Quick Start with ProductCart

This section applies to users of both ProductCart and ProductCart Build To Order.

Here is a quick overview of the steps required to install ProductCart. For a more in-depth description of each step, see Chapter 1 of the ProductCart User Guide.

• Unzip the ProductCart file that you have downloaded after your purchase
• Using an FTP program, upload to your Web server the productcart folder within the Parent Path Enabled folder (more)
• Set folder permissions for the Internet user (IUser) or the Everyone user:
  • Read/Write permissions to the productcart folder and all of its sub-folders and files

  • Read/Write/Delete to the productcart/includes folder and all of its sub-folders and files.

  • Read/Write/Delete to the productcart/pcadmin folder and all of its sub-folders and files.

• Rename the "pcadmin" folder
• Rename the "productcart" folder
• Setup the database: choose a database (MS SQL recommended), set it up and connect to it.
• Run the ProductCart Setup Wizard.

• GoDaddy

Once ProductCart has been installed, you can immediately start adding information to your store. If you wanted to, you could start selling products from your new e-commerce storefront within minutes!

• Configure general store settings. Select Settings > Store Settings: for details about configuring General Settings, see Chapter 3.
• Add products to your catalog. First add one or more product categories to assign your product to. To do this, select Products > Manage Categories from the navigation menu. Once the first category has been added successfully, select Products > Add New Products to add your first product to the store. How to add a new product to your online catalog is the subject of the Chapter 4.
• Add shipping options. You will probably need to specify which shipping options will be available to your customers. To do this, select Shipping > Shipping Settings to enter the address of the location from which orders will be shipped, and configure other settings that are related to shipping orders. Select Shipping > Add or View Shipping Services to add a variety of shipping options to your store. Refer to the Chapter 6 for more information.
• Add payment options. Then, specify how customers will pay for their orders by adding payment options to your store. Select Payments > Add New Payment Options from the navigation bar. You can use one of dozens of supported payment gateways, or create your own custom payment option (e.g. “Net 30”).

It's easy to integrate your ProductCart-powered store pages with the rest of your Web site.

• Integrate ProductCart with your Web site
• See a directory of e-commerce stores powered by ProductCart to see what other etailers have done
• Add ProductCart widgets to your store interface (e.g. a list of recently viewed products, a search box, etc.)
  • "How To" articles
  • Widgets and third-party add-on's

ProductCart is not a desktop application. You will use your browser to manage your online store after ProductCart has been installed. However you can install ProductCart on your desktop for testing and development purposes.