Using PrestaShop to Build an E-Commerce Website

Application Scenario

PrestaShop is a full-featured, cross-platform, and open source e-commerce platform written in the PHP programming language with support for the MySQL database management system. PrestaShop supports transactions using different currencies and almost all payment methods, such as Paypal. It is a good choice for you to build foreign trade websites. Supported By FlexusL, the PrestaShop application image uses Ubuntu 22.04 and is deployed using Docker. The Nginx, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, and Docker have been preconfigured in the image. This section describes how to use PrestaShop to build an e-commerce website.

Resource Planning and Costs

This practice uses the following resource planning as an example. You can adjust it as required.

Procedure

Step 1: Purchase a FlexusL Instance

1. Log in to the FlexusLconsole and click Buy FlexusL.
2. Specify required parameters for the FlexusL instance.
   

   Parameter	Example	Description
   Region	CN-Hong Kong	For low network latency and quick resource access, select the region nearest to your target users. After a FlexusL instance is created, the region cannot be changed. Exercise caution when selecting a region.
   Application Images	PrestaShop	Select the PrestaShop application image.
   Instance Specifications	2 vCPUs | 2 GiB memory and 60 GiB system disk	Select instance specifications as needed.
   Instance Name	PrestaShop-Example	Customize an instance name that is easy to identify, for example, PrestaShop-Example.
   (Optional) Associated Services	Data disk: 10 GiB Host security Cloud backup vault: 70 GiB	You can bundle any of the services to your FlexusL instances as needed: EVS, HSS (basic edition), and CBR and set specifications as needed.
   Required Duration	1 month	The minimum duration of a purchase is one month and the maximum duration is three years. Auto-renew is enabled by default, which means the purchased FlexusL instances will be automatically renewed before they expire. If you do not enable auto-renew during the purchase process, you can still enable it later after the instances are created. For more information about auto-renewal rules, see Auto-Renewal Rules.
   Quantity	1	Set the number of FlexusL instances to be purchased.

3. Click Buy Now and complete the payment as prompted.
4. Go back to the FlexusL console and view the purchased FlexusL instance.
   

   After a FlexusL instance is created using an application image, wait until the image with the pre-installed application is up and running. Then, you can perform operations such as restarting or stopping the instance, or resetting the password. Otherwise, the installation may fail and you cannot log in to the image application dashboard.

Step 2: Configure Security Groups

Add inbound security group rules to ensure that the application preinstalled in the image can be accessed.

1. Log in to the FlexusL console and click a resource card to go to the instance details page.
2. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Cloud Servers. Locate the server and click its name.

   

3. On the Security Groups tab, click Add Rule. In the displayed dialog box, add rules displayed in the following figure and click OK.

   The following figure only displays common rules. You can add more rules as needed.

   Table 1 Security group rules

   Priority	Action	Type	Protocol & Port	Source	Description
   1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 80	0.0.0.0/0	Specifies the internal forwarding port of application images
   1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 3306	0.0.0.0/0	Allows access to MySQL databases.
   1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 9000	0.0.0.0/0	Allows external access to the application O&M dashboard.
   1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 9001	0.0.0.0/0	Allows external access to the application dashboard.

Step 3: Initialize Prestashop

The image application dashboard needs to be initialized only when you log in for the first time.

When you visit http://Public IP address:9001/admin to access the management console for the first time, PrestaShop generates a random character string following admin for encryption. Keep the encrypted address in mind because you can only use it to access the management console. For example, when you visit http://1.1.1.1:9001/admin to access the management console for the first time, the address automatically changes to http://1.1.1.1:9001/admin923reep1k.

You can also reset the address for accessing the management console, but this will lead to data loss. Please keep the encrypted address safe.

1. Obtain the administrator username and password for logging in to GitLab.
   1. In the address bar of a local browser, enter http://EIP:9000 to log in to the application O&M dashboard.

      The username and password for logging in to the dashboard are the root user and password of the FlexusL instance. A FlexusL instance does not have an initial password. Reset the password and use it to log in to the dashboard.

   2. Choose My Apps and click the App icon.
   3. Choose Access and click Initial Account to view the username and password of the administrator.

      

2. Visit http://Public IP address:9001/admin in the address bar of a local browser to access the management console.
   

   When you visit http://Public IP address:9001/admin to access the management console for the first time, PrestaShop generates a random character string following admin for encryption. Keep the encrypted address in mind because you can only use it to access the management console. For example, when you visit http://1.1.1.1:9001/admin to access the management console for the first time, the address automatically changes to http://1.1.1.1:9001/admin923reep1k.

   You can also reset the address for accessing the management console, but this will lead to data loss. Please keep the encrypted address safe.

3. Enter the password obtained in step 1.

   

   

   If a message is displayed indicating that the username or password you entered is invalid when you attempt to log in to the application dashboard, refer to Why Can't I Access the Dashboard of the Application Pre-installed in the Application Image After Entering the Initial Username and Password?

4. Click LOG IN to log in to PrestaShop.

   

Then, you have obtained a PrestaShop hosting server. You can start operating the website or follow the steps in Step 4: Deploy Prestashop to manage language packages and set languages, install modules, back up databases, and configure domain names.

Step 4: Deploy Prestashop

This section describes some basic operations of PrestaShop. For more information, see PrestaShop Documentation.