SiteGround Tutorials

---

CS-Cart Tutorial

 

CS-Cart Installation

Please note that CS-Cart may not work properly if your account is running PHP 5.0.5. If you are having issues with your CS-Cart, you should change the PHP version of your account to 5.2.

CS-Cart Automatic Installation through cPanel

SiteGround introduces a fast and easy CS-Cart installation solution through the special Site Software tool in cPanel. If your web host doesn't offer such an installation, consider SiteGround exclusive CS-Cart hosting or go below to the CS-Cart manual installation. 

In order to complete the automatic CS-Cart installation in several steps open your cPanel and navigate to Site Software.

Click on the CSCart link in the Ecommerce section.

Enter the required details: admin username, admin password and the installation folder. You should also add the administrator's full name and the e-mail address.

In order to complete the installation read the license information, the disclaimer, agree to the terms and click on the Install button.

On the last screen you will find the URLs of your installation's front and back ends, the CS-Cart admin login details and the link to the SiteGround CS-Cart tutorial. Also, the CS-Cart encryption key will be visualised.

CS-Cart Manual Installation

Follow the steps listed below in order to complete the CS-Cart installation manually.

• Step 1. Database setup 

You can check our MySQL tutorial to see how to create a MySQL database and a MySQL user.  

• Step 2. Upload Files 
• Step  2.1. You may uncompress the distrubution file of the application on your local computer and upload all the files in the folder where you would like the CS-Cart application installed. You can check here for more information on how to setup your favorite FTP client.

You can also extract the CS-Cart file directly on your hosting account. You should first upload it under the folder where you would like the application installed. Once the file is uploaded, you should extract it under the folder it is located. You can extract the file using File Manager in your cPanel.

• Step 2.2. Go to the CS-Cart installation directory and change the file access permissions.

You should change the permissions of the following files:
admin.php
config.php
index.php
image.php

and of the following folders:

var
images
skins

Note that via cPanel the permissions are not set recursively.

You can change the permissions through cPanel > File Manager.

Alternatively, you can use an FTP client.

• Step 3. Once having the installation files uploaded to your account, you should open the CS-Cart Installation Wizard in your browser at:

http://www.yourdomain.com/cscart_folder/

You will see this message:
 
CS-Cart is not installed. Please click here to start the installation process: [install]
 
To proceed with the installation, you should click the install link.
 
The first two steps of the installation are License agreement and Checking requirements. Once you agree with the terms and see that all requirements are met, you should click on Next to proceed to the Host and database settings.
 
Here is how the settings should be set:

In order to use a secure server with your domain, you should have a private SSL. If you don't have a certificate yet, you can purchase one from your Customer Area->Order section.

You should enter localhost for Database server host.

In the fields for the database name, user and password you should enter the MySQL database, username and password you have created during the database setup.

Then you should enter a secret key to your preference and the administrator e-mail. If you are not installing the trial version of the script you should enter the License number. You may also choose additional languages if you intend to use them.

It is also advisable to install the demo data.

When you are ready with the details, click on Next.

After the database is installed and configured, you will be able to choose a skin for your CS-Cart.

 

When you are ready, click on Next. The skin will be installed.

If everything has been installed correctly, you will be taken to the Summary page, which is the last for the CS-Cart installation.

It is strongly recommended to remove or rename the install.php file due to security reasons.

Please also make sure you bookmark the two links for your shop's front and back-end, as you will be visiting them quite often.

CS-Cart Configuration

Basic store configuration of CS-Cart
 
Here you will learn how to configure your CS-Cart. The basic configuration includes selecting a payment module, shipping module, currency and store owner info.
 
Logging in your admin area
 
In order to log into your Administrator's area, you will have to navigate to the admin login form. If your CS-Cart is installed in your public_html/shop folder, you will be able to access the admin area by going to

http://yoursite.com/shop/admincp.php

where yoursite.com is your domain name.

The default login details for your admin area are:

username: admin
password: admin
 
The first thing you should do when you login to your CS-Cart admin area is change your password. You will see a warning message reminding you to do so:
 
 
 
You should click on Change password ›› and update your password.
 
Store settings and information

Once you have logged into your admin area, you will notice an info box with links in your upper right corner.
 
Click the Settings button - this is your store's general configuration page. In this section you can set up your Store location and contact info, basic catalog settings such as Discounts information and Users/cart settings.
 
 
 
Payment methods
 
From this section you will be able to set the payment methods you wish to use with your CS-Cart store.
 
