Auto-upgrading Opencart versions involves a process where the platform updates itself to the latest version without manual code. Opencart 4 does natively support a fully automated update mechanism like some other CMS platforms (e.g., WordPress). Here’s a detailed explanation of how you can set up and manage auto-updates for Opencart versions:

1. Preparation and Backup

Before any auto-upgrades, it’s crucial to ensure that your site can recover from any potential issues that might arise during the upgrade process.

• Regular Backups: Schedule regular backups of your entire Opencart store, including the database and all files.
• Staging Environment: Set up a staging environment to test updates before applying them to the live site.

Read more: Upgrade Opencart 3 to Opencart 4 version

2. Monitoring for New Releases

To automate updates, you need a way to monitor for new Opencart releases.

• RSS Feeds: Subscribe to Opencart’s release announcements via RSS feeds or email notifications.
• GitHub Repository: Monitor the official Opencart GitHub repository for new releases.

4. Automated Upgrade

Go to admin >> System >> Maintenance >> Upgrade and click Upgrade button and you are done.

6. Handling Customizations and Extensions

• Custom Themes and Extensions: Ensure your script preserves custom themes and extensions. You may need to modify the script to exclude these files from being overwritten.
• Compatibility Checks: Before updating, check that your themes and extensions are compatible with the new version. This can be automated by maintaining a compatibility matrix or using version constraints.
• Clear Modification Cache: Don’t forget to clear cache

7. Testing Updates

• Automated Testing: Implement automated testing to verify that the update was successful and that critical functionalities are working correctly.
• Manual Testing: Periodically perform manual tests to ensure the update process works as expected.

8. Rollback Mechanism

• Automated Rollback: Implement a rollback mechanism in case the update fails. This can involve restoring files and databases from the backups created before the update.

9. Monitoring and Alerts

• Monitoring: Set up monitoring to check the health of your Opencart store after the update.
• Alerts: Configure alerts to notify you of any issues during or after the update process.

Conclusion

Opencart 4 support native auto-upgrades, you can achieve automated updates through a combination of scripts, monitoring tools, and best practices. Regular backups, thorough testing, and a robust rollback strategy are essential to minimize downtime and ensure a smooth upgrade process.

Opencart multiple websites. It can handle multiple stores with one Opencart installation. Creating a Multi-Store Opencart allows for multi-store management using only one installation. If you have installed Opencart into at least one store, you can add multiple stores to your admin panel without having to repeat the installation process. To add a new store you must first create a subdomain in your cPanel, then add the store in the Settings section of the admin panel.

OpenCart 4 allows you to manage multiple online stores from a single admin interface. This multi-site capability is particularly useful for businesses that operate in different regions, sell various product lines, or want to create separate storefronts for different customer segments. Setting up multiple sites in OpenCart is straightforward and provides a centralized way to control and monitor all your stores.

Benefits of a Multisite Setup

• Centralized Management: Manage multiple stores from a single admin dashboard. One admin management with one log in for products, categories, customers, orders, design, etc
• Shared Resources: Use the same product catalog, customer database, and settings across multiple stores. You can configure each product to show on which store and can set different prices for the same product
• Customized Storefronts: Tailor the appearance and functionality of each store to target specific audiences. Although having one admin management, you can have different layouts and different themes for different stores
• Cost-Effective: Save on infrastructure and maintenance costs by running multiple stores on the same installation.
• Customer easiness: Customers can have a single sign-on for different stores that are managed on multiple.

Prerequisites

Before setting up multiple stores, ensure you have the following:

• A working installation of OpenCart 4 on the server (In our example we are using demo.webocreation.com)
• Administrative access to the OpenCart admin panel.
• Domain names or subdomains for each store, both the server and 
• DNS Domain name server settings
• You use the addon domain in cpanel to add the 2nd domain to your hosting account. Then change the document root in that 2nd domain to be the same as your first store – the folder opencart is installed in. Add the store to opencart settings and done.
• Point their A records to the IP of your server.
• Associate them with that hosting account which can be done in cPanel via “Aliases” which used to be called “Parked Domains” if I remember correctly.

