Install for Dummies (me)

Let me begin by saying that I havn't played with Linux/Unix for over 20 years. :cry: I've managed to get Fedora 16 installed on my computer that I'll be using for offline development.

I am looking for a step by step (idiots) guide for installing the ZenCart web site and getting it working.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Mike

Click the banner for the book^^^ right above these posts.

Thanks for the answer, unfortunately, I was hoping for something to help until the Version 1.5 of the book came out.

If you are doing a new install with 1.5, lucky you, no bleary-eyed upgrading.
Just follow the instructions with the package, they are only files that talk to a database, you can't hose your machine.
If you can cope with Linux you can cope with Zen Cart!

All answers are already here in the forum somewhere, just don't use the forum search to try and find them (use Google).

I can't help with a local installation (never done one) but I could post my step-by-step method of installing Zencart to a remote (hosted) server if you want to go that way.

stevesh:

I can't help with a local installation (never done one) but I could post my step-by-step method of installing Zencart to a remote (hosted) server if you want to go that way.

I think that would be helpfull. I'll put the linux box in another room and go the remote install route. :D

This assumes your host offers CPanel. It should be much the same with a different control panel.

First thing I do when a new version of Zencart is released is create an installation .zip file by removing the intermediate folder (zen-cart-v150-full-release-12302011) and rezipping the files inside it to a file named zencart_150_install.zip.

I also have a custom template directory 'tree' that contains all the possible override folders in the proper places, and many of the most commonly edited files in the proper folders. I used to name the custom template differently for each site, but now I just use 'custom' for everything.

When I'm ready to install, I:

1. Open the site's CPanel and then open the CPanel File Manager in Firefox (the CPanel File Manager doesn't like IE8, for some reason). Also open my FTP client (I use FireFTP).

2. Go to MySQL Databases in CPanel and create the database for the new Zencart site, and create and assign a new user name and password to that database.

3. Using FTP, copy my Zencart install zip file to the root of where the store will be.

4. In CPanel File Manager, Extract the zip file.

5. Point a new tab in Firefox to the site URL, and proceed through the Zencart installation.

6. When the installation is complete, delete the zc-install folder, using the CPanel File Manager (faster than FTP).

7. Using FTP, rename the admin folder.

8. Check the site URL to make sure everything looks OK (it will).

9. Open another Firefox tab and navigate to the renamed admin folder and log in to admin.

10. Using FTP, drag and drop the custom template tree's 'includes' folder to the root of the site.

11. In Admin - Tools - Template Selection, select 'custom' and, in Admin - Tools - Layout Boxes Controller, click 'Reset'.

Done. Last time I did this it took just under six minutes.

There's already a detailed installation guide included in your downloaded zip. See the /docs/ImplementationGuide.php file.

The implementation guide DrByte mentioned has an excellent installation section. I offered the above as a sort of quick and simple set of instructions for Zenners with hosting servers that are configured to usual standards, and especially to include the part about uploading the installation .zip file and extracting it on the server. Much faster, no chance of files being corrupted on upload and no downside I'm aware of.

I finally have ZenCart up and running on my home linux server. It turns out that all of my problems were in linux.

I would have thought :oops: that when you install Apache, MySql, and Ftp server it would have started the services and configured the firewall to allow everything to work.

NOT!! Nothing was started, and the firewall was configured so tight that a :censored: mouse fart wouldn't get through.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions. I look forward to working you the forum in the future. Hopefully as a contributor. :smile:

Mike B