Installation: finding and uploading the ProductCart files

Before you can start using ProductCart, the software must be installed on your server and activated. You will not be able to log into your ProductCart-powered store's Control Panel and use the software to run your storefront unless it has been successfully activated.

Therefore, please take a few minutes of your time to carefully read through the following pages. Our experience has indicated that the vast majority of issues that new users of ProductCart may encounter are the result of not properly activating the software.

In order to make the activation process as smooth as possible, ProductCart includes a user-friendly Setup Wizard that will take you through all the necessary setup steps. Among other things, the Setup Wizard will perform a series of system checks on your Web server to ensure that the server can successfully host a ProductCart-powered store.

Download the latest copy of ProductCart by logging into your account on the Early Impact Web store. A link to the file will be provided by Early Impact as soon as the purchase is determined to be legitimate. Due to the high rate of fraudulent orders that a software company like Early Impact receives, we have to personally verify each order. Typically this takes less than an hour, but it may take longer during a weekend or on a holiday. We thank you in advance for your understanding on this matter.

If you purchased the software from an Early Impact reseller, you should have been provided a download link by the reseller, or the reseller may take care of the installation for you.

To download the file, you will need to log into your account on the Early Impact Web store. Your user name is the email address that you used when you purchased ProductCart. If you have forgotten your password, you can use the password reminder tool to retrieve it. The download link will expire after a few days from your purchase, for security reasons. If the link has expired when you attempt to download ProductCart, please contact us and we will promptly re-activate it.

All ProductCart files are contained in a compressed (*.zip) file. Download and “unzip” the file on your local computer using your favorite unzip utility. Microsoft® Windows® now contains a built-in utility to unzip files.

Don't double-click on the ZIP file to unzip it, but rather right-click on it and choose from the context menu. This ensures that you will not unzip the files into a single folder, but rather unzip them respecting the folder structure that is contained in the ZIP archive.

Once you have unzipped the file you will notice that it contains two folders: one called Parent Paths Enabled, the other one called Parent Path Disabled. They both contain a sub-folder called ProductCart. Each ProductCart folder contains all the files that you need to upload to your Web server to setup and use your new shopping cart.

You will use one ProductCart folder or the other depending on whether Parent Paths are enabled (more likely, recommended) or disabled (less likely) on your Web server.

If you are not sure whether or not your Web server has parent paths enabled or disabled, contact your Web hosting company, or simply upload the contents of the Standard or Parent Paths Enabled folder to your Web server, and run the ProductCart Setup Wizard, which will detect this server setting for you.

If you have already uploaded to your Web server the files contained in the Standard folder, and later discover that your Web server has Parent Path disabled, you will need to either have your Web hosting company enable Parent Paths on the Web server, or delete the entire ProductCart folder already on your server, upload the ProductCart folder contained in the Parent Path Disabled folder to your server, and run the setup again.

For more information about running ProductCart on a server with Parent Paths disabled, read the next section. If you know that your Web server has parent paths enabled, you can skip this section and go onto the next one.

Running ProductCart on a Web server that has Parent Paths disabled makes the installation a bit more complicated. That's because performing simple tasks such as moving ProductCart to a different directory on the server or renaming the “productcart” folder become more time consuming.

If possible, try to have Parent Paths enabled on the Web server.

For details about running ProductCart on a server that has Parent Paths Disabled, click here.

For security reasons, you should always rename the “pcadmin” folder. Most stores also choose to rename the “productcart” folder to personalize the store and pick a friendlier name for the storefront (e.g. “shop” or “store”).

• How to rename the "pcadmin" folder
• How to rename the "productcart" folder

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol: it allows you to move files between your desktop/laptop and the Web server that will host your ProductCart-powered store. If you don't have an FTP program installed on your computer, you can find many available for download. For example, FileZilla is a free FTP utility.

Your Web hosting company may have an FTP utility built into the administration area of your Web hosting account. However, it typically cannot be used to upload lots of files at the same time. Therefore, don't use it for uploading the “unzipped” productcart folder (see below).

You have two options to upload ProductCart to your Web server:

• You can upload the productcart folder and all of its sub-folders and files, as is
• You can first ZIP that folder, then upload the zipped file, to be unzipped on the Web server

Let's review each option separately.

Use your favorite FTP program to upload the productcart folder to your Web server. ProductCart is made up of over 1,000 ASP, HTML and other files, for a total of over 15 MB. Therefore, the process of uploading them to your Web server could take several minutes, depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Be patient as the file transfer completes: it is crucial that all files are correctly transferred to your server.

If for any reason the transfer is interrupted (e.g. your Internet connection is terminated), we recommend that you begin the process from scratch to make sure that all files are uploaded to the server.

Some Web hosting companies provide their customers with a “file manager” utility that gives you the option to zip/unzip files directly on the Web server. If that is the case, you should take advantage of this tool as follows:

• ZIP the productcart folder on your desktop
• FTP the zipped file to the Web server (typically in the “root”, i.e. the top level directory)
• Load the file manager in your Web hosting account administration area
• Unzip the *.ZIP file that you have just uploaded

• When the process has been completed (it could take a little while as many files need to be processed), click on the unzipped “productcart” folder to make sure that it does not contain another “productcart” folder, but rather several folders including “pc”, “includes”, etc.

  If it contains another productcart folder, that's because some unzip utilities automatically unzip the files to a folder with the name of the ZIP file.

  If that is the case, move the second productcart folder to the root (or to where it should be located)