Database Setup / Setting Permissions on Folders

[jolliejollie]

I’ve watched a tutorial on installation which teaches people to choose certain settings under Optional Settings at Database Setup stage. But I noticed there is a red statement right under Optional Settings saying it is recommended to leave the settings as is unless you have a specific reason for altering them.



Just wondering if I should leave the following settings as default or follow the tutorial:

1. Store Identifier (Table Prefix)

What is this table prefix used for? Default is blank. The tutorial teaches people to set one but is it better not to set one? I did some search on this and found this thread which says that the table prefix caused a module to not work properly.

http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.p...hip-XML-Export

So is it better not to set a table prefix or is there a good reason to set one? If it’s better to set a prefix, can I use whatever characters I like?

2. SQL Cache Method

Default is none but the tutorial teaches people to choose “File”. What’s the difference between these options? Which is better? Will choosing “File” make my site load slower?

Setting Permissions on Folders

And I also wanna confirm one thing, when setting permissions on folders, are we supposed to change the permissions for catalogue/images and all their subdirectories and their subdirectories OR /images and all their subdirectories and their subdirectories?

Thanks!

[mc12345678]

Welcome to ZC...

Good questions to ask... Some of the ancillary answers can be found by reading more (FAQs, and wiki), but if I may (and hopefully not overwhelm), the prefix is added to the beginning of every table that is created in the database to support operation. This way different stores can access the same database but have unique table names that ultimately are associated with only one store at a time. (Ie, assume a table name of one and a prefix of im_. In store one the table is actually im_one. In store two if the prefix is ur_ then the tables name is ur_one. The code of both stores use the table one but when they go to access it use the applicable prefix. In this way one database can support two stores.)

Yes, some coders forget about this aspect and only code for not having a prefix...of course some also use the prefix of their own store and forget to make it generic, but that is why the forum is here to help and correct issues like that. When I first setup a store, I chose to use a prefix so that I could help identify errors with code and become a better coder even though I knew at that time I didn't know much of anything of ZC at the time...

I would say, that unless this particular store is say a second store, the default blank should be used.

2. The SQL setting, well, I thought that the file setting was supposed to go away in 1.5.3 or 1.5.4, and I've basically been installing with that in mind, so not even sure that the option of file is even 1) available or 2) will do what is "expected". Regardless, the use of a cache generally increases the speed of the site/queries, but there has also been some changes to automatically cache select queries regardless of the setting in particular situations.

Setting it to database would be the other option.

3) Permissions: catalog/images is a generic way of indicating that it is not the admin/images folder.. So saying catalog means anywhere the store is located with the rest of the information applicable to what follows.

So in a way it pretty much seems like they are the same description. The idea is to prevent inadvertent/unauthorized access to those images as after all, once set they should not need to be modified, right? :)

[frank18]

Simple answer to prefix:

Leave it blank (no prefix)

Permissions:

If you omit to change permissions of some folders you will be prompted to do so during the install process. You won't be able to continue until you fixed these permissions.

[jolliejollie]

2. The SQL setting, well, I thought that the file setting was supposed to go away in 1.5.3 or 1.5.4, and I've basically been installing with that in mind, so not even sure that the option of file is even 1) available or 2) will do what is "expected". Regardless, the use of a cache generally increases the speed of the site/queries, but there has also been some changes to automatically cache select queries regardless of the setting in particular situations.

Setting it to database would be the other option.

Thanks for your reply!

I actually haven’t installed the latest version of Zen Cart yet. I came up with these questions while watching this tutorial video and want to have them cleared up before installing. So I don’t know the latest version has already removed the “File” option for SQL Cache Method.

As you said, the use of a cache generally increases the speed of the site/queries, so is it better to select “database” for the SQL Cache Method instead of default “none”? Thanks!

[jolliejollie]

Simple answer to prefix:

Leave it blank (no prefix)

Permissions:

If you omit to change permissions of some folders you will be prompted to do so during the install process. You won't be able to continue until you fixed these permissions.

Thanks for your reply as well!