AbanteCart is a free and popular open-source eCommerce platform based on PHP. It has comprehensive product features ideal for small, medium, and large businesses to create and manage their online stores online. If you’re looking for a highly functional eCommerce platform to manage your online stores, you’ll find AbanteCart to be useful. To get started with installing AbanteCart, follow the steps below:

How to install AbanteCart on Ubuntu Linux with Apache support

As mentioned above, AbanteCart is a free and popular open-source eCommerce platform based on PHP. It has comprehensive product features ideal for small, medium, and large businesses to create and manage their online stores online. Below is how to install it on Ubuntu Linux with Apache support.

Install Apache

Apache2 HTTP Server represents the A in the LAMP stack. It’s the most popular web server in use. so install it, since AbanteCart needs it. To install Apache2 HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below. After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots. To test the Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see the Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.

Install MariaDB

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with AbanteCart. To install MariaDB run the commands below. After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots. Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access. When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter Set root password? [Y/n]: Y New password: Enter password Re-enter new password: Repeat password Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon into the MariaDB server Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

PHP 7.1 may not be available on Ubuntu default repositories. to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories. Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.1 Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2 Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules. After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Apache2. Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is great setting to apply in your environments. After making the change above, save the file and close. After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations. To restart Apache2, run the commands below To test PHP 7.1 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in the Apache2 root directory by running the commands below Then type the content below and save the file. Save the file. then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php You should see the PHP default test page.

Create AbanteCart Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank AbanteCart database. To login into MariaDB database server, run the commands below Then create a database called abantecart Create a database user called abantecartuser with a new password Then grant the user full access to the database. Finally, save your changes and exit

Download AbanteCart Latest Release

Next, visit the AbanteCart site and download the latest version. After downloading, run the commands below to extract the download file into the Apache2 root directory. Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Concrete5 to function.

Configure Apache2

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for AbanteCart. This file will control how users access AbanteCart content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called abantecart. conf Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location. Save the file and exit.

Enable the AbanteCart and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.

Install Let’s Encrypt Client

To get Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS certificates on your Ubuntu machine, you should first install its client. The client helps automate the process for you. To install it, run the commands below. If python-certbot-nginx isn’t already installed, you may have to add its PPA repository and install the package.

Obtaining your free SSL/TLS Certificates

After installing Let’s Encrypt Certbot client module for Apache2, run the commands below to obtain your free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate in the domain specified. Make sure to replace example.com with your domain. After running the above commands, you should get prompted to accept the licensing terms. If everything is checked, the client should automatically install the free SSL/TLS certificate and configure the Apache2 site to use the certs. Choose Yes ( Y ) to share your email address This is how easy is it to obtain your free SSL/TLS certificate for your Apache2-powered website. Pick option 2 to redirect all traffic over HTTPS. This is important! After that, the SSL client should install the cert and configure your website to redirect all traffic over HTTPS. The highlighted code block should be added to your Apache2 AbanteCart configuration file automatically by Let’s Encrypt certbot. Your AbanteCart site is ready to be used over HTTPS. A new configuration file for the domain should also be created named /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com-le-SSL.conf. This is an Apache2 SSL module configuration file and should contain the certificate definitions defined in it. You’ll have to manually renew the certificates. You’ll get an email reminder to reset when the certificates are about to expire. To test the renewal process run the commands below. To set up a process to automatically renew the certificates, add a cron job to execute the renewal process. Then add the line below and save. The cron job will attempt to renew 30 days before expiring Next, open your browser and browse to the server domain name followed by install. You should see the AbanteCart setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully. Validate all PHP settings are good and click Continue. Then type in the database connection you created above, and the admin account to manage the store. when you’re done, continue with the installation. After a brief moment, the installation should be complete. login to the back as the administrator or go to the site. You should also run the commands below to delete the installation folder to complete the installation. sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/abantecart/install Enjoy!