Table of contents

Lo que necesitará para empezar

Instrucciones rápidas de puesta en marcha.

Aqui hay una lista reducida de lo que necesita para comenzar con la instalación de PrestaShop 1.6. No se preocupe si encuentra lagunas en algun apartado; encontrará instrucciones detalladas en las secciones que siguen a esta.

También necesitará saber la URL gracias a la cual su tienda (o tiendas) van a estar visibles en internet (también llamado nombre de dominio).

Compruebe la página oficial de requerimientos del sistema: http://www.prestashop.com/en/system-requirements.

Una vez su instalación esté en marcha, puede usar la Guía de Instalación: http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS16/Installing+PrestaShop.

Instrucciones detalladas de puesta en marcha.

PrestaShop es una aplicación web (webapp): necesita ser instalada en un Servidor Web (webserver) para funcionar correctamente, y necesita un nombre de dominio para que sus visitantes puedan acceder a su tienda.

Registrando un nombre de dominio

Antes de descargar o instalar nada, necesitará proveer de un lugar adecuado a su tienda online Prestashop. Esto se compone de dos partes: un nombre de dominio y un servidor web (un dominio y un hosting). Un dominio es el identificador online para su sitio web como por ejemplo example.com o bien myonlineshop.net. Es la fachada pública de su servidor web, y por lo tanto, de su tienda online.

Necesitará comprar un nombre de dominio (un dominio) para su tienda. Podría ser interesante comprarlo al mismo tiempo y a la misma empresa en donde estará su alojamiento (hosting): muchas empresas de alojameinto ofrecen el dominio de forma grauita con cada nueva cuenta de cliente. Podría ser gratuito durante un año, o mientras usted sea cliente de ese proveedor. Esto hace más fácil obtener el "paquete completo" (hosting+dominio) en un solo proceso.

Podrían surgir problemas con los dominios suministrados por su proveedor de hosting: si no está satisfecho con el servicio, podría querer cambiar a uno mejor... y esto implica mover no sólo los archivos y la base de datos, sino también (normalmente) el nombre de dominio al nuevo proveedor.

Los archivos y base de datos son fáciles de trasladar pero, dependiendo del proveedor, usted podría tener problemas intentando quedarse con su nombre de dominio. A pesar de que ellos han comprado el dominio para usted, cuando usted contrató el servicio completo, técnicamente el dominio les pertenece, y podrían incluso prohibirle trasladarlo a otro proveedores o hacerle pagar por él. Y dado que el dominio es su marca y la forma de acceder a su tienda, usted debería cumplir las reglas del proveedor de alojamiento para evitar males mayores.

Esto es por lo que se recomienda adquirir su nombre de dominio en un Registrador Independiente (vea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar). Técnicamente, usted nunca comprará un nombre de dominio, solo lo "alquilará" normalmente a cambio de un pago anual. Esto le dá el derecho a usar ese nombre de dominio; pero tan pronto como deje de pagarlo, no podrá seguir usándolo y cualquier otro podría obtener el derecho de uso para sí mismo. Así que quizá sea mejor pagar por el dominio además de pagar por el hosting, de forma que podría mover este último a otro proveedor de alojamiento sin cargos adicionales; sólo cambie los DNSs de su nombre de dominio y en menos de 24 horas ese cambio se habrá propagado por toda la red volviendo a estar operativa de nuevo su tienda.

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

There are many more. Ask your friends!

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.

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:

Check out our 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.

PrestaShop can host your online business on its in-house web servers: our PrestaBox service was built in order to free merchants from any technical hassle, such as installing or updating PrestaShop.

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.

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

Technical requirements

PrestaShop is an application 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. Also 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 choose, it must have the following components installed on your web server:

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. Make sure to read it!

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 and vice-versa.

Text editor

Here are a few well-known text editors:

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

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 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.

Basically, the needed parameters are:

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

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 does not suit you, here are a few other well-known FTP clients:

Making a plan

You should decide right away where you want to 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 1.6, each with its own specific domain name if necessary. You should 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

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