can Prestashop be installed on a p.c. without a hosting account ?

[audio.fi]

Hi,

 

I am new to Prestashop, and was very excited to find the web site offering a way to make an e-shop, so downloaded the software thinking, I just install it on my computer. However, once unzipped, I found no install feature so having read the install instructions on the prestashop web site, it seems that it need to be uploaded to a hosting account which I do not have yet, although I have now got a domain name.

 

Is there any way at all to use the software on the home p.c. without the need to a have a hosting account ? I just want to try it out first and have zero knowledge of hosting etc.

 

Thank you all in advance for your help.

 

P.S. If this is not possible, are there any free hosting services where I can try it out first, as I already have a paid host in mind for my shop, but do not want to be a paying customer until I know what I am doing. Thanks.

[bellini13]

you could install a software package called WAMP (Windows Apache Mysql Php) which would give you the required "hosting" software. you could then install prestashop on your local computer to test and explore.

[audio.fi]

Thank you very much for your suggestion. I googled wamp and found my different types and did not know which to choose from but decided on wampserver, since it said everything installs automatically, and is easy for the novice.

 

Now that it is installed, I do not know how to install Prestashop, and there does not seem to be an install programme within the Prestashop download, and I do not know where to install the programme within wampserver.

 

Can you help with this please ?

 

Thank you.

 

P.S. the url for wampserver is :-

 

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

[bellini13]

ok, good. i will do my best to guide you somewhat through this.

 

so now that wamp is installed, it is likely located in c:\wamp. Please confirm this, and if it is different, tell me the location. For now I will just refer to that as "WAMP_HOME"

 

The next thing you need to do is extract the prestashop download file into the webroot folder. This folder is "WAMP_HOME"\www. So extract the prestashop zip file into the "webroot" now, and you should have "WAMP_HOME"\www\prestashop

[korsspang]

Hej. Jeg har ligesom spørgeren heller ikke meget kendskab til hjemmesider men har nu downloadet det nævnte program men kan ikke finde mappen WAMP_HOME. Har haft åbnet alle mapper/undermapper i WAMP men det er der ikke så hvis jeg kan få hjælp til hvor jeg kan finde dette vil jeg blive glad.

På forhånd tak

[audio.fi]

ok, good. i will do my best to guide you somewhat through this.

 

so now that wamp is installed, it is likely located in c:\wamp. Please confirm this, and if it is different, tell me the location. For now I will just refer to that as "WAMP_HOME"

 

The next thing you need to do is extract the prestashop download file into the webroot folder. This folder is "WAMP_HOME"\www. So extract the prestashop zip file into the "webroot" now, and you should have "WAMP_HOME"\www\prestashop

 

 

I got it working with some help from various web sites, and have downloaded three themes; One from prestashop, one from template monster, and one from a web site about free templates.

First question is that the template from prestashop and the one I got from the free web sites site, are only a few hundred kb, but the one from template monster is over 100mb ? I have scanned them all with avast (all came out fine), but do you think that the 100mb one could have a virus ?

Anyway, I used the prestashop one, but the problem is that my logo is on the left, and the search box is over the top of it with no way to move it, because in "live edit" mode, there is no green move box on that particular item. Also, everything looks like it is not formatted quite right, and having looked at the attributes for the search box, it appears that it is supposed to be justified to the right, but is in fact on the left.

I then decided to try the free one I got from the free web sites site (the theme is called lite blue), and the formatting on that is all over the place.

 

I tried it in Chrome and IE7 and both look the same. Incidentally, I am using winxp sp3 on a samsung nc10 conntected to an acer standard format monitor.

 

Have you any idea what the problem is here, as it is now putting me off trying this software any further if it cannot format correctly, or am I doing something wrong, or not configured something to make this right ?

 

Also, as my test computer is using an older 4:3 format monitor; Could this have anything to do with the problem ?

 

Thanks for all your help.