Example stores

Main store: https://demo.webocreation.com
First Store 1: https://demo2.webocreation.com
Second Store 2: https://demo3.webocreation.com
Third Store 3: https://dpsignadvertising.com 

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Multisite in OpenCart 4

Step 1: Configure Your Domain/Subdomain

First, set up your additional domains or subdomains. This process will vary depending on your hosting provider but generally involves the following steps:

• DNS management: Access to domain registrar admin section so you can point domain A records to the server. In this example, we are using Cloudflare DNS so we added the A records like below, as in this example we are using sub-domain demo2.webocreation.com and demo3.webocreation.com, so pointed the A record to the IP address.
  
  Fig: 2

For main domains like dpsignadvertising.com, you need to delegate the same name server that you are using for the opencart installed server, here is https://demo.webocreation.com, so for dpsignadvertising.com, we add the same ns1 and ns2 as demo.webocreation.com

Fig: 12.3 

• Subdomains: Create subdomains (e.g., store1.yourdomain.com, store2.yourdomain.com) and point them to the OpenCart installation directory.

Fig: 12.4

Then click “Create a New Domain” enter the domain URL and submit, here we entered demo3.webocreation.com

Similarly, you can enter as many domains as needed.

• Domains: Same as sub-domains, point each domain to the root directory of your OpenCart installation. We are using the cPanel so we find the domain section, for us here is an example, click in the Domains and enter the domains.
  

2: Add New Stores in OpenCart Admin

1. Log in to Admin Panel: Log in to your OpenCart admin dashboard.
2. Navigate to Store Settings: Go to System -> Settings.
3. Add New Store:
   • Click the “+” button to add a new store.
   • Store Name: Enter the name of the new store.
   • Store URL: Enter the URL of the new store, including the trailing slashLog in., https://dpsignadvertising.com/).

If you forget the trailing slash multi-store will not work

3: Configure Store Settings

1. General Settings: Configure general settings such as store name, owner, address, email, and phone number. You can select different themes, logos, and layouts for each store
2. Local Settings: Set local settings like country, region, language, and currency for the new store.
3. Option Settings: Set all settings like products, legal, etc for the new store.
4. Image Settings: Enter the image sizes

4: Customize Your Store

1. Themes: Go to Design -> Themes and select a theme for your new store. You can choose to use the same theme as your main store or a different one.
2. Layouts: Customize the layouts for your new store by navigating to Design -> Layouts. Adjust the positions and modules according to your requirements.
3. Banners and Sliders: Set up banners and sliders specific to the new store under Design -> Banners.

5: Assign Products and Categories

1. Products: Navigate to Catalog -> Products and edit each product to assign it to the new store. Use the “Stores” tab to select the stores where the product should be visible.
2. Categories: Go to Catalog -> Categories and assign categories to the new store using the “Stores” tab.

6: Test Your Store

1. Access the Store URL: Open a web browser and navigate to the URL of your new store.
2. Verify Functionality: Ensure that all links, images, and functionalities are working correctly.
3. Place a Test Order: Complete a test purchase to verify that the checkout process is functioning correctly.

Setting up a multisite environment in OpenCart 4 is an efficient way to manage multiple online stores from a single admin interface. By following the steps outlined above, you can configure and customize each store to meet the needs of different markets or customer segments. This powerful feature of OpenCart helps streamline operations, reduce costs, and expand your business reach effectively.

In this hosting tutorial, we are looking into the AWS Lightsail LAMP stack, where we will host Opencart in AWS, and found out that there is no easy way to install it like WordPress or Magento even in AWS Lightsail, hope the Opencart package will be added soon, but for now, we need to use LAMP stack to host the Opencart in the AWS Lightsail. AWS Lightsail LAMP stack includes the latest versions of PHP 7+, Apache, and MySQL with phpMyAdmin and pre-configured components and PHP modules include FastCGI, ModSecurity, SQLite, Varnish, ImageMagick, xDebug, Xcache, OpenLDAP, Memcache, OAuth, PEAR, PECL, APC, GD, and cURL. All of the PHP modules and components needed for Opencart hosting are available in the LAMP stack of AWS Lightsail. 

Let’s get started with AWS LightSail

Go to https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail, and create an account or log in to your AWS account. The main AWS Lightsail dashboard page is separate from the main AWS dashboard. Or you can navigate from All services >> Compute >> Lightsail. It may look similar to the below screenshot.

