Zen Cart is one of the most popular open-source shopping cart systems available on the market today. With hundreds of solutions out there, finding the right shopping cart can rapidly transform into finding a needle in a haystack. Based on osCommerce, Zen Cart is free, extremely user-friendly, offers an abundance of options, and also supports payment gateways such as 2Checkout.com.
Please note, that the installation of Zen Cart requires 1 MySQL database.
- Log in to your HostPapa Dashboard.
- Click on My cPanel. If you have more than one domain associated with your HostPapa account, click on the appropriate domain link, then enter your cPanel password if required.
- Scroll down to the Software part, and then select Softaculous Apps Installer.
- On the left-hand menu, click on the E-Commerce section and select Zen Cart.
- Click the Install button.
- You may then configure the Software Setup.1. Choose Protocol: If your site has SSL, choose the HTTPS protocol – if not, either HTTP option will do.2. Choose Domain: Select the domain on which you wish to install Zen Cart.
3. In Directory: Leave this blank to install into the root directory of the above domain name.
IMPORTANT: If you have other software/scripts installed on this domain’s root directory, make sure you create a new folder and specify its name in this field to complete the installation. If you don’t, you will overwrite existing installations.
4. Database Name: This will be pre-populated; you may leave it as is. - You may then configure the Store Settings.1. Store Name: Choose any name for your new store.2. Store Owner: You may add a store owner’s name. 3. Store Address: Enter the name of your store, along with the full address.
- You may then configure the Admin Account.a. Admin Username: This is pre-populated; you may leave it as is or choose a new username.b. Admin Password: This is pre-populated; you may leave it as is or choose a new password. Ensure you record it for future use.
IMPORTANT: Choose a secure password to ensure the safety of your account. c. Admin Email: This is pre-populated with the admin email associated with your domain name; however we strongly suggest choosing an alternate email that is not associated with your account. d. Click the plus sign beside Advanced Options; we strongly suggest that you DO NOT disable email notifications. Keeping your scripts up to date will ensure the security of your account. Read this article to learn more about website security.
Read this article to learn more about keeping your scripts up to date. For the installation details to be emailed to your cPanel account’s primary email address, leave the Email installation details field blank. Should you wish to have them sent to another email address, enter it here. You may then configure the Database Settings. You need to click the plus sign beside Advanced Options to see this option: a. Table Prefix: This will be pre-populated; you may leave it as is. - Click Install.
Please note, if you see a red error message across the top after logging in to your Zen Cart account, please change the permissions to 444 on the following folder:
/includes/configure.php and /admin/includes/configure.php
While there, you should also change the permissions on any subfolder under the Zen folder from 777 to 755.
If you need help with your HostPapa account, please open a support ticket from your dashboard.