Going Live

[sharonc]

Hi, Im new to this forum, please be gentle with me :). I have set up my zencart with Website Palace. Now I have configured everything the way I would like it, and am ready to go live.
My question is in simple terms how do I do I set zencart to go live?. I have ready many tutorials and cannot get my head around this one.
Thank you in advance.

[picandnix]

Hi and welcome.
Do you mean to start selling (I know that it's the whole reason for having a store...) but I'm not 100% sure what you mean by going live if your store is already hosted on the www.
Do you have a link to your store please?

[dbltoe]

Unless you have done something to specifically block your site from view, it is live.
Such things might be developing on a local computer with localhost in the configure.php. No one from the "outside" can "see" the site.
You might have created your site in a sub-folder or sub-domain AND had an .htaccess file specifically "hiding" the site from Search Engines (SEs).
Your host might have created a "hidden installation" environment for you.
If none of the above is the case, you ARE live. When you enter yourwebsite.com in a browser, can you see your site? Did you install in the root or something like yourwebsite.com/shop?
We really need more information in order to be more specific. Not familiar with Website Palace, but they are too often mentioned with GoneDaddy for my taste.

[sharonc]

Thats what I thought, but when I type in my domain name it comes up with "future home of something quite cool", when I type in my domaine name/zencart I get my website. So Im confused. Unless I have done something wrong. Sorry for any confusion. Have been trying to get my head round this for the last 4 days

[dbltoe]

Did you do the installation yourself or use an automated installation product? Hopefully, you didn't use any installer as they are known to be buggy.

Any host will have a generic html file in the root of a website that announces the "upcoming site".

You will need to follow the directions to change folders and then remove the html file from the root.

[sharonc]

Hi dbltoe, yes it was auto installed. I have tried to follow the instructions to change folders, but Im not having much luck. Think I need it broke down in easy step by step terms :)

[dbltoe]

The problem with anyone trying to give information other than that in a tutorial/FAQ is that there are just too many variables that we have no knowledge of AND we might leave out a step that is vital to your success. I'm guessing that you're not familiar with FTP, file editing, and the like. Not knocking you, just most folks who are won't use a shortcut to load and setup files.

That said, here's some things to consider.

Your host might be willing to add a redirect from the root to the zencart folder. That would redirect anyone typing in yourwebsite.com to yourwebsite.com/zencat but their browser would look like they are still at yourwebsite.com. This can cause problems down the road with some mods, but could get you going temporarily.

If you have done little customization (mods, templates, etc.), you might want to do a manual install into the root directory and import your current database. Of course, you don't want to jump into any of this without a backup of BOTH the database and the site.

Does your host provide you with cpanel? If so, you have some options available to you but should not be entered into without proper planning.