How to host OpenCart on Hostinger VPS - ServerAvatar

OpenCart is a flexible open-source e-commerce platform known for its robust features and flexibility. With a wide range of extensions and customizable options, OpenCart enables personalized e-commerce solutions without requiring deep technical knowledge. It empowers businesses to create and manage online stores efficiently, offering features for product catalog management, order processing, and customer interaction. Hostinger serves as a reliable hosting choice for OpenCart, offering scalable infrastructure and straightforward deployment options. ServerAvatar facilitates a user-friendly experience for deploying the OpenCart application on the Hostinger platform.

Create a VPS in Hostinger

Getting started with Hostinger:

Discover how simple it is to create an account and set up a cloud VPS on Hostinger, one of the top hosting providers. Follow our step-by-step guide to swiftly establish your account to deploy a server and complete its initial setup.

What Is Hostinger?

Hostinger is a popular web hosting company known for its affordable hosting solutions and user-friendly interface, offering services like domain registration, website hosting, and cloud hosting to help individuals and businesses manage their online presence effectively.

Step 1: Create an account

• Log in to your Hostinger account. If you don’t have an account, create an account on Hostinger.
• After login, Click on the VPS option as shown in the image below.

Step 2: Select the plan

• Next, you will see various plans offering different specifications for hosting your VPS. Select the plan that best fits your requirements.
• The minimum requirements for hosting the OpenCart application are 1GB or more of RAM for better performance and 1GB or more of disk space based on the size of the store, product images, and logs. The exact amount will depend on your usage and data storage needs. You can select another plan of higher configuration as per your requirements and usage

Step 3: Complete your Payment

• Now, you have to proceed to complete the payment for your VPS plan.

Step 4: Start with Setup

• Once the payment is complete, you will be redirected to the page to begin setting up your VPS. Click on the Start Now option to proceed.

Step 5: Select Location

• Next, you have to select the location for your server. Hostinger provides various locations for setting up your VPS.
• The general rule is to select the region that is closest to your audience. It means that for the majority of your audience, Your sites will load faster due to lower latency.

Step 6: Select an Operating System

• In this step, you need to select your server operating system. We recommend selecting Ubuntu 20.04 LTS x64 or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS x64. If you are using ServerAvatar to manage your servers, these operating systems are required.

Step 7: Adding Additional Feature (Optional)

• The next option is to install an additional feature to your VPS. You can enable the malware scanner by selecting the provided checkbox. This step is optional; if you want to add it, select the checkbox and click on Continue.

Step 8: Login Method

• Next, you need to set a Root Password for your VPS and provide a Hostname. Additionally, you can add an SSH Key, which is optional. Once you have completed these steps, click on Continue.

Step 9: Finalise Details

• In the last step of this process, you need to verify the VPS information. Click on the Finish Setup option to complete the setup process.

• After clicking the Finish Setup button, You can see the Initiating Setup process as displayed in the image below.

Step 10: VPS Management and SSH Key Access

• Once the setup is complete, you will find the option to Manage VPS, allowing you to manage your VPS from its Custom Dashboard. Additionally, you will have the SSH Access option, which enables server access via Terminal.

• Congratulations! You have successfully created your Hostinger VPS, which is now ready to connect with ServerAvatar.

Initial Server Configuration

The Initial server configuration includes the installation and configuration of various packages required to host your website. Usually, You have to write commands and modify configuration files. Luckily, With ServerAvatar, Your full server configuration and optimization can be automated.

Here are the three ways to automatically configure your server with ServerAvatar.

wget https://srvr.so/install
chmod +x install
./install

Install and Setup OpenCart on Cloud using ServerAvatar

Step1: Create Opencart Database

The Opencart installation process requires database Credentials. So, to create a MySQL database for Opencart, Access the Database tab on the ServerAvatar server panel to create a Database.

To create a Database, Enter the details, such as the Database Name, in the database creation form like the image below.

Database successfully created.

Steps 2: Create a PHP Application

Access the Applications tab from the server panel to create a new PHP application for Opencart.

