively available in versions 1.4.4 and 1.4.4.1, and through a module for all others versions of PrestaShop, starting with PrestaShop 1.3. You can download the module for free on Addons: http://addons.prestashop.com/fr/outils-administration-modules-prestashop/5496-1-click-upgrade-autoupgrade.html

If you already have the latest version of PrestaShop, the upgrade tool will simply display "You currently don't need to use this feature."

You should never update your online shop right away. The automatic upgrade tool can fail in some situations, and you might not be able to revert to the previous version.

The safest way is to have an exact copy of your shop available, either on your local computer or in another folder of your web server. It should contain all your products, categories, themes, modules, translations, settings, etc.

Make a trial upgrade on that copy of your shop. Once the upgrade is done, browse your front- and back-office thoroughly to make sure that everything is as expected. If not, then the upgrade tool has an issue with your configuration, and you should use the manual upgrade method, which is now deprecated and takes longer, but which may help in your situation.

Downloading and installing the 1-Click Upgrade module

Make sure you are using the latest version of the 1-Click upgrade module:

  • PrestaShop 1.3 & 1.4: Check the version number in your "Modules" tab, then compare it to the version number listed on the Addons website (see below). If the numbers differ, download and update.
  • PrestaShop 1.5: PrestaShop will automatically check the Addons site for new versions of your modules. If a new version is available, it will present a new button "Upgrade!" button next to the "Install/Uninstall" button. Click to have PrestaShop download and update the module for you.

Simply follow the normal path to installing a module on PrestaShop:

  1. Download the 1-Click Upgrade module from PrestaShop Addons: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/administration-tools/5496-autoupgrade.html. Save the Zip file to your desktop.
  2. In your PrestaShop administration panel, go to the "Modules" tab.
  3. Click on the "Add a module from my computer" link, located at the top left.

  4. In the form that opens, click on the "Browse..." button, then find and select the module's Zip file that you just downloaded.
  5. Click the "Upload this Module" button. PrestaShop will put the module on your server, unzip it, and place the files in the /modules folder.

The module is now available in your list of modules, but you still have to install it:

  1. In the "Modules" tab, find the 1-Click Upgrade module: type "1-click upgrade" or "autoupgrade" in the module search box (not the global search at the top). A direct link to the module should appear as you type. Click it.
  2. PrestaShop then displays the module in the main module list.
  3. Click the module's "Install" button.

The module is now ready to configure and use.

The configuration screen

The module's configuration screen is available from the "Modules" list, by clicking on the module's "Configure" link.
It is also available from under the "Tools" tab, in the "1-Click Upgrade" sub-tab.

The configuration screen presents you with a series of sections, providing information, tools and settings.

Welcome

This small section serves as a reminder that an upgrade is never 100% safe, and therefore that you should make sure you have made a complete backup of your files and data. This way, should the upgrade fail, you will be able to return to the initial state of your shop – albeit with a bit of work putting your files and data back into place.

Note that the 1-Click Upgrade module performs its own set of backup in order to allow for reverting of the whole upgrade. Nevertheless, you should rely on your own backups.

The pre-Upgrade checklist

The "The pre-Upgrade checklist" section gives you useful information on your current PrestaShop installation, and how it might interact with the automatic upgrade.

You must make sure that all the checks are validated before you can launch the upgrade.

All these indicators must be green for the upgrade to work. Otherwise, the upgrade button will not appear.

Start your Upgrade

This section compares your version of PrestaShop with the latest stable one. You can quickly see whether you need to update or not. If you know that there is a newer version available than the one presented, you can trigger a version check by clicking the "Check if new version available" button.

By default, the update tool is set to update your store to the next minor version. This means that if you use a version from the 1.4.x branch, it will not suggest the latest 1.5.x version, but rather the latest 1.4.x version. Therefore, if you want to update from a 1.4.x version to the latest 1.5.x version, you must click on the "More options (Expert mode)" button. This will open a new section, named "More options (expert mode)", where you can choose the distribution channel to which you want to update.
This is also very useful if you want to check for a version other than a stable one (for instance, beta, RC or any other unstable version).

Before launching the upgrade, you must make sure that you understand its settings. The "Backup options" and "Upgrade options" sections are available at the bottom of the page (and are described later in this chapter). Make sure you understand them all.