Create a LAMP Instance for Opencart hosting

In the Lightsail dashboard click the “Create Instance” button. You will see a page where you can select instance details:

Instance Location and Availability Zone: The location is auto-selected as per your geo-location but you can change it as per your hosting need. Mostly we used Virginia, Zone A (us-east-1) as our website visitors are mostly from the USA, it is upon your requirement and decides which location and Availability zone to choose.

Platform instance image and Stack blueprint: We need linux/unix for the Opencart hosting so in “Select a platform” select the Linux/Unix. Then, in “Select a blueprint” select the LAMP (PHP 7)

SSH key pair and Automatic snapshots: Now go more below and you will see “Add launch script”, for now, we are not adding any script there. We will run scripts one by one in a command shell. If your account is new then create an SSH key pair else by default the key is selected. If you want to create something new then you can change it by clicking “Change SSH key pair”. Then check the checkbox for “Enable Automatic Snapshots” as this acts as a backup for you. If you don’t need backup then no need to check it. After you enable it, select the time you want to create the snapshot. We select 23:00 Coordinated Universal Time.

Choose your instance plan: For a start, for Linux/Unix-based instances, we can try the $3.50 USD Lightsail plan free for one month (up to 750 hours). Later, if we need to scale then we will scale by creating a new instance from the snapshots.

Identify your instance for Opencart: Now in the identify your instance, we entered the name as “Opencart_LAMP_PHP_7-2”, Key-only tags as Version1, and Key-value tags with Key as Framework and Value as Opencart. You can enter as per your need to identify your instance.

Now finally click the Create Instance button. It will take around 1 min to spin up your virtual machine with a LAMP stack. Then, you will see an instance in your dashboard like below:

Now, click on it and you will get the details of that instance. You can see the buttons to stop and reboot. You can see the “Connect using SSH” button, Public IP and Username.

Click on the “Connect using SSH”, and you will see the command interface where you can enter your commands.

Update system and PHP version in AWS lightsail

To ensure your system is up-to-date, you can run the following command:

sudo apt update -y

Check your PHP version by the following command as Opencart needs PHP version 7.3. If your PHP version is less the 7.3 than you need to upgrade to PHP 7.3+

php -v

If you are using the latest LAMP stack in AWS Lightsail then it is greater than PHP 7.4.

Opencart installation steps in the AWS Lightsail LAMP stack

Change the directory to /opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs

cd /opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs

When you do the ls command then you will see index.html which shows the Bitnami page. So, let’s remove it by the following command:

sudo rm index.html

Now, let’s retrieve the Opencart zip code by using wget. You can get the zip URL from the Github Opencart releases. We are using the zip link of Opencart 3.0.3.6 as this is the latest version of Opencart now.

wget https://github.com/opencart/opencart/releases/download/3.0.3.6/opencart-3.0.3.6.zip

Let’s unzip the opencart-3.0.3.6.zip to backup/ folder

 unzip opencart-3.0.3.6.zip -d ./backup

Now, move all the files and folder at backup/upload as these are the Opencart files

 mv ./backup/upload/* .

Now, if you visit your Public IP, which is 3.235.163.67, then you will get a similar error to error no 1. So, let’s change the ownership of the files and folders to the daemon: daemon by running the following command:

sudo chown -R bitnami:daemon /opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs/

If you want to be sure of files and folders permissions then you can run the following two commands as well:

sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 0755 {} \;
sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 0644 {} \; 

Now, see files and folders permission in AWS Lightsail for Opencart by running the command ls-lh

ls -lh

You will see the output below:

Now, if you go to public IP, then you will be able to see the first page of the Opencart installation.

Create Static IP

You can start the installation but it is better to set up static IP. For that, go to the instance detail page, and in the “Networking” tab in the IP addresses section, click the button “Create static IP“.

A static IP is a fixed, public IP address that you can assign and reassign to your instances. In the Static IP location, you left it default. In the Attach to an instance, select your instance, we select “Opencart_LAMP_PHP_7-2”. In the Identify your static IP, just give a unique name.

Now, your public IP as shown on the page, is 54.237.190.20. Now open the IP in the browser then you will see step 1 of the Opencart installation page.