Click on Payment methods on the administration info box as explained above. If you wish to enable the Credit Card payment module you will have to click on the checkbox under the AVAIL. tab on the right.
 

 
From the PROTOCOL dropdown menu you will be able to select http or https for normal or secure usage of the module.
 
From the MEMBERSHIP dropdown menu you will be able to select who will be able to use this payment option.
 
From the POS. (Position) text box you will be able to select the position of the module if there are more than one payment options enabled for your store. The lowest number will show on top of all other modules.
 
In the PROCESSOR tab you will be able to select the payment processor you wish to use with this payment module or you can choose Offline in order to store the information and process the payments offline.
 
When you select a payment processor,  you should click the Update button at the bottom of the page in order to save the change.
 
When the change has been saved, you will notice that a Configure button will show up under the payment processor you had chosen. Clicking this button will let you configure your Payment Gateway details.
 
 
 
Shipping settings
 
CS-Cart provides multiple shipping methods. You can manage them by clicking on Shipping settings from the Administration info box.
 
The Shipping processors will be displayed.
 
 
 
Select the checkbox on the right to enable a shipping method or select the upper right checkbox in order to disable shipping in general for your store.
 
You can also configure the shipping module details by selecting the tab with the module name at the top.
 
Please note that you have to click the Update button in order to save the changes you have made.

CS-Cart Skins

How to change the skin of your CS-Cart?

In case you wish to change the skin you chose during the installation of your CS-Cart, you should login to your administration area and go to Look and feel -> Skin selector.

You can choose the skin for your customer area and administration area. When you choose the skins you like, you should click the Update to save the changes and apply the new skins.

Banners in CS Cart

How to add a banner to your CS Cart shop?

To add a banner to your shop, you should login to your CS-Cart admin area and go to Look and feel -> Manage Ads. 

You can add a graphic banner or a text ad. If you wish to add a graphic banner, you will be given the option to add an image to your ad. If you wish to add a text ad to your shop, you will be given the option to write the text for it.

When you are ready with your ad, you should click on Add new. This will add the banner to your shop's home page.

How to enable SSL in your CS-Cart?

You should login to your CS-Cart admin area and go to Settings under the Administration menu..

Under General settings, you should check the boxes next to:

• Enable secure connection in checkout (SSL certificate is required to be installed on your server)
• Enable secure connection in administrator area (SSL certificate is required to be installed on your server)
• Enable secure connection for authentication, profile and orders pages (SSL certificate is required to be installed on your server)

This will enable SSL connection in your checkout, admin area and authentication, profile and orders pages.

You should click the Update button at the bottom of the page to save the change.

If you don't have an SSL certificate yet, you can purchase one from us at SiteGround SSL Certificates

Categories and Products in CS-Cart

Creating and Managing Categories in CS-cart

In order to create a category, you should login to your CS-Cart admin area and go to Add new category under the Catalog menu.

Once there, you can choose the category location, its name and an image for it. You can also add a description for the category, choose a page title, META description and keywords, etc:

All options are self-explanatory and you shouldn't have any problems configuring the category. When you are done, you should click Add new to create the new category.

You can modify/delete existing categories from the Manage categories option under the Catalog menu.

Creating and Managing Products in CS-cart

Creating products is similar to creating categories, the only difference being the several more settings you need to configure when adding a new product. To create a product, you should go to Add a product located under the Catalog menu.

Again, all settings are self-explanatory and you should have no problems adding a product.

To add the new product, you should click the Add new button at the bottom of the page.

You can modify/delete/clone existing products from the Manage products option under the Catalog menu.

Search Engine Friendly URLs in CS-Cart

Enabling Search Engine Optimization in CS-Cart

To enable SEO, you should login to your CS-Cart admin area and go to Addons under the Administration menu.

Once there, you should check the SEO option:

SEO (requires Apache + mod_rewrite installed)

Click on Update and the SEO module will be successfully enabled.

Modifying SEO URLs

You can modify how the SEO URLs appear in the browser from the SEO tab in the Addons section:

CS-Cart Backup

How to backup your CS-Cart application

CS-Cart has a built-in backup functionality. To use this feature, you should go to Administration -> DB Backup/Restore. From there you can backup and restore the database of your CS-Cart application.

 
 

The instructions are self-explanatory. All you have to do is click on Backup. The database dump will be saved in /home/youruser/public_html/cscart_folder/var/database/backup

You can restore a saved database by clicking on the Restore button. Please note that your current database will be overwritten by the restored one.

You can backup your CS-Cart files by downloading them locally on your computer. You can do this using an FTP client.