I. Quick Start Guide
This chapter describes how to perform product installation, registration and how to setup database connection.
Installation of Store Manager for PrestaShop
IMPORTANT: Store Manager is a Windows application (not a PHP extension) and has to be installed on your computer.
If you haven’t downloaded Store Manager yet, download it from the link in your order confirmation email.
You have to close all Store Manager applications before starting the installation procedure.
Store Manager for PrestaShop setup wizard will guide you through software installation steps:
Accept License Agreement
Select Destination Location (Some people when installing like to place the software at other places on their computer, other than suggested by default)
Choose which components should be installed (all - full installation is recommended; compact; or custom)
Select the Start Menu folder (where to place program shortcuts)
Select additional tasks (optional)
The Wizard will inform you about successful installation.
Product Activation
Once you are done with the installation, you will be asked to provide license data to register the application.
Specify your License Number (it is stated in your trial registration and order confirmation emails).
Store Manager license agreement presumes that you can install, register and use one copy of software per 1 license. Purchasing full version (Store Manager for PrestaShop Primary License) you get one primary license. If you want to install and use the program on other computers and access it from other places you have to buy Additional licenses for every installation (registration). If you have any issues with registration, please check the following article: Registration problems. I'm unable to register Store Manager application, what's wrong? Also here you can check what is primary license, additional license and trial license?
Connecting to Store Database
Once you are done with installation and registration, you will be asked to connect to your database to work with it. You can either provide connection settings to your live store to start working with your live store database or to use Embedded database, which allows you to see around and check all features with default temporary database created locally. So, on the first start-up you will see the following form:
If you want to play around and not to apply changes to your real store, select "Yes" and you will see embedded database with sample data.
In order to connect to your live store, please select "No" and specify your database connection settings in Preferences form (F12). If you do not see preferences form, go to Settings -> Preferences -> Database connection tab and follow a few steps:
1. Create new or select any existing connection settings name (configuration name). Please check Configuration Name chapter for details.
2. Set up database connection. Database installed with Store Manager is a kind of temporary database created locally for different purposes. It can be used for testing Store Manager functionality or to work with your store using PHP MySQL Bridge connection. If you use free demo version and you just want to run software to see how it works, please use embedded configuration with default database. The following types of database connection can be used:
Direct Connection to MySQL Server. Most of hosting companies allow direct connections to MySQL database. However, in most cases, you have to go to your control panel and add your home/office computer IP address or domain name to Access List - list of IP addresses which are allowed to access MySQL port 3306 from outside. This option can be found under MySQL settings. Feel free to ask your hosting support to assist you in enabling direct MySQL access, they have to help you since it is a common task.
If for some reasons direct connection via port 3306 is not allowed, there is another way - secure SSH connection. Actually, SSH is a kind of tunnel between two computers - your computer and your server.
If neither direct MySQL nor SSH connections are available, PHP MySQL bridge can be used. Bridge connection allows you to use your local database to store your remote database inside it, make changes and then just synchronize them. It means that you can make changes locally and then upload them to your live store database.
3. Finally, you can either use Autodetect to detect your charsets automatically, to use the Force use the Unicode feature or specify your own Charsets. Try to switch between options if you have any issues with special symbols.
Setting up FTP Connection
In order to be able to manage, view or upload images using Store Manager you should specify FTP connection in Tools -> Preferences -> FTP. Please check here for details.
Now you're all set to enjoy the advantages of Store Manager for PrestaShop.
Check the video tutorial to see how Store Manager works and what its features and main possibilities are in practice: