PrestaShop 1.5
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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I install PrestaShop?

See the "Getting Started" guide.

Which are the data from my shop that the PrestaShop company has access to?

Here the answer in English and in French.

What are the PrestaShop license restrictions, if any?

PrestaShop is issued under the Open Software License (OSL) v. 3.0.

How can I modify the default theme or build a new theme?

See the Designer Guide.

How do I import product data from another application?

See the documentation on the Import tool.

How do I allow my server to generate friendly URLs?

In previous version of PrestaShop, you had to manually generate a new .htaccess file after having enabled friendly URLs. This is no longer the case since version 1.5: the .htaccess file is now silently managed by PrestaShop, and you do not have to worry about it.

See the documentation on the SEO & URLs preferences page.

How do I translate PrestaShop into my language?

This is done in the "Translations" page of the "Localization" menu.

See the documentation on the "Localization" menu.

How do I obtain process payment modules to be used with PrestaShop?

You can obtain all payments modules on PrestaShop's Add-Ons site.
Many payments modules for several banks and payments process are available. You will be able to accept credit card payments and payments in several times.

How do I add or change a currency?

This is done in the "Currency" page of the "Localization" menu.

See the documentation on the "Localization" menu.

How do I show advertisements to my PrestaShop online store?

Use the Google Adsense module.

Note that the Google Adsense module can be used to display ad code from any ad service, not just the ones from Google Adsense.

How do I activate the GD Library?

Here is the standard Windows instructions are:

  1. In the root directory of your PHP folder, open the php.ini file.
  2. Uncomment the extension=php_gd2.dll line (about half-way through the file, in the middle of a long list of extensions) by deleting the ; at the start of the line.
  3. Restart the PHP services.

If you cannot edit the server settings, contact your host.

How do I use PayPal with PrestaShop?

Go to the "Modules" page, and install the Paypal module. Do not forget to configure it!

See the documentation for the "Modules" menu, mostly the "Installing a payment module" section.

How do I select which Featured Products are displayed on the Front Office homepage?

You need to associate the product to the homepage category. For each product you want displayed on the front-page, open the "Association" tab and select the "Home" category, in addition to the already-checked category.

See the documentation for the "Associations" tab of the "Catalog" page.

How do I add and modify taxes in PrestaShop?

Go to the "Taxe" and "Tax rules" pages of the "Localization" menu

See the documentation for the "Localization" menu.

How do I upgrade to a new version of PrestaShop?

See the page on updating your version of PrestaShop.

How do modules work in PrestaShop?

See the "Making the native modules work" chapter of the documentation, for the "Modules" page.

How do I set up an RSS feed to show my links (e.g., to my blog) on the Front Office?

Install the "RSS products feed" module, from the "Modules" page.

How do RMAs (Return Merchandise Authorizations) work in PrestaShop?

Everything happens in the "Merchandise returns" of the "Orders" menu.

See the documentation for the Orders menu.

How do I edit text for "About us", "Delivery", "Legal notice" and "Conditions"?

In the back-office, navigate to "Preferences" > "CMS", and select the pages you want to edit.

How do I change the default images and text on the homepage?

The default theme for PrestaShop features an image slider. You can edit that slider by configuring the "Image slider for your homepage" module, which can be found in the "Modules" page of the back-office.

The default theme also features a block containing featured products. The products displayed are the ones which are associated with the home-page along with their default category (see the question above). This slider is managed using the "Featured Products on the homepage" module, which can be found in the "Modules" page of the back-office. You can remove the slider from the homepage by uninstalling the module, or you can set the number of products to be displayed by configuring the module (click the "Configure" button for the module in the "Modules" page).

Some themes feature a default text on the homepage. This text is often managed by the "Home text editor" module, which can be found in the "Modules" page of the back-office. You can remove the text from the homepage by uninstalling the module, or you can set the content of the text (including its static image) by configuring the module (click the "Configure" button for the module in the "Modules" page).

How can I display errors when I get a blank page?

Those blank pages are a HTTP 500 error. You can see that more properly by viewing the shop in the Chrome browser. Read more about it here:

This is a server error, which means that either the server has an issue, or the website's programming (ie., PrestaShop itself) has had something wrong happen.
HTTP 500 being a very general error, you will need more information in order to pinpoint where the problem is. You can do so by enabling the debug messages. Follow these instructions:

  • using your FTP client, go to your web server’s FTP, and open the file "defines.inc.php", which is in the "config" folder. There's a bunch of text, then this appears:

    /* Debug only */
define('_PS_MODE_DEV_', false);
if (_PS_MODE_DEV_)

  • change that second line: replace "false" with "true" (without quotes). It should now read:

    /* Debug only */
define('_PS_MODE_DEV_', true);
if (_PS_MODE_DEV_)

The "dev" mode is now enabled, and more detailed error messages should display. Use that to find where the problem lies – it could be a module, a section of the theme, or maybe even PrestaShop itself.
Once you have fixed the issue and error messages do not appear anymore, change the edited line back to "false".

How do I upload an image to a CMS page?

CMS pages are built using a WYSIWYG system, which is based on the popular TinyMCE (http://www.tinymce.com/). When creating or editing a page, the editor presents a series of button, used to format and improve the text.

The "Upload" button is located int the bottom row of the interface:

  1. Click on the "Insert / Edit image" button. A new window opens.
  2. Click on the icon on the right of the "Image URL" field. Another window opens.
  3. Click on the "Upload" link at the top right of that window. The window darkens and you can click on the "Browse" button to find your image.
  4. Select your image on your computer, then click the "Upload" button. The upload indicator stops circling when the image is on your server. Click the "Close" link to get back to the previous window.
  5. Select your image in the folder but checking the box (you can view a thumbnail by clicking the icon next to the checkbox), then click the "Select" button. you are taken back to the first window, where you can see your image in full size in the first tab, and choose more options on the other two tabs. Click the "Insert" button to put your image in the CMS page and close that window.
  6. Finally, you can see your CMS page with your image clearly visible. If the image is too back, you can resize it using the border handles, or you can widen the text field. You can move the image at will.

How to display a different price for professionals?

In many countries, professionals are used to see prices displayed without the tax (even if the tax is indeed included in the final invoice).

This is not set up by default, but you you can easily put that in place for some select users. Regular users will still see the prices including taxes.

  1. Go to the "Groups" page of the "Customers" menu.
  2. Create a new group named "Professionals" (or any other fitting name).
  3. In the group-creation page, change the "Price display method" method option to use "Tax excluded". Save the group.

Now go to the "Customers" page, and for each professional customer:

  1. Open the customer edition page.
  2. In the "Group access" section, uncheck the regular "Client" group and check the new "Professionals" group
  3. In the "Default customer group", select the "Professionals" group.

This way, the clients marked as professionals will see prices without taxes as soon as they connect to their account. Visitors, guest and regular clients will still see tax-included prices.

How I can customize the maintenance page?

The maintenance page is actually a regular template file, located in your theme's folder.

You should therefore be able to find it in the name of maintenance.tpl, in the /themes/your_theme folder.

Open the maintenance.tpl file with a text editor, and edit at will. Be careful not to break the Smarty tags (marked {tag} or {/tag}) ; make sure to keep a backup in the folder, for instance under the name maintenance-originalFile.tpl.

What should I do if PrestaShop does not send me my new password?

The request to reset the password only works if the SMTP server has been configured so that PrestaShop is able to send emails.

Two solutions present themselves to you:

  1. Configure the SMTP server to send emails.
    1. Get information for SMTP connection from your hosting provider.
    2. Go to your back office (either you or an administrator who can still log), "Preferences" tab, "E-Mails" subtab.
    3. Select the "Use my own SMTP settings." A form will appear: fill it with the information given by your host.
    4. Save your changes.
    5. Request a new password once again. You should receive it.
  2. Follow these steps:
    1. Choose a new password. In our example, "$$$rabbit$159$$$".
    2. Using your FTP client, open the login.php file, located in your administration folder online.
      At the bottom of the file, add the following line:
      echo md5( PSQL( _COOKIE_KEY_ . 'newpassword' ) );
      So with our example password:
      echo md5( PSQL( _COOKIE_KEY_ . '$$$rabbit$159$$$' ) );
      Remember to put your own new password!
  3. Go to the login screen to the back-office, as if you wanted to log in, and copy the text that appears at the bottom of the page (eg.: a0ee884b507dd4624ce51968cfbb19a9)
  4. Go to the PrestaShop database, for example using phpMyAdmin. In the ps_employee table, replace the existing value in the passwd column for the employee of which you want to change the password with the value obtained in the previous step. Save your changes.
  5. You can now connect with the usual username and new password.
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