There are two major ways to install OpenCart on a live website. A live website here simply means that you have an active web hosting account linked to an active domain name with your OpenCart website running on it. To install OpenCart, you have the option of using a server script like, QuickInstall, Softaculous or to download and install the software manually. This tutorial focuses on installing the OpenCart software manually on a live server or what you can call an active web hosting account.
Further Reading:
How to install an Opencart template
How to manage extensions and themes in OpenCart
How to Manage Products and Categories in OpenCart
How to manage payments and shipping in OpenCart
OpenCart 2 Marketing and Affiliate Program
Important Steps After an OpenCart Installation
OpenCart Configuration Tutorial
OpenCart installation tutorial
Step-By-Step OpenCart Installation Procedure
Download the Latest Version of OpenCart Software and Upload to your Website
You will first need to download the OpenCart software from opencart.com. Locate the latest version and click the download button. You will require a utility software like Winrar to be installed on your local machine before you embark on this download.
Once the download is complete, you need to upload the downloaded file to your website. This will require that you choose between uploading the zipped file and extracting it in your website filemanager or extracting the downloaded file to a directory on your local computer and using an FTP client like Filezilla to upload it to your chosen location.
When you open your downloaded zip file, the following files will be visible:
"upload" folder
"license.txt" file
"readme.txt" file
Note that your OpenCart core installation files will be located in the "upload" folder. So you can simply zip the content of this folder in upload to your website directory or use an FTP client to upload to the desired location.
It is recommended that the files be moved to your default folder before you begin installation. We have had some customers make complaints about OpenCart functionality after they switch file folders.
1.1 Create Your Database
The next step will be to create a database on the MySQL server. You should locate MySQL Databases to do this. Make sure you link the database to a user and set the permissions right.
Follow this procedure to create a database on your cPanel account:
1.2 To create a MySQL database and user
- Log into the cPanel interface for the desired domain. This will require authentication with a username and password
- Click on MySQL Databases under the Databases section.
- At the next page, enter the new database name under the Create New Database field to create a new database. You will also need to create a new user by specifying one under Add New User.
- To make sure that the MySQL users have access to specific MySQL database, link them at the bottom of the page under Add User to Database. The next screen will allow you to grant privileges for the MySQL user to the database you selected. Please ensure that all priviledges are checked and then you proceed.
Now, you can proceed with your OpenCart installation.
Further Reading:
How to install an Opencart template
How to manage extensions and themes in OpenCart
How to Manage Products and Categories in OpenCart
How to manage payments and shipping in OpenCart
OpenCart 2 Marketing and Affiliate Program
Important Steps After an OpenCart Installation
OpenCart Configuration Tutorial
OpenCart installation tutorial
1.3 Launch The Auto-Installer
This will require that you open yourdomain.com/opencart-folder/
1.4 License Agreement
Check to agree to the license.
Pre-Installation Checks
This step is required to see that the server meets the technical requirements for OpenCart installation. If you find any errors, stop to adjust server settings to be compatible with your server requirements for your OpenCart installation.
2. Configuration
Database host: cpanel username with the underscore followed by your database name
User: cpanel username with the underscore followed by your database user
Password: your database user password
Database prefix: ignore
You will now need to enter a username and password for the administration section of your website.
username: something like "admin" or a prefered username.
password: a secure password for the admin login page.
Now you can continue to complete the installation. If there be an error, it suggests that some information may not have been entered correctly. You will have to double check and fix.
If there be a persistent error despite your checks, then you need to contact your web host support.
If you have followed this tutorial diligently, your OpenCart website should now be online.
Further Reading:
How to install an Opencart template
How to manage extensions and themes in OpenCart
How to Manage Products and Categories in OpenCart
How to manage payments and shipping in OpenCart
OpenCart 2 Marketing and Affiliate Program
Important Steps After an OpenCart Installation
OpenCart Configuration Tutorial
OpenCart installation tutorial
3. Installing OpenCart with QuickInstall or Softaculous
You can also install OpenCart using the QuickInstall or Softaculous 1-click installer. This is a very simple proceedure and you just follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
4. Move Your OpenCart Installation From Localhost to a Live Server
There are times you choose to install OpenCart on your local system and move it to a live server. Here are the steps involved:
4.1 Installing OpenCart on a Local PC
First of all download, and install latest version of XAMPP or WAMP on your PC depending upon your operating system requirements.