Create DNS Zone

As we are using an external domain registrar than Route 53 of AWS, so we need to create the DNS zone so we can add the NS1 and NS2 in the domain. Go to the Lightsail dashboard and go to the “Networking” tab. As we already set up Static IP, you will see a button to create a DNS zone, click the button “Create DNS zone”. Enter the domain you have registered, which is dpsignadvertising.com, enter the key-only tags and key-value tags as per your requirements else leave it blank.

Once you submit the “Create DNS zone” then you will get the Name Servers like the below:

Click “Add record”, then select A record, and enter @ in the subdomain in “Resolves to” select Static IP, our is “StaticIp-Opencart”, then click the green tick box. Similarly, again, click “Add record”, then select CNAME record, and enter www in the subdomain and in “Maps to” enter the domain name. URL, then click the green tick box.

Add Name servers to your domain registrar

Now open your domain registrar, our is onlydomains.com, in your domain change the Name Servers details like below and delegate to your AWS nameservers.

After some time go to your domain, for us, it took around 5min for DNS propagation, as we use dpsignadvertising.com for the domain so when we visit the dpsignadvertising.com, visit your URL and you will see the first page of the Opencart installation of the License agreement, click the “Continue” button.

In step 2, pre-installation steps, we see all green except the config files:

So, we need to create the config.php files. You can use the following commands to change the config-dist.php to config.php

sudo mv config-dist.php config.php
sudo mv admin/config-dist.php admin/config.php 

Or, you can simply create the config.php files with the touch command:

sudo touch config.php admin/config.php

Now, change the ownership of config.php and admin/config.php

sudo chown daemon:daemon config.php admin/config.php

After the changes above, you can refresh the 2nd step of installation and click “Continue”. We reached the third step, where we need to enter the database and administration details.

Create a database, database user, and grant access

Let’s close your opened console command terminal and reconnect by clicking the “Connect using SSH” button so that you can open the new console command terminal. Then, run the command to get the root password.

cat bitnami_application_password

The root password for us is bhV7CNgnVqBQ

Now, let’s run the following command to create the new database

mysql -u root -p

Then enter the above password. Then you entered it into the MySQL console.

Let’s create a database, we are naming it “webocreationdb_2021”

CREATE DATABASE webocreationdb_2021;

Let’s create user “webocreationu12” with password ‘webocreation#123#dppass’ by running the command below:

CREATE USER 'webocreationu12'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'webocreation#123#dppass';

Let’s grant access to all for the user “webocreationu12” by running the command below:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON * . * TO 'webocreationu12'@'localhost';

Now, you can exit the database by typing the command exit;.

exit;

With all these, we are set for our database configuration.

• DB Driver: Select MySQLi
• Hostname: localhost
• Username: webocreationu12
• Password: webocreation#123#dppass
• Database: webocreationdb_2021
• Port: 3306
• Prefix: oc_ or any as you need.

You can enter the username and password for the administration

• Username: admin (any)
• Password: admin@2021 (any)
• E-mail: info@webocreation.com (any)

Once, you entered all the details then click “Continue”.

In this 3rd step, you may see the blank page. So let’s debug the error. For that, let’s run the following command:

cd /opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs/
sudo nano install/index.php

Then, in install/index.php, add the following lines of code.

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

After adding the code, exit the nano by clicking Ctrl + O and then Ctrl + X. After this let’s refresh step 3 http://dpsignadvertising.com/install/index.php?route=install/step_3, then you will see error 2. Let’s fix error 2.

 sudo nano install/cli_install.php

Then find the code $db->query(“SET @@session.sql_mode = ‘MYSQL40′”); and change to following:

$db->query("SET @@session.sql_mode = ''");

After the change, click Ctrl+O and Ctrl+X to exit the nano.

Similarly, do the same for install/model/install/install.php

sudo nano  install/model/install/install.php

Then find the code $db->query(“SET @@session.sql_mode = ‘MYSQL40′”); and change to following:

$db->query("SET @@session.sql_mode = ''");

After the change, click Ctrl+O and Ctrl+X to exit the nano.

Now, go and refresh the URL http://dpsignadvertising.com/install/index.php?route=install/step_3 and your Opencart installation is completed.

