How To Move a ZEN CART website

Even it has an old flavor, Zen Cart is still one of the big player as ecommerce business solution. There are two  configuration files you will have to change:admin/includes/configure.php and includes/configure.php

Before start

- Backup your database as following: login on the "phpMyAdmin" from your hosting provier, go into tha database and export all tables into a file on your local computer. Do not export the database because you need to export tables only. On the new location database name may be different. Make a note with what character set is the database using there, on that hosting. May be utf8 may be something else.
- If you have plugins installed into your CMS it is better to have knowledge about how every single module is working. Check its releases. Usually all are working fine after moving the website.
- Do note delete the website from old location before getting it working in the new location. You may need it to compare value or even to copy data accross.
- Be aware that in the new location all requirements of installing a Zen Cart must be met. If it is a hosting company usually this is not an issue, but if it is your environment, it is better to configure it properly firstly.
- Be sure you have ftp connections details (ftp server url, name and password) and mysql details (mysql server url, database name, database user and database password).

Restore the website in the new location

- Upload all website files into the new location. Give proper permission to cache and images (include subfolders). Take care of extra plugin which you may have as well.
If you have modules which you suspect that may have written into database the hard links then edit the sql file (unzip it if it was compressed) and do a "search-replace" of a old path to the new hard path. Compress file back if it is applicable.
- Login on the "phpMyAdmin" from your hosting provier. Go into the database which you have and import data from the sql where you have exoprted all tables. It will be good the new database to have the same character set like the old one. If they ar not the same you may have on website many strange characters displayed. If it happens you must fix them one by one editing, correcting and saving every page with problems.
- Edit admin/includes/configure.php
Look for the following lines and change details according to your real details

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'your url');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', your url');
define('HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER', 'your url');
define('HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER', 'your url');

define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', 'your path');
define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', 'your path');

define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', 'your path');
define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', 'your path');

define('DB_PREFIX', 'your prefix');
define('DB_SERVER', 'your mysql server ');
define('DB_SERVER_USERNAME', 'your username');
define('DB_SERVER_PASSWORD', 'your password');
define('DB_DATABASE', 'your database');

define('DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE', 'your path');

Save it.

- Edit includes/configure.php
Look for the following lines and change details according to your real details

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'your url');
define('HTTPS_SERVER', your url');

define('DB_PREFIX', 'your prefix');
define('DB_SERVER', 'your mysql server ');
define('DB_SERVER_USERNAME', 'your username');
define('DB_SERVER_PASSWORD', 'your password');
define('DB_DATABASE', 'your database');

define('DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE', 'your path');

Save it.

- Change file permission

One of them os /cache folder (777).
However if you will try to change file content or to add / delete images the system will tell you exactly what folders and file must have write permission.

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