Pre-Installation Steps

osCommerce Online Merchant is a web based solution that needs its relevant files to exist on the web server. The files can be copied to the web server by extracting the download package on your computer and uploading its contents to the web server via FTP, or by copying the download package to the web server directly and extracting its contents there.

Copying the Files to the Web Server

The contents of the download package need to be copied to the public HTML directory the web server is serving from.

Examples of public HTML directories are:

• /home/shinyredapples/public_html/
• /srv/www/htdocs/
• /usr/local/htdocs/
• /var/www/vhosts/shinyredapples.com/httpdocs/

The contents of the download package once extracted is:

• catalog (directory)
• CHANGELOG
• community_docs.pdf
• documentation.pdf
• extras (directory)
• LICENSE
• STANDARD
• upgrade.html

Using FTP to Copy the Download Package Contents to the Web Server

The download package of osCommerce Online Merchant should be saved and extracted on your computer to reveal its contents. The catalog directory must be copied to the public HTML directory on the web server.

This can be achieved on most FTP clients by dragging the catalog directory from your local file browser panel to the remote panel listing the files on the web server.

All PHP files must be uploaded in ASCII mode (not in Binary mode).

Directly Extracting the Download Package on the Web Server

The download package of osCommerce Online Merchant should be saved and extracted on the web server to reveal its contents. The catalog directory must be copied to the public HTML directory.

This can be achieved with the following terminal command:

cp -R catalog /path/to/public/html/directory/

File Permissions

The following files need to be writable by the web server.

Files	Web Server Writable
catalog/includes/configure.php
catalog/admin/includes/configure.php

The catalog/includes/configure.php and catalog/admin/includes/configure.php files must have their web server writable permission removed after the installation procedure has completed successfully. This is described in the Post-Installation Steps chapter.

Please consult with your hosting provider for the correct permission flag to allow the web server to write to those files. This is commonly defined with a permission flag of 755.

In some cases a world write permission flag of 777 can be used but may lead to an insecure installation of osCommerce Online Merchant.

Changing the file permissions can be performed by most FTP clients or directly on the web server.

Using FTP to Change File Permissions

Most FTP clients are capable of changing file permissions on the web server. This is commonly performed by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Properties" or "Attributes" on the context menu.

The file permissions can be changed by allowing all users to read, write, and execute the file, or by manually entering the world readable and world writable flag of 777.

Changing File Permissions Directly on the Server

Changing file permissions directly on the web server can be performed with the following terminal command:

chmod -R 777 /path/to/public/html/directory/catalog/file

Database

A MySQL database on the web server or database server is required for the installation procedure to successfully import the database table structure and required data settings.

Web Server and Database Server Details

The following web server and database server details are required during the installation procedure. Please consult your hosting provider if these details are not known.

Web Server Details

Database Server Details