First Things First: Opencart Check List

New to Opencart and you're worried about where to start, I hope this is the right place for you. It's a step-by-step plan, checklist and refference to getting started with Opencart.

• A. Planning
  1. Gathering Information
     1. Five different types of e-commerce.
     2. Comparison of shopping cart software.
     3. Open Source eCommerce Awards
     4. Opencart feature
  2. Technical plan
     1. Make sure your host support Opencart requirement.
        • PHP Setting
          • PHP Version 5+
          • Register Globals: Off
          • Magic Quotes GPC: Off
          • File Uploads: On
          • Session Auto Start: Off
          Extensions
          • MySQL: On
          • GD: On
          • cURL: On
          • ZIP: On
     2. Additional tools you may need.
  3. Technical Support
     1. Community Support at Opencart.
     2. Opencart development partner.
     3. Commercial Support at forum
  B. Actuating
  1. Developing Refference
     1. New to web developing? you can learn basic CSS and PHP from w3schools
     2. New with Opencart and want to develop by yourself; start here:
        1. Documentation
           1. Official Documentation
           2. Administration Guide
           3. Faqs & Tutorial at Opencart Forum
        2. Starting
           1. Installation
           2. Build Opencart Theme - with basic explanation on how Opencart MVC work
        3. Usefull refference:
           1. Tutorial Collection for 1.5
           2. Troubleshoot Collection for 1.5 - on progress
           3. How to Port 1.4.x Extension to 1.5.x
        4. Usefull old refference (1.4.8 - 1.4.9):
           1. Framework Explanation & Framework structure
           2. The closest thing to Opencart API: OpenCart Global Library Methods
           3. Tutorial Collection for 1.4.8 - 1.4.9
     3. Use vQmod to modificate Opencart:
        1. Download vQmod
        2. vQmod File share
        3. vQmod Manager
     4. Keep your eye on Bug Fix: Known BUGS for All OC Versions
     5. Additional extensions at Opencart site:
        1. Free Extension
        2. Commercial Extension
        3. Free Extension at forum
        4. Commercial Extension at forum
        5. Commercial Support at forum
  2. Configuration Checklist
     1. Remove Demo Data
        1. Clear data under Catalog menu
           • • • |-> Categories
                 |-> Product
                 |-> Atributes -> Attributes | Attributes Group
                 |-> Manufacturers
                 |-> Downloads
                 |-> Reviews
        2. Clear Sales -> Coupon
        3. Remove user group Demonstration System-> Users -> User Group
        4. Delete product image and cache yourstore/image/data/* | yourstore/image/cache/*
     2. Minimum Settings
        1. Store Setting System -> Setting
        2. Language & Curencies System -> Localisation -> Languages | Curencies
        3. Payment & Shipping Method Extensions -> Payment | Shipping
        4. Modules Extensions -> Modules
  C. Controlling
  1. Pre-launch Checklist
     1. Encryption key is unique and strong enough (ex. min 18 characters).
        System -> Setting -> Your Store (default, etc) -> Tab Server -> Encryption Key
     2. Check Product (also Categories & Manufacture)
        1. Meta Tag, Description, Images and Poduct tags.
        2. Status, Price, Quantity and SEO keyword.
     3. Checkout process & Payment work well.
     4. Basic function is work well: add to cart, wishlist, gift vouchers, search, bookmark, curency & language switch, and contact page.
     5. Site term pointed to corect info: Account, Checkout and Affiliate Terms.
        System -> Setting -> Your Store (default, etc) -> Tab Option
     6. Information page (ex. about us, privacy policy etc).
  2. Security Checklist
     1. Use SSL Certificate
     2. Set curent file permission to 644 or 444: index.php, config.php, admin/config.php
     3. Protect the admin directory with password, use: htpasswd or .htaccess - optional
     4. Change error.txt to error.log at
        1. System -> Setting -> Your Store (default, etc) -> Tab Server -> Error Log Filename
        2. Try to access the error log: http://yoursite.com/system/logs/error.log
        3. If you able to access url above, change htaccess.txt to .htaccess then re-check.
     5. Another refference: Good ideas for Improving security
  3. Marketing Checklist
     1. SEO Setting:
        1. Use SEO setting ( System -> Setting -> Your Store (default, etc) -> Tab Server )
        2. Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess
        3. SEO keyword doesn't blank on Product, Categories and Information
     2. Make sure you have AddThis Publisher-ID to gain Social Media analytic report for product page.
     3. Product Feed Extensions -> Products Feed
     4. Coupons Sales -> Coupons
     5. Gift Vouchers Sales -> Gift Vouchers
     6. Newsletter subscription
  4. Site Monitoring
     1. Test your site periodically:
        1. Registration & Login.
        2. Add to Cart, Product Compare, Guest Checkout, Checkout Process.
        3. Point System, Payment, Shipping Options
        4. Wishlist to cart, Downloads, Product Returns.
        5. Affiliate
        6. Contact
     2. Check your host capacity: diskspace, bandwidth and system info.
     3. If you send mail through Opencart ( Sales -> Mail ), check the result on all mail client.

