How to Install osCommerce and Activate SSL Through cPanel

osCommerce is one of the most widely used e-commerce shopping cart programs available on the market today.  It is also an application that can be easily installed via Fantastico in your cPanel control panel.  To help you in maximizing the benefits of this software, we  will not only walk you through the steps of installing osCommerce, but also show you how to configure it to use with your dedicated or shared SSL certificate to ensure that your website transactions are secure.

osCommerce Installation

– Login into your cPanel account and click on the Fantastico icon at the bottom of the main page.

– Navigate to the “E-commerce” section and click on the “osCommerce” link.

– Next, click on the “New Installation” link.

– Now you must go through a multi-step process in order to define the installation location:

Step 1: Choose your domain from the provided drop-down menu.

Step 2: Enter the name of the directory where you want osCommerce to be installed.

Keep in mind that the “install in directory” field is the one part where several users make critical mistakes.  Enter a single phrase of the new folder that will be created for the osCommerce application.  If you try to add dashes, the installation will fail every time.

Step 3: Return back and double check the information you entered in the above field.  If you want your customers to access your store when visiting “http://yoursite.com,“ you would then leave the “Install in Directory” field blank.  On the other hand, if you already have an existing website, you want to enter a given directory name in that field.  For example, if you decide to use “store” as the name of the directory, customers would access your osCommerce store by visiting “http://yoursite.com/store”.

– After entering the required information for the installation destination, enter a user name and password for your osCommerce administrative area.

– Next, enter the name of your store, an owner name, and valid email address.

Activate SSL

Once you have the installation destination squared away, the proceeding steps are self explanatory.  The SSL process deserves a little more detailed explanation.

– Set the “Use SSL” option to”Yes”

– Enter the hostname for your secure server.

If you have a dedicated IP address and SSL certificate for your website, simply enter your domain name in the next field.  If not, just use the server name entered above.

– Choose the information you want to require from your customers.  You will see that these options are pretty straightforward and can be either set to “Yes or “No.”

– After entering the information, click on the “Install osCommerce” tab.

– Lastly, on the next page click “Finish installation”.

You have now successfully installed the osCommerce shopping cart program equipped with an SSL certificate for security.  Now all you have to do is the click the provided link or type the appropriate URL into your browser to log in and set up your online store.