Expert mode

This section enables you to pinpoint exactly to which version you want to upgrade your current PrestaShop installation.

The options are:

Version comparison

For the curious, the numbered differences between your current version and the latest version in the chosen channel.

In case you have make changes directly to the core files instead of using the overriding possibilities of PrestaShop, these lists can help you know if your changes are safe or not.
Nevertheless, you can improve the lifespan of your custom code by turning it into overriding files. See the developer documentation for more information.

Rollback

This section only appears when at least one upgrade has been performed.

See below for more information.

Backup options

These options enable you to have some control on the backup process:

Upgrade Options

These options enable you to have some control on the upgrade process:

The Upgrade process

Once all the indicators in the "pre-Upgrade checklist" section are green, the update button appears in the "Start your Upgrade" section, along with the URL from which the new version will be downloaded.

Clicking the "Upgrade PrestaShop now !" button triggers the whole process.

Once the upgrade process is launched, the whole configuration page is replaced by two sections: "Activity Log" and "Rollback".

The activity log gives you a detailed journal of what the updater is doing, in a screen you can scroll through:

A lot of files are mentioned during the whole process. You do not need to read all the notifications, it's only there for you to peruse in case of error.

You'll know the upgrade is over when the following message "upgrade complete. Please check your front-office theme is functional (try to make an order, check theme)" appears in green, along with the following final log entry: "End of process".
The upgrader also indicates that you should re-enable your shop, but before you do that, you should first check that everything is working in your back-office: no errors, all products and categories are in place with their images and attached files, etc. Until you have checked that everything is okay in your shop, it is better to keep it from the public eye.

On first load, pages might look wonky: because your web browser caches files, it is probably using the old CSS files instead of the new ones. Do not hesitate to reload the page several times, or even empty your browser's cache, in order to get the correct interface.

When you upgrade from version 1.4 to version 1.5, your menus will not be arranged the way they would be if you made a fresh installation of version 1.5.

That is because PrestaShop 1.4 tabs got reorganized into 1.5 menus, and a lot of pages were moved around in order to create consistent menus. Additionally, the upgrader assumes that your 1.4 tabs may have been customized or moved around, either by a module or by your own action. Therefore, rather than breaking the existing settings, the upgrader takes the tabs as-is, and does not re-arrange them into the default 1.5 menu order.

If you want to change the position of pages within a menu once you have updated to version 1.5, go the to "Menus" page under the "Administration" menu, and start fiddling with positions.

Once you have made sure your PrestaShop installation is up and running, you can re-enable your shop using the option in the "Maintenance" page of the "Preferences" menu, then make tests on your front-office: browse products, sort them, try to order one, etc. In short, go through the entire buying process in order to make sure that you won't miss a sale.

Is everything working fine? Congratulations, you know have successfully upgraded your PrestaShop installation!

Going back to the previous version: rollbacks

Sadly, not all upgrades are successful – which is the very reason why you should always back-up all your files and data, and why PrestaShop performs an additional backup of said files and data by itself, which you should not always count on. Make your own backup first. See the "Making and restoring your own backup" chapter of this guide for more information.

PrestaShop's own backup files are saved on your server, and if it turns out your update has gone badly, you can find them in the "Rollback" section of the configuration page for the 1-Click Upgrade module.
Backup files are created as soon as the upgrade process is started, and are available immediately in the "Choose your backup" drop-down list.
Choose the most recent one. The date and hour of the creation of the backup file are right within the name: Vversion-date-hour-random, for instance "V1.4.9.0_20120907-114024-f85f41a" for a backup of a previous PrestaShop 1.4.9 installation, made September 7th 2012, at 11:40:24 AM.

The "Rollback" button triggers two actions:

Select the backup archive to which you want to roll back to, and click the "Rollback" button. As with the upgrade process, the whole interface disappears to only leave the "Activity Log" section and the "Rollback" section. You can follow the rollback process in the scrolling journal, and once it is finished, reload the page in order to check that everything is indeed back in place.

Going back to the previous version: restoring your own backup

This is explained in details in the "Making and restoring your own backup" of this guide: http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS15/Making+and+restoring+your+own+backup.