eCommerce: Open eShop on Ubuntu 16.04

By
Giuseppe Molica
Open eShop eCommerce Platform

Introduction – Open eShop eCommerce Platform

Open eShop is an open source software for eCommerce platforms. It is a platform developed to sell digital goods without commissions.

Its features include:

  • Many payments system options, like Paypal, Card (using Paymill, Authorize, or Stripe) and Bitpay
  • Integrated Customer Support System, which fully supports clients through an easy interface, with notifications about new tickets
  • Discount coupons limited by product, time or availability
  • Fully mobile compatible and responsive
  • Optimized for search engines
  • Integrated Blog, FAQ and Forum infrastructures
  • Detailed tracking about store’s performance
  • License generation for sell digital goods

There are three options for getting Open eShop: Lite, Hosting and Pro. The first one is free of cost.

In this tutorial we will install Open eShop Lite on an Ubuntu 16.04 server.

Prerequisites

Getting Started – Create Database

Start the MySQL shell:

$ mysql -u root -p

Create a new user, named openeshop, and a new database, openeshop_db:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE openeshop_db;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> CREATE USER 'openeshop'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'usr_strong_pwd';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON openeshop_db.* TO 'openeshop'@'localhost';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> EXIT;
Bye

Install Open eShop Lite

Download Open eShop Lite in the web root directory, which is

/var/www/html

. First, create a new directory with the following command:

#


mkdir /var/www/html/openeshop

Move into this newly created directory:

# cd /var/www/html/openeshop

Download the Open eShop installation script, by executing the following

wget

command:



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

Change the owner of the downloaded file,

install-eshop.php

executing the following command:

# chown -R www-data:www-data install-eshop.php

Create an Apache Virtual Host File for Open eShop

Next step is to create a new virtual host file for Open eShop. We will name it

openeshop.conf

. Execute the command:

# $EDITOR /etc/apache2/sites-available/openeshop.conf

Paste in that file the following content:

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerAdmin admin@example.com
 DocumentRoot /var/www/html/openeshop
 DirectoryIndex install-eshop.php
 ServerName example.com
 ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/openeshop/>
 Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
 AllowOverride All
 Order allow,deny
 allow from all
</Directory>
 ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/example.com-error_log
 CustomLog /var/log/apache2/example.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

Save, exit and enable the new Virtual Host file:

# a2ensite openeshop

It should display the following text:

Enabling site openeshop.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
 service apache2 reload

However, we will use

systemctl

to activate the new configuration by restarting the Apache service. Execute:

# systemctl restart apache2

Check the Apache status with:

# systemctl status apache2
apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
 Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
 Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
 ââapache2-systemd.conf
 Active: active (running)

So, the web server is correctly running.

Finish Open eShop Installation

At this point, with a web browser go to the URL configured in the Virtual Host file (

example.com

in this tutorial, but, of course, change it with the required domain).

The

install-eshop.php

installer should display the following message:

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.

Easy Solution:
1. Open php.ini file and look for line short_open_tag = Off
2. Replace it with short_open_tag = On
3. Restart then your PHP server
4. Refresh this page to resume your OE installation
5. Enjoy OE ;)

On the server, open the

php.ini

file:

# $EDITOR /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini

Change the line

short_open_tag = Off

with

short_open_tag = On

. It should be line 202. Save, exit and restart Apache:

# systemctl restart apache2

Reloading the page in the web browser should start the last step of the installation process, which depends on your ecommerce for digital goods.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we have seen how to easily install and configure an e-commerce platform for selling digital goods, like ebooks, music, etc. Depending on your business size, the Lite version of Open eShop may not be enough. The project also offers a Pro version, with more services, but, of course, that’s not free of cost.