Table of content

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Misc. information

Keep a test version at hand!

After you have completed setting up your shop to get it just the way you want it, but before officially opening it to the buying public, we strongly recommend that you install a local test version on your personal computer (using WAMP for Windows, MAMP for Mac, or LAMP for Linux, or XAMPP for any of those platforms), or elsewhere on your hosting server.

This second instance will be useful as a pre-production environment in which you can carry out all future changes to your PrestaShop online store, without affecting the live version. This way, if an error should occur, your live store remains intact and untouched.

After you have confirmed that your test version works as it should, copy the test version over the live version. It is best to do this after peak usage hours, and with your store properly and temporarily disabled from within the PrestaShop back-office.

Checking for the GD library

The GD library enables PrestaShop to rework images that you upload, especially resizing them.

On a default installation of PHP, the GD Library should be turned on, but if that's not the case for your install, the standard Windows instructions are:

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If you have no access to the php.ini file (which is often the case in shared hosting), contact your host about your hosting needs.

Activating PHP5

Oftentimes, dedicated or shared servers have both PHP 4 and PHP 5 available, but only PHP4 is activated by default.

To install PrestaShop, PHP 5 must be activated. If you attempt to run PrestaShop using PHP 4, you will receive numerous errors, including this very common message:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STATIC, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in [php file] on line X.

If the suggested way to activate PHP5 is to add some specific configuration rules to your .htaccess file, do not add them directly to the file itself!

The

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The following is a list of procedures of which we are currently aware of:...

1&1

Add this line to the "Specific configuration" text-field from the Tools > Generators sub-tabyour .htaccess file:

AddType x-mapp-php5 .php

For URL re-writing, add these lines:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

Free.fr

Add this line to the "Specific configuration" text-field from the Tools > Generators sub-tabyour .htaccess file:

php 1

OVH

Add this line to the "Specific configuration" text-field from the Tools > Generators sub-tabyour .htaccess file:

SetEnv PHP_VER 5

To deactivate global registers:

SetEnv REGISTER_GLOBALS 0

GoDaddy

To View Your PHP Version:

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Changes can take up to 24 hours to complete.

Lunarpages shared hosting

1. Enter cPanel. It should be located at http://www.(your_domain).(com/net/org/etc)/cpanel
2. Enter your account username and password in the box that appears.
3. A new page appears. Go to the bottom row of icons in the page and click the icon titled "Enable/Disable PHP 5"
4. A new page appears. Click "Add PHP 5 To Your Account!".

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