SiteGround Tutorials
CS-Cart Tutorial
CS-Cart Introduction
CS-Cart is an excellent and affordable shopping cart solution which will help you create and manage your online shop. The CS-Cart shopping cart is easy to install, has an intuitive template management system with built-in templates to choose from, and user-friendly admin area. For your CS-Cart e-store SiteGround will provide you with a reliable, secure and fast hosting solution where you can use all CS-Cart features.
The CS-Cart tutorial inlcudes information about:
- How to install the CS-Cart software on your web hosting account;
- How to configure your CS-Cart shop;
- How to use SEF URL's in CS-Cart ;
- How to backup your CS-Cart files;
SiteGround has long experience in providing web space for e-commerce websites. Our Ecommerce hosting service is the best choice for you for it offers the richest set of features, expert support team and lots of FREE tools.
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. Information on how to do this is available in our article here.
Installation Steps
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 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 the File Manager in your cPanel.
Step 2.2. Go to the CS-Cart installation directory and change 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.yoursite.com/cscart_dir/
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 button.
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 the 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.
You should enter localhost for Database server host.
In the fields for database name, user and password you should enter the MySQL database, username and password you created during the database setup.
Then you should enter a secret key to your preference and the administrator e-mail. You may also choose additional languages if you intend to use them.
It is also advisable to install a demo catalog.
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 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/admin.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 Search Engine Friendly URLs
Enabling Search Engine Optimization in CS-Cart is quite easy.
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.
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.