Now fill up the required details in the application form, as seen in the image below.

Note that:

If you want to host Opencart on your domain, then make sure to point your domain to the current IP address of your server, and for that:

1. Log in to your domain provider site, where you buy your domain. Click here for more info about your domain name.
2. Access DNS Manager to edit your DNS records (contact the support team if you don’t find them)
3. Change the IP address of A Record of your website to the > current server’s IP address.

To host Opencart on your subdomain, for example, Opencart.yourdomain.com, create a new application with the subdomain as your primary domain and follow the same procedure. For accessing Opencart on the subdomain, you need to add your subdomain on A Record that points to the current IP address of your server. To point to an IPV6 address, you would need to use an AAAA record.

Click on Next Step.

Now, choose the method and service provider: Git and GitHub (follow as per the snapshot).

Continue the process by entering the necessary information as provided below:
Repository Type: Public
Clone HTTPS URL: https://github.com/opencart/opencart.git
Branch: master
Deployment script: (keep this Script box empty)

Proceed by clicking the "Next Step".

You can either create a new System User or select an existing one.

Next, choose PHP version 8.0 or above. We're specifically seeking "index.php" or "index.html" within the custom setup. It is available in the upload directory of Opencart. So, our custom webroot is upload.

Custom Webroot: upload

Proceed to the next steps and ensure your details and requirements are accurately entered.

After confirming, click on Create Application to initiate the application creation process.

Step 3: Rename a file

On the file manager, go to the upload folder and check the Show Hidden Files box and rename the .htaccess.txt file to .htaccess.

Follow Snapshot to rename files.

Similarly rename,

1. config-dist.php to config.php at same directory path (public_html -> upload).
2. config-dist.php to config.php at directory path (public_html -> upload -> admin).

Note: - To rename a file follow the same procedure as visualized in the snapshot. Check the directory path of the file.

Step 4: Change file permissions

Select both config.php files one by one and click the Change Permission button. To access config.php follow the same directory path used in step 3.

Follow the given snapshot to change the file permission for both files.

Change the permission to 755, like the following image.

Successfully change the permission.

Step 5: Code Modification

To configure OpenCart, you may need to make some code modifications. Follow the provided directory path to open the file and make the necessary code changes.

To modify, Open: upload/system/storage/vendor/twig/twig/src/Loader/FilesystemLoader.php

On line 90, replace

$checkPath = $this->isAbsolutePath($path) ? $path : $this->rootPath.$path;

With

$checkPath = $this->rootPath.$path;

Follow the Snapshot Procedure to modify code.

Save the changes(ctrl + s).

Successfully deploy Opencart on the server through the ServerAvatar.

Step 6: Install and setup Opencart

Now access the site URL from the Application panel to install and set up Opencart.

Click on Continue.

Configuration

We have already created a database for Opencart in step 1. To establish a connection between the database and the application, enter the database credential we have already made. You can access all your database credentials, like database name, username, and password, by accessing the database tab from the server panel.

1. Enter the following database credential we have already created in ServerAvatar:
   DB Driver: MySQLi
   Hostname: localhost
   Username: Username of database
   Password: Database password
   Database Name: Database name
   Prefix: Change the database table prefix as you want

2. To create administrator enter the following details:
   Username: any username
   Password: your password
   Email: your email

Note:- Please remember the credentials you entered above for logging into Opencart.

Click Continue.

Login as admin with admin username and password on the next page to access the admin panel.

Successfully install and setup Opencart on the server through the ServerAvatar.

Step 7: Secure OpenCart admin panel

Follow the Security Notification popup to the admin panel. It points-
• To delete the installation directory after accessing the store admin panel.
• To move the storage directory outside of the web directory(e.g. public_html).
• To rename the admin directory to your choice.
That’s it. Use the power of an open-source tool flexibly to make an impressive e-Commerce store.
Check OpenCart documentation for more information related to installation and functionalities.

Thank you for choosing ServerAvatar! We warmly welcome you to our vibrant community of ServerAvatar.