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What Is OpenCart?

For online merchants, OpenCart is a free open source e-commerce platform. OpenCart is a professional and dependable platform for creating a profitable online business. This foundation appeals to a wide range of users, from seasoned web developers searching for a user-friendly interface to shop owners who are just getting started with their online business. OpenCart provides a large number of options that give you complete control over your store's customization.

You can assist your online store to reach its maximum potential by using OpenCart's functionalities. OpenCart makes its source code available for modification and customization of the web store. To start building an OpenCart website, a company must first download the software and then upload the files to their server. OpenCart provides a lot of features that cover both the basic and advanced functions of an ecommerce platform.

OpenCart Demo

What Do We Serve?

Key Features Of OpenCart

OpenCart has all the features you need to accelerate your business growth and provide exceptional customer experiences.

OpenCart Installation

OpenCart offers both Ubuntu and CentOS for download. To begin, go to the OpenCart Download Page and download the most recent version of the platform. Extract the ZIP file from your server's root directory. Rename the config-dist.php file to config.php, which may be found in the same directory and Upload/admin/config-dist.php to Upload/admin/config.php. Lastly, move all files and folders from the Upload directory to the root of your server.

The installation procedure is simple. The first step is to click the CONTINUE button to accept the License Agreement. You must enter your database credentials and then click Continue on the Configuration screen. And that's all there is to it! But, before you go any further, keep in mind that there's a caution that suggests eliminating the installation directory from your server's root directory. After removing the item, you can proceed to your storefront or the admin panel.

How To Install OpenCart In Ubuntu

In order to setup OpenCart, there are some minimum requirements your server needs to meet so that it can be installed and work properly. They include:

Web Server
PHP (at least 5.4)
Curl enabled
Database (MySQLi suggested)

Update and install:

# sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
# sudo apt install vim git unzip curl -y

Install and setup database

# mysql -u root -p

Enter password: <Enter-root-user-password>

# MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE opencartdb;
# MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'opencartuser'@'localhost' 

IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

# MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON opencartdb . * TO 'opencartuser'@'localhost';
# MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
# MariaDB [(none)]> exit;

Install and configure a web server and PHP:

# sudo vim /etc/php/7.4/fpm/php.ini

memory_limit = 512M
[Date]
date.timezone = Africa/Nairobi

Check if php-fpm is running.

# sudo systemctl status php7.4-fpm

Clone OpenCart's files from git and configure Nginx:

# sudo mkdir /var/www/html/commerce/ && cd /var/www/html/commerce/
# sudo git clone https://github.com/opencart/opencart.git

A new directory inside /var/www/html/commerce called opencart will be created and files copied into it from OpenCart's GitHub repository.

After cloning the files, navigate to upload and upload/admin directories and rename config-dist.php to config.php and admin/config-dist.php to admin/config.php

# cd /var/www/html/commerce/opencart/upload/
# sudo mv config-dist.php config.php

Then...

# cd /var/www/html/commerce/opencart/upload/admin
# sudo mv config-dist.php config.php

Configure Nginx

We have to make a few changes to the Nginx configuration defaults by adding the details we need to serve OPenCart. Change into sites-enabled, back up the default file and create a new one with new configurations.

# cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
# sudo mv default /tmp

Create a new file and add the details shown below. If you have an FQDN, replace example.com with it.

# sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/opencart.conf

server 
{
        listen       80 default_server;
        listen       [::]:80 default_server;
        server_name  example.com;
        root         /var/www/html/commerce/opencart/upload;
        index index.php index.htm index.html;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 240;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+.php)(/.+)$;
        }
}

Change OpenCart's files permissions:

# sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/commerce/
# sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/commerce/
# sudo systemctl restart nginx php7.4-fpm

Complete OpenCart Setup via Web Interface:

To complete setting up OpenCart, point your browser to the IP or domain name of the webserver serving the files. [http://[ip-or-domain-name]. You should get a page like below

License agreement

It begins with license agreements which you should accept before proceeding to the next step. Kindly do click on "Continue" on the page above

Pre-Installation

The next page checks if your server is set-up correctly. Ensure that "Current Settings" on each table matches the "Required Settings". Additionally, ensure that the files /var/www/html/commerce/opencart/upload/config.php and /var/www/html/commerce/opencart/upload/admin/config.php are writable. Once you have confirmed everything is fine, scroll down and click "Continue"

Enter your database and administration details

In the next page that shows up, you will be presented with a form for you to fill in the Database details we created in Step 2. You will notice a section that asks for your Admin credentials. Fill it up with your preferred username and password. After you have filled it up correctly simply click on "Continue" below the page.

Installation complete

If everything went well, you should see "Don't forget to delete your installation directory!" message displayed. You can go ahead and delete the directory. And our set up is finally complete!! Click on "Login to your Administration" to start customizing the backend of our first site.

Getting Started with OpenCart

We already have admin login credentials and are able to login to our store's Admin interface via http://server-ip-or-domain-name/admin as redirected from the previous step.

Once logged in, you might be asked to move the storage directory out of the public folder. Simply click "Move" and you will be sorted. The dashboard should come into view after that.

General Settings

Under System > Settings, you will need to set your store's name, owner, address, email, and phone number. Click on "edit" icon to start editing these settings. After you are done, click on the save icon to persist your settings.

Store Settings

Under Store Settings, we will change from the default settings of "Your Store", etc., to our actual Store Name and a description of the same for search engines. After you are done, click on the save icon to persist these settings.

