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• System requirements:
  • PHP 5.2 or later.
    • Useful settings : (in the php.ini file):
      
      • allow_url_fopen set to On, 
      • register_globals set to Off,
      • magic_quotes_* set to Off,
      • safe_mode set to Off
      (all in the php.ini file), file
      • ,
      • upload_max_
      upload_size set
      • filesize set to "16M" (or more).
    • Useful Must-have PHP extensions (in the php.ini file): PDO_MySQL, cURL, SimpleXML, mcrypt, GD, OpenSSL, DOM, SOAP (all in the php.ini file)., Zip.
    • Useful server tools: cron/crontab, Memcached.
  • MySQL 5.0 or later.
  • Better if:
    
    • Unix/Linux hosting.
    • Apache Web Server 1.3 or later or nginx Web Server.
      • Apache module settings:
        
        • mod_rewrite enabled, 
        • mod_security disabled,
        • mod_auth_basic disabled.
    • At least 64 Mb of RAM dedicated to PHP. The more the better.
• Access codes to your FTP server, your MySQL database and
  
  • These should be provided by your web - host if you are not doing a local installation.
• Any text editor.
• Any FTP client.
• Any modern Web browser (if using Internet Explorer: at least IE8).

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Check the official system requirements page: http://www.prestashop.com/en/system-requirements

Quick installation instructions

Here's the quick set of instructions for those who are already comfortable with performing such installations. For detailed instructions, see the next section of this chapter.

1. Download and unzip the PrestaShop package if you haven't already.
2. Create a database for PrestaShop stop on your web server if it is possible. In case there is no MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying this database, create it as well.
3. Upload the PrestaShop files and folders to the chosen location on your web server. Do not upload the root /prestashop folder directly: only the files and folders that it contains.
4. Run the PrestaShop installation script by accessing the public URL for the chosen location in a web browser. This should be the URL where you uploaded the PrestaShop files.
5. Follow the instructions on each screen of the installer.
6. Once the installation is done, delete the /install folder and give a custom name to the /admin folder, for security reasons.

PrestaShop should now be installed and ready to be configured! Continue to the First steps with PrestaShop 1.6 chapter of the User Guide.

Installing PrestaShop on the Web

Once your set-up is in place, you can use the installation guide: http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS16/Installing+PrestaShop.

Detailed set-up instructions

PrestaShop is a web application: it needs to be installed on a web server in order to run, and it needs a domain name that your visitors will use to access your store.

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You need to buy a domain name for your store. You might be able to get one at the same time as you when you get your web hosting in place: many web hosts offer a free domain with every new account. They might be free for a year, or for as long as you are a client of that web host. This makes it easy to get the full package (hosting+domain name) in one go.

If you would rather get your domain name from an independent registrar, here are some that you can trust:

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There are many more. Ask your friends about them!

Finding a host

Now that you have a domain name, you need to have it lead to PrestaShop. This means that the PrestaShop 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 have never had a web host, here are some that you can trust:

• InMotion Hosting: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/
• OVH France: http://www.ovh.com/
• OVH UK: http://www.ovh.co.uk/

Check out our hosting partners!Before starting an online store, you will first need to select a hosting provider. Just about every webhost can effectively handle the PrestaShop solution. However, only a few hosting providers offer optimized servers for PrestaShop (with 1-click install and up-to-date version). Here is our list of hosting partners.

When choosing your host, remember one crucial requirement: it must provide you with support for PHP 5.2 (or more recent), the programming language with which PrestaShop is written, and MySQL 5 (or more recent), the database system where PrestaShop stores all its data. There are more requirements: see the "Technical requirements" section below.

Technical requirements

Whichever hosting service you choose, it must have the following components shall be installed on your web server:

• System: Unix, Linux or Windows. Unix is highly recommended.
• Web server: Apache Web server 1.3 or later.
• PHP 5.2 or later. You may have to activate PHP 5 (ask your hosting provider).
• MySQL 5.0 or later.
• At least 64 Mb of RAM on your server (128 Mb is more comfy, the more the better).