Now, let’s delete the install folder and other files and folders which are not needed.

sudo rm -rf install
sudo rm -rf backup
sudo rm opencart-3.0.3.6.zip 

With this Opencart installed, now let’s install the SSL certificate and implement the SEO URL for Opencart.

Install the free Let’s Encrypt Certificate

Install Certbot on your Lightsail instance by running the following commands:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common -y
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:certbot/certbot -y
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install certbot -y

Request a Let’s Encrypt SSL wildcard certificate by running the following commands, don’t forget to replace your domain where we use dpsignadvertising.com

DOMAIN=dpsignadvertising.com
WILDCARD=*.$DOMAIN
sudo certbot -d $DOMAIN -d $WILDCARD --manual --preferred-challenges dns certonly

Before entering the Continue, you need to add the TXT record in the “Add record”. So, go to Lightsail dashboard >> Networking tab >> Click the DNS Zones for dpsignadvertising.com >> Click to Add record >> Select the TXT record >> in the Subdomain adds _acme-challenge >> in the “Responds with” add the value shown in console, ours is “XL1S8jJ9gNTUU1M7QxDBWv6_m5lC1Lf2YTE_I7iTnH4” and save it by clicking the green checkmark.

Please wait for some time so that it propagates, after around 10 mins we click Continue in the Console.

Sometimes, it asks to add multiple TXT records. This must be set up in addition to the previous challenges; do not remove, replace, or undo the previous challenge tasks yet. Note that you might be asked to create multiple distinct TXT records with the same name. This is permitted by DNS standards.

Create links to the Let’s Encrypt certificate files in the Apache server directory by running the following commands:

sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh stop
sudo mv /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/bitnami/certs/server.crt /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/bitnami/certs/server.crt.old
sudo mv /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/bitnami/certs/server.key /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/bitnami/certs/server.key.old
sudo ln -s /etc/letsencrypt/live/$DOMAIN/privkey.pem /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/bitnami/certs/server.key
sudo ln -s /etc/letsencrypt/live/$DOMAIN/fullchain.pem /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/bitnami/certs/server.crt
sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh start

Configure HTTP to HTTPS redirection for your web application by running the following commands:

sudo vim /opt/bitnami/apache2/conf/bitnami/bitnami.conf

Add the following lines of code:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^/(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L]

After adding the code click the ESC key, and then enter:wq to save your changes, and quit Vim. Then restart the LAMP stack

sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart

With these changes your SSL certificate is ready. Now you need to change a setting in Opencart admin and change the URL in the config.php and admin/config.php

cd /opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs
sudo nano config.php

Change the define(‘HTTPS_SERVER’, ‘http://dpsignadvertising.com/’); to add https://

define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://dpsignadvertising.com/');

Exit it by pressing Ctrl + O to save and then enter, after that Ctrl + X to exit

Similarly, open admin/config.php and change the following to HTTPS://

// HTTPS
define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://dpsignadvertising.com/admin/');
define('HTTPS_CATALOG', 'https://dpsignadvertising.com/');

Exit it by pressing Ctrl + O to save and then enter, after that Ctrl + X to exit.

Now go to https://dpsignadvertising.com/admin and System >> Settings >> Edit the store >> go to the Server tab >> in the security section select Yes for “Use SSL”. Then click Save.

With these steps, your SSL is activated for your domain.

Rename .htaccess.txt to .htaccess

Pull the .htaccess.txt of the Opencart and rename it to .htaccess

sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opencart/opencart/master/upload/.htaccess.txt
sudo mv .htaccess.txt .htaccess

Read more about SEO friendly URL of Opencart

Activate the SEO URL

Once the .htaccess.txt is renamed to .htaccess, then we can activate the SEO URL at the admin. Go to admin >> System >> Settings >> Edit the Store >> Server tab >> Select Yes for “Use SEO URL”.

Read more for some best practices of Opencart SEO.

How to set up FileZilla SFTP in AWS Lightsail to transfer files?

In the Protocol field, you need to select SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol. The Host is your public IP. In Logon Type, you need to select the Key file. In the User field, you need to type bitnami. Finally in the Key file field, add the public key (where can you find the public key).

