Zen Cart is a popular open source shopping cart that sees strong community support. While it isn’t in as wide use as Shopify or Magento, it was one of the earlier available cart solutions.
There are many available plugins and excellent theme support. You may not get the functionality that you would from Magento. You do get a quick, working, easy to configure storefront at a very low cost of ownership.
Install LAMP
Download Zen Cart From SourceForge:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zencart/
Upload the Zip File to a Folder On Your Server
Update the System Prior to Installation
# apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Install tasksel, unzip, and the software-properties-common Packages
# apt-get install tasksel # apt-get install unzip # apt-get install -y software-properties-common
Run tasksel and Install LAMP
# tasksel
Install Zen Cart Files
Unzip the Zencart Zip File
$ sudo unzip /usr/zencart/zen-cart-v1.5.5f-12312017b.zip -d /usr/zencart
Copy the Contents of the Zen Cart Folder to Your Web Root Document Directory
$ sudo cp -r /usr/zencart/zen-cart-v1.5.5f-12312017b/. /var/www/html/
Rename the Existing index.html File
$ sudo mv /var/www/html/index.html /var/www/html/index.old
Secure the Domain
Install Certbot
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache
Make Sure the Virtual Host File Has the ServerName Set
Your .conf file name may be different if you have a Virtual Host file setup for your domain.
$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
It should contain the line:
ServerName YOURDOMAIN.com;
Install the Certificate
$ sudo certbot --apache -d techwritingshop.com -d www.techwritingshop.com
You should receive a message indicating the certificate was successfully installed.
Set File Permissions and Configure PHP/MySQL
Configure Zen Cart’s PHP Include Files
$ sudo mv /var/www/html/includes/dist-configure.php /var/www/html/includes/configure.php $ sudo mv /var/www/html/admin/includes/dist-configure.php /var/www/html/includes/configure.php $ sudo chmod 644 /var/www/html/includes/configure.php $ sudo chmod 644 /var/www/html/admin/includes/configure.php
Set Folder Permissions
$ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/cache $ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/images/ $ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/images/* $ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/includes/languages/english/html_includes $ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/media $ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/pub $ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/admin/backups $ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/admin/images/graphs$ sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/logs
Create a MySQL User and Set Permissions
$ sudo mysql -u root -p > create database zencartdb; > grant all privileges on zencartdb.* to 'username'@'localhost' identified by 'passwordhere'; > flush privileges; > exit
Check Your Version of PHP. It needs to be 5.2.9 -> 7.1.X. If 7.2 Has Been Installed Downgrade
$ php -v$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install php7.1 $ sudo apt-get install php7.1-cli php7.1-common php7.1-json php7.1-opcache php7.1-mysql php7.1-mbstring php7.1-mcrypt php7.1-zip php7.1-fpm $ sudo a2dismod php7.2 $ sudo a2enmod php7.1 $ sudo rm /usr/bin/php $ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/php7.1 /usr/bin/php
Install the Following Extensions
$ sudo apt-get install php7.1-gd $ sudo apt-getinstall php7.1-curl $ sudo apt-getinstall php7.1-xml
Configure Zen Cart Itself
Browse to Your Domain and Start the Installation
On the System Inspection Screen There Should Be No Error Messages In Red Preventing the “Continue”
Button From Being Clickable.
Agree to the License Terms and Verify the Storefront Paths are Correct and Press “Continue”
Put in the Database Credential Setup Earlier and Choose Whether Or Not To Load Demo Data and Press “Continue”
Complete The Superuser Information Fields and Press “Continue”. Make Sure to Get the Admin Password.
Note the Message On the Setup Finished Screen that We need to Rename the Admin Directory and Delete the Installation Folder
Delete the Installation Folder From The Server
$ sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/zc_install
Rename the Admin Folder
$ sudo mv /var/www/html/admin/ /var/www/html/storecontrol/
You can now login and being using the admin panel on the new path. Browse to it and use the username and password created during the Zen Cart setup. Using the path above as an example just browse to https://yourdomain.com/storecontrol
If you installed the demo store data you should also see the demo store running on the main domain. If you do the cart software is running!
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