PrestaShop can work with PHP 5.1.3 or later, but versions inferior to 5.2 have bugs that might prevent some functionalities to work as expected (such as invalid date time zone).
PrestaShop can also work with Microsoft's IIS Web server 6.0 or later, and nginx 1.0 or later.

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FTP client

FTP is short for "File Transfer Protocol", meaning the standard way used to transfer files from a computer to a web - host.

In this guide, we will use Filezilla, which is a great and free FTP client for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Download it from http://filezilla-project.org/ and start its installer. Note: do not download FileZilla Server, only FileZilla Client!

Once FileZilla is installed, you will need to configure it with the connection parameters for of your web server, which should have been sent to you by your host. If not, ask for them to your host – or check your spam folder.

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• a hostname or an IP address: the location of your hosting space's FTP server.
• a username: your hosting account identifier, which is unique to you.
• a password: obligatory security a compulsory security measure.

Open FileZilla, and open its Site Manager tool. You can do this in three different ways:

• Press Ctrl-S,
• Click the "Open the Site Manager" icon, at the top left corner,
• Open the "File" menu, and select the "Site Manager..." option.

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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 1.6, each with its own specific domain name if necessary. You should take that into account when deciding what goes where.
Whatever your plan is, the default store will always reside where PrestaShop itself is located.

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Finally, now that all the requirements are in place, you can you use the installation guide: http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS16/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.

Installing any web-application locally requires that you first install the adequate environment, namely the Apache web server, the PHP language interpreter, the MySQL database server, and ideally the phpMyAdmin tool. This is known as an AMP: Apache+MySQL+PHP. It exists for many operating systems, which provides another letter for the acronym: WAMP (Windows+Apache+MySQL+PHP), MAMP (Mac OS X+...) and LAMP (Linux+...).

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. Since all of the items packaged are open-source, these installers are most of the time free. Here is a selection of free AMP installers:

• XAMPP: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris)
• WampServer: http://www.wampserver.com/en/ (Windows)
• EasyPHP: http://www.easyphp.org/ (Windows)
• MAMP: http://www.mamp.info/ (Mac OS X)

Choose the package that you feel the most comfortable with, launch it, and make sure that everything it has installed does work before going on with this PrestaShop 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. http://127.0.0.1 is the "localhost", meaning "your computer": it is a loopback address which directs the browser to your local server. In effect, http://127.0.0.1 and http://localhost are synonymous: you can use one or the other interchangeably.
• The database server should be up and running. MySQL is where all of PrestaShop's 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. Its location depends on which AMP packaging you chose: it can be found at http://127.0.0.1/phpmyadmin (XAMPP, WampServer, MAMP), http://127.0.0.1/mysql (EasyPHP), or maybe at another location. Check your package's documentation – it might even provide a phpMyAdmin button of sort that would open the correct URL in your browser.

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 is the local folder where you will place your application's 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:

• XAMPP: C:\xampp\htdocs or /Applications/xampp/htdocs
• WampServer: C:\wamp\www
• EasyPHP: C:\easyphp\www
• MAMP: /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/

Finally, you need to know the root user name and password for MySQL, in order to install PrestaShop. Most packages use the user name "root" with an empty password. Read your package's documentation.

With all that clear and done, you can follow up on the rest of this Getting Started guide, keeping in mind that when you install PrestaShop locally:

• Files are not to be uploaded via FTP to a server: simply move them in the correct local folder, as indicated above.
• You do not have to create a local domain name: PrestaShop is available through the loopback address indicated above, which is either http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 . PrestaShop itself is available at this address by adding its folder's name, for instance http://localhost/prestashop or http://127.0.0.1/prestashop if PrestaShop is in the /prestashop/ subfolder of the local root folder.. When accessing this address for the first time, you should be automatically redirected to PrestaShop's install, at either http://localhost/prestashop/install or http://127.0.0.1/prestashop/install . From there on, follow the regular installation guide, starting directly at the "Creating a database for your shop" section.