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What you need to get started

Quick list

Here is a quick list of what you need to get started with the installation of PrestaShop 1.5.

  • A web-host providing the following:
    • PHP 5.2 or later.
    • MySQL 5.0 or later.
    • Better if: Unix hosting, Apache Web Server 1.3 or later, at least 64 Mb of RAM.
  • Access codes to your FTP server and your MySQL database (provided by your web-host).
  • A text editor.
  • A FTP client.
  • A Web browser.

You also need to know which URL on your domain you want your store(s) to be accessible from.

Installing PrestaShop on the Web

Finding a host

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 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've never had a host, here are some that you can trust:

There are many more. Ask your friends!

PrestaShop can host your online business on its in-house Web servers; please consult our PrestaBox website for details on our low-priced, secure Website hosting service. This is highly recommended for businesses with little to no experience with the Internet or computers. Naturally, we install and update PrestaShop for you.

You can reach PrestaBox at this address: http://www.prestabox.com/

Registering a domain name

You will also need to buy a domain name for your store (meaning: mydomainname.com or myonlineshop.net).

Many web hosts offer a free domain with every new account. They might be free for a year, or for as long as you keep that account on their server. This makes it easy to get the full package (hosting+domain name) in one go.

There can be an issue with host-provided domain names: if you find yourself not satisfied with the host's service, you will want to switch to a better host. This means moving your files, data and domain name to that other host.

The files and data are easy to move, but depending on the host, you might have a hard time getting your domain name back. Since they bought the domain name for you, technically the domain belongs to them, and they can either forbid you to transfer it to another host, or they can make you pay for it. And since the domain name is your brand and your address on the web, you must obey the web host's rules.

That is why it is often recommended to get your domain name from an independent domain name registrar (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar). Technically, a never buy a domain name, you rent it (most of the time for a yearly fee), but at least you will be free to move to a better host at any time, for no supplementary fee: just change the domain name's DNS addresses, and within 24 hours the move is propagated to the world.

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

There are many more. Ask your friends!

Technical requirements

PrestaShop is a software which runs on a web server, and is written using the PHP programming language. It stores its data in a MySQL server.

PHP is an open-source programming language, mainly used for web applications. Created in 1995, it has since become the most used programming language by web developers. It uses a C-like syntax, making it easy for developers to learn it.
MySQL is an open-source database management system. Created in 1995, it has since become the most used database system by web developers. It is based on the SQL language, the most widely used database language.

Whichever hosting service you use must have the following components installed on your server space:

  • 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 on your hosting service, see below.)
  • 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.

More information is available for system administrators in the System Administrators Guide.

Tools

You will need two tools: a text editor, in order to edit text files, and a FTP client, in order to transfer files from your machine to your server.

Text editor

Here are a few well-known text editors:

Do NOT use a word processor, such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org Write when editing text files.

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 your site's log-in parameters, which should have been sent to you by your host. If not, ask for them to your host – or check your spam folder (wink)

Basically, the needed parameters are:

  • 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 measure.

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

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

A window opens.

To add your hosting space to the Site Manager:

  1. Click the "New Site" button. A new entry is created in the site list. Give it a recognizable name.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

If FileZilla doesn't suit you, here are a few other well-known FTP clients:

Making a plan

You might want to know right away were you'd rather host PrestaShop. There are four possibilities relating to your domain name:

Note that thanks to the multistore feature, you can have as many stores as necessary with a single installation of PrestaShop 1.5, each with its own specific URL. Take that into account when deciding what goes where.
Whatever your plan, the default store will always reside where PrestaShop itself is located.

Installing PrestaShop on your computer

You may wish to install on your local machine, either in order to test PrestaShop 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 called an AMP package: Apache+MySQL+PHP and the operating system, giving WAMP (Windows+Apache+MySQL+PHP), MAMP (Mac OS X+...) and LAMP (Linux+...). Since all of the items packaged are open-source, these installers are most of the time free.

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:

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. 127.0.0.1 is the "localhost", meaning "your computer": it is a loopback address 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. 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 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's the local folder where you will place your files, and can be compared to the root folder of your online server, only its content is accessed with 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, but simply to be moved in the correct local folder.

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