Open eShop is an open source ecommerce software written in PHP which allows you to sell software, music, ebooks or anything else you may want, online. It is very easy to install and in this article we will show you how to install Open eShop on a Linux VPS. For the purpose of this tutorial we will use a virtual server with Ubuntu 14.04 installed as an operating system.

Some of the most important Open eShop features are the following:
– Different payment options
– Full Customer Support System
– Mobile Ready
– Easy Store Management
– Blog, FAQ and Forum
– SEO optimized
– Discount Coupons and Product Offers
and many more…

The Open eShop technical requirements are the following:
– Apache 2+ as a web server
– MySQL 5+ for storing databases
– PHP 5.5+ or higher. The following modules/settings should be enabled: GD support, Short Tags, mcrypt, mod_rewrite, Curl and Gettext.

To install Open eShop on an Ubuntu virtual server you need to connect to your server via SSH. Once you login, update all your system software to the latest version using the command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade

Now, go ahead and create an Apache virtual host for Open eShop:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/openeshop.conf

Add the following content:

 ServerAdmin [email protected]
 DocumentRoot /var/www/openeshop
 ServerName yourdomain.com
 ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
 
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
 
 ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/yourdomain.com-error_log
 CustomLog /var/log/httpd/yourdomain.com-access_log common

Save the file and close it. Enable Open eShop and restart the Apache web server:

sudo a2ensite openeshop
sudo service apache2 restart

The easiest way to install Open eShop is to use the ‘install-openeshop.php’ installation script.

Navigate to /var/www/openeshop/:

cd /var/www/openeshop/

Download the installation script using the command:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-classifieds/open-eshop/master/install-eshop.php

Change the owner of the script:

sudo chown www-data: install-eshop.php

Create a MySQL database, so Open eShop can store its data. Log into MySQL as root:

mysql -u root -p

Create a new database, a database user and set up a password using the commands below:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE openeshop;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON openeshop.* TO 'openeshop'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YoUrPaSsWoRd';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> \q

Now, open your web browser and navigate to http://yourdomain.com. You may get something like the following:

OE Installation requirement: Before you proceed with your OE installation: Keep in mind OE uses the short tag "short cut" syntax.

Thus the short_open_tag directive must be enabled in your php.ini.

This means, short_open_tag is Off in your php.ini file and you need to replace it with ‘short_open_tag = On’

One of the easiest way to find the location of your php.ini file is to use the command:

php --ini | grep "Loaded Configuration File"

Open your php.ini file, change the value for short_open_tag, save the file and restart your Apache web server again, so the changes can take effect.

Once you refresh the window in your web browser, you should see something like this:

Click on ‘Download and Install’ to continue with the online installation.

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