Local Settings

Local Settings allow you to choose the Country that your store is operating from. After you are done, click on the save icon to persist the settings.

Image Settings

Next, you will need to select a logo for your store and upload it via the Image Settings tab.

To view your customized site, simply point your browser to http://server-ip-or-domain-name URL.

How To Install OpenCart In Centos

Install php

# sudo yum install php-mcrypt curl zlib php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-mysql

Create a Database and User

Install and setup database

# mysql -u root -p

Enter password: <Enter-root-user-password>

# MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE opencartdb;
# MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'opencartuser'@'localhost' 

IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

# MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON opencartdb . * TO 'opencartuser'@'localhost';
# MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
# MariaDB [(none)]> exit;

Download OpenCart and configure permissions

# cd /var/www/html/example.com/public_html
# curl -OL https://github.com/opencart/opencart/releases/download/2.3.0.2/2.3.0.2-compiled.zip
# unzip 2.3.0.2-compiled.zip 'upload/*'
# cp upload/config-dist.php upload/config.php
# cp upload/admin/config-dist.php upload/admin/config.php
# sudo chown -R apache:apache upload
# shopt -s dotglob
# mv upload/* .
# rm -rf upload

run the following commands to make sure these directories are writable.:

# chmod 0755 system/storage/cache/
# chmod 0755 system/storage/logs/
# chmod 0755 system/storage/download/
# chmod 0755 system/storage/upload/
# chmod 0755 system/storage/modification/
# chmod 0755 image/
# chmod 0755 image/cache/
# chmod 0755 image/catalog/
# chmod 0755 config.php
# chmod 0755 admin/config.php

Run the OpenCart Installer

Visit your website in your browser. You should be redirected to the OpenCart Installer in a page that looks like this:

Press CONTINUE and you will see the Pre-Installation page.

Here, select the MySQLi driver and fill out the form with the relevant information from the Create a Database and User section of this guide. You also need to select a username and password for the default administrator account for this OpenCart installation.

Finally, press the CONTINUE button and you should now see the Installation complete screen. You will also see a warning box telling you to remove your installation directory. We can do this by going back to your web root directory and running:

rm -rf install

Once you've done that, the installation is complete. Browse to

http://example.com/admin

In the above example, example.com is your domain name.

Installing Apache, PHP and MariaDB

For Ubuntu:

# apt-get install apache2 		     (On Debian based Systems)

For Centos:

yum install httpd			     (On RedHat based Systems)

Install PHP and Extensions

For Ubuntu:

# apt-get install php5 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-php5 php5-curl php5-mcrypt
(On Debian based Systems)

For Centos:

# yum install php php-mysql php5-curl php5-mcrypt			
(On RedHat based Systems)

Install MariaDB:
For ubuntu:

# apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client				
(On Debian based Systems)

For centos:

# yum install mariadb-server mariadb					
(On RedHat based Systems)

Restart services
Ubuntu:

Debian based Systems

# systemctl restart apache2.service					
# systemctl restart mariadb.service	

Centos:

RedHat based Systems

# systemctl restart httpd.service 		
# systemctl restart mariadb.service

Downloading and Setting OpenCart

# wget https://github.com/opencart/opencart/archive/master.zip
# cp master.zip /var/www/html/
# cd /var/www/html
# unzip master.zip
# cd opencart-master
# mv -v upload/* ../opencart-master/

Copy OpenCart configuration files as shown below.

# cp /var/www/html/opencart-master/admin/config-dist.php /var/www/html/opencart-master/admin/config.php
# cp /var/www/html/opencart-master/config-dist.php /var/www/html/opencart-master/config.php

Set permission

# chmod 777 -R /var/www/html/opencart-master 

Creating OpenCart Database

# mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE opencartdb;
CREATE USER 'opencartuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mypassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON opencartdb.* TO 'opencartuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED by 'mypassword';
flush privileges;
Exit;

OpenCart Web Installation:

Once everything set correctly, navigate to the web browser and type http://<web server IP address> to access the OpenCart web installation.

Click "CONTINUE" to Agree the License Agreement.

The next screen is Pre-installation Server Setup Check, to see that the server has all the required modules are installed properly and have correct permission on the OpenCart files.

On the next screen enter your Database Credentials like Database Driver, Hostname, User-name, Password, database. You should not touch db_port and Prefix, until and unless you know what you are doing.

Also Enter User_name, Password and Email Address for Administrative account. Note these credentials will be used for logging in to Opencart Admin Panel as root, so keep it safe. Click continue when done!

The next screen shows message like "Installation Complete" with the Tag Line Ready to Start Selling. Also it warns to delete the installation directory, as everything required to setup using this directory has been accomplished.

To Remove install directory, you may like to run the below command.

# rm -rf /var/www/html/opencart-master/install

Access OpenCart Web and Admin:

Now point your browser to http://<web server IP address>/opencart-master/ and you would see something like the below screenshot.

In order to login to Opencart Admin Panel, point your browser to http://<web server IP address>/opencart-master/admin and fill the Admin Credentials you input, while setting it up.

If everything ok! You should be able to see the Admin Dashboard of Opencart.

If you still can't install OpenCart software, don't worry we are always there for you free consultation, contact now!  

Step By Step Guide Of How To Use OpenCart By AssistNix

This AssistNix tutorial explains how to install and use the OpenCart project management tool.

FAQs For OpenCart Application