It's not a final checklist, more items will be added. If you have an idea, please suggest me.
Note: If you have any questions, please ask to the related thread.

Moved to the appropriate forum and made sticky.

I've also added this and your other topic to my own signature, thanks for you time and hard work

Uploaded to the Documentation!

thank you i2paq, that awesome..

Thanks~ very helpful~

Great checklist! Can you please post recomendations for setting in the 2 php.ini files and the 2 config.php files?

Any recommendations?
root\php.ini
root\admin\php.ini
root\config.php
root\admin\config.php

Upgrade the first post.

I am looking at the php.ini setting that you recommend.

What does "session_auto_start: Off" do?
Do you have any recommendations for what should be in the config.php files? Just trying to make sure that I do not have my config.php files setup wrong...

hi there
just currently moving my store over from zen cart
open cart seems alot smoother and i love the royal mail module
looking forward to putting my site together with open cart you guys have done a great job.

One thing i did notice was that nobody mentioned anything about renaming the admin folder
(this was a secuirity reccomendation in zen cart)
if i wanted to rename the admin folder (and thus the admin log in page url) how would i go about doing that in open cart?
apreciate any feedback
all the best

Rename the admin folder to whatever you want e.g. myadmin

In that folder you'll find config.php

Change all links that contain /admin/ to /myadmin/ ... or whatever.

That's all you need to do.

I think this page not for Supports ?

openmycart.com wrote:I think this page not for Supports ?

Yes, this thread for information only. If anyone have question, make a new thred. But before you do that, check Tutorial Collection on my signature (useful from 1.4.8.x - 1.4.9.x).

Update the first thread to cover 1.5

Wow, I am new to opencart and I have been searching for an open source ecommerce package for some time and I cam across opencart today and I am just installing it now.. It looks wonderful on the demo and I am excited about giving it a try. Thanks for all of you developers who created this.

So I read through this post. But I still have questions.
1. Which files do I need to edit to configure my home page?
2. Where do I find the info for bulk uploading?

TIA

Dave

Fantastic guide. Thanks.

Looks like a good guide - Thanks

I just installed my first Open Cart - very pleased with so far.

But I did notice that using Windows 7 and Firefox I had to set my file permissions to 777.

And when they say remove your Install folder.
Do they mean the folder called on your server ? (just checking because that is frightening to a newbie)

Excellent guide for starters, hope this will help new users.

Hi everyone,
I've been testing opencart multistore and developing the modules and themes I need on MAMP and everything has gone really well. I now have to get it up an running ASAP on a webserver.
This is where I have a problem, I'm using a solaris server and everything on the checklist is correct, just not according to the opencart install page. It says Mysql is turned off however it has been tested and it's working and turned on.
Can anyone help me? (or point me in the direction of the right forum to be searching in)
Does opencart connect to mysql in a certain way that's not present on my server?

Thanks in advance
melanieDHBD

Very helpful!
Recomendations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evFeIBU7RyA
http://www.screenr.com/k068
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFTX2aPWXw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDFvupNqEPQ

Thank you very much for this helpful post.