PrestaShop is a popular and widely used open source and free eCommerce platform based on PHP. It has comprehensive product features for small, medium and large businesses to create and manage their online stores for free.

If you’re looking for a functional, high performance eCommerce platform to manage your online store front that’s 100% free, you’ll find PrestaShop to be useful. This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install PrestaShop on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP support.

This post covers installing the latest version of PrestaShop, which at the time of writing was at version 1.7.2.4

To get started with installing PrestaShop, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Install Apache2

PrestaShop requires a webserver to function and the most popular webserver in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below:

sudo apt install apache2

After installing Apache2, run the commands below to disable directory listing.

sudo sed -i "s/Options Indexes FollowSymLinks/Options FollowSymLinks/" /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

Step 2: Install MariaDB

PrestaShop also requires a database server to function.. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

• Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
• Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
• New password: Enter password
• Re-enter new password: Repeat password
• Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
• Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
• Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
• Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server

sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service

Step 3: Install PHP and Related Modules

PrestaShop also requires PHP to function. To install PHP and related modules run the commands below

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl

After install PHP, run the commands below to open Apache2 PHP default file.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.10
sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.04

Then make the change the following lines below in the file and save.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 64M

Step 4: Create PrestaShop Database

Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create PrestaShop database.

Run the commands below to logon to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called prestashop

CREATE DATABASE prestashop;

Create a database user called prestashopuser with new password

CREATE USER 'prestashopuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON prestashop.* TO 'prestashopuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Download PrestaShop Latest Release

Next, visit PrestaShop site and register for a free account. You must register before you’re allowed to download a copy. The community edition is what you’ll want to download.

After downloading, run the commands below to extract the download file into Apache2 root directory.

cd /tmp && curl -O https://download.prestashop.com/download/releases/prestashop_1.7.2.4.zip
unzip prestashop_1.7.2.4.zip
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/prestashop
sudo unzip prestashop.zip -d /var/www/html/prestashop/

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for PrestaShop to function.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/prestashop/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/prestashop/

Step 6: Configure Apache2

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for PrestaShop. This file will control how users access PrestaShop content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called prestashop.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/prestashop.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/prestashop/
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/prestashop/>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

Step 7: Enable the PrestaShop and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo a2ensite prestashop.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Step 8 : Restart Apache2

To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name followed by install. You should see PrestaShop setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

http://localhost

Follow the onscreen wizard until you’ve successfully installed PrestaShop

Enter the database connection info and connect.

If everything is right, you should be able to connect and install PrestaShop.

After installing, run the commands below to delete the install folder.

sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/prestashop/install/

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed PrestaShop.

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