Note that in the examples, we'll be using Windows 7. Download and follow the installation steps.
After the installation, run XAMPP Server and start the Apache and MySQL services. Make sure that both Service labels are green, if not, try re-installing server again.
Sometimes Apache does not start because of Skype using the port 80. You can exit Skype or change your port. Normally, if this problem occurs, try quitting Skype and start the service again.
At this point, we should be ready to go. Let's download the latest version of OpenCart from the official site and download the latest release. Now open XAMPP and click on the Explorer Button located at on the right-side. This will open a explorer window where XAMPP is installed. There you'll see htdocs directory, just open it.
Extract the OpenCart zip and copy uploads directory inside htdocs and rename it something. (Let us for our purposes in this tutorial re-name the unzipped OpenCart directory as OpencartStore. Secondly, create an empty file named config.php inside admin directory.
Now open your favorite browser and enter url. http://localhost/OpencartStore
An installation page will be shown over browser which you will have the License Agreement. Just click on Continue button.
On the Pre-Installation page, make sure that you'll meet all the requirement of PHP Settings and Extensions.
Mac & Linux Users set the Permission of listed files & directories to writable (chmod 775)
Go to phpMyAdmin and create a database. For Example, we've created a database named storedb. Now populate the configuration form labeled "Configuration" similar to what we have below:
Database Driver: MySQL
Database Host: localhost
User: root
Password: (Password of your database user)
Database Name: storedb (What you've created on phpMyAdmin)
Database Prefix: (leave it default i.e., oc_)
Provide administrator fields on very last page. We've filled form with following details:
Username: admin
Password: admin
Email: (store admin email address)
Clicking on the Continue button will take some time as OpenCart copies Database tables and PHP files, don't worry about the time, wait for some few seconds and you're store is ready!
Don't forget to Delete "OpencartStore/install" folder after successful installation.
Navigation to http://localhost/OpencartStore again and you can see the front-end of your store with a set of sample data. You can login to the back-end by visiting http://localhost/OpencartStore/admin
That is it. You have successfully installed OpenCart on your local machine.
Now you need to move your installation to a live server. Follow these steps:
4.2 How to Move Your OpenCart Store to a Live Server
We will give you a quick guide here.
- Upload your files to your live server. You can zip to speed up your upload and un-zip after your upload is complete.
- Open the configuration files and edit to match the details of the database name, database password, database user which you have created.
- Note:: We have earlier explained how to create a database, database user and adding your user to your database in the first section.
5. Likely Problems With Installation
If you have problems with your OpenCart installation, you can contact your web host for support. Basically, you will need to check the file configuration to be sure that the folders match exactly where your OpenCart installation had been made.
What Next
Once you have completed your installation, you will need to secure and optimize your OpenCart store.
Basic Introduction to OpenCart
In the first part we will be covering the following:
- What is OpenCart?
- What are the Basic File Structure
What is OpenCart?
OpenCart is an open source, free, and powerful shopping cart system designed to give reliability when building your own web store.
Why OpenCart?
There are a lot of factors going for OpenCart, but we will only deal wwith the following listed below:
- OpenCart is extremely easy from the from the user and developer perspectives.
- There are a lot of articles available via the Internet which can help you out in nearly every situation.
- Solid documentation is available, so a developers easily can find information of each and every detail of the platform.
- Customization of code is quite easy such that a beginner level developer can also work on the code with minimal effort.
OpenCart has a lot of powerful features that gives it some advantage over other alternatives.
Note, however, there are a large number of features but we'll discussing a portion of them in this article.
Features of OpenCart:
Multiple stores in a single system
Powerful and automatic image resizing utlities
Build-in error logging
Backup and restore
Multilingual support
Support for a vast array of modules