Then, click Connect button. You will get a list of folders, your code will be at htdocs.

PHPMyadmin access

Download the Lightsail SSH public key and change its permission to 0644 and make a tunnel to connect to PHPmyadmin. First, run the following command. Change the path of the key as per yours.

sudo chmod 0644 '/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/webocreation-bk/LightsailDefaultKey-us-east-1.pem'
sudo ssh -N -L 8888:127.0.0.1:80 -i /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/webocreation-bk/LightsailDefaultKey-us-east-1.pem bitnami@3.238.31.110

Then, go to http://127.0.0.1:8888/phpmyadmin/ and you will be able to log in to the PHPMyadmin. The username is the root and you can get the password by running the following command the first time you logged in:

Where can you find the SSH public key in AWS Lightsail?

To get your SSH public key in AWS Lightsail, go to the top menu “Account“, then click on the SSH Keys tab, where you can see the lists of keys as per your region. Download the key as per your region. (How to find the region key pair of your EC2 instance?)

How to find the region key pair of your EC2 instance?

Click on the instance and go to Connect tab, then at the bottom, it shows which key pair is used for this instance.

You configured this instance to use default (us-east-1) key pair.

How to upgrade to a higher Lightsail package?

To upgrade your Lightsail plan to a larger instance, take a snapshot and then create a larger instance from the snapshot.

Setup CDN Content Distribution in AWS

Go to Lightsail dashboard >> Networking tab >> Click the “Create distribution” button >> Then, in Choose your origin, select your Instance

You can “Best for Dynamic Content” or Custom settings. Change the default cache behavior to cache nothing, then change the “Directory and file overrides” and give a path to the image cache.

In the Custom domains, first, create the SSL certificates and then enable the custom domains.

You can leave the remaining setting as it is or change it as per your requirement and click the “Create Distribution” button and your CDN is set up.

Then, change A record with the AWS Cloudfront URL by removing the Static IP.

To check if the Cloudfront is working or not, just inspect the page and in the Network tab of the console, click the image and see the details. In the response, if it is serving via CloudFront URL and see the x-cache: “Hit from Cloudfront”, then CloudFront is serving the images.

Host Opencart in google cloud for free for one year, DNS, SSL, Cloudflare, SSH

Errors:

Error 1: Installation error because of ownership issues

Warning: fopen(/opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/storage/session//sess_bb5cfd84f55cef397e6edd17cb): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/session/file.php on line 29Warning: flock() expects parameter 1 to be resource, bool given in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/session/file.php on line 31Warning: fwrite() expects parameter 1 to be resource, bool given in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/session/file.php on line 33Warning: fflush() expects parameter 1 to be resource, bool given in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/session/file.php on line 35Warning: flock() expects parameter 1 to be resource, bool given in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/session/file.php on line 37Warning: fclose() expects parameter 1 to be resource, bool given in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/session/file.php on line 39

Solution Error 1: run command ‘sudo chown daemon:daemon -R .’

Error 2: Fatal error: Uncaught Exception: Error: Variable ‘sql_mode’

Fatal error: Uncaught Exception: Error: Variable 'sql_mode' can't be set to the value of 'MYSQL40'<br />Error No: 1231<br />SET @@session.sql_mode = 'MYSQL40' in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db/mysqli.php:40 Stack trace: #0 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db.php(45): DB\MySQLi->query() #1 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/install/model/install/install.php(35): DB->query() #2 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/loader.php(248): ModelInstallInstall->database() #3 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/proxy.php(47): Loader->{closure}() #4 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/install/controller/install/step_3.php(11): Proxy->__call() #5 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/action.php(79): ControllerInstallStep3->index() #6 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/router.php(67): Action->execute() #7 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/router.php(56): Router->execute() #8 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/framework.php(165): Router->dispatch() #9 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/startup.php(104): requir in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db/mysqli.php on line 40

Solution Error 2: Remove the MYSQL40. Find the code $db->query(“SET @@session.sql_mode = ‘MYSQL40′”); and remove the MYSQL40 so that the code looks like $db->query(“SET @@session.sql_mode = ””);

Error 3: AWS LightSail 500 Internal Server Error

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator at you@example.com to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Solution Error 3: check if the .htaccess is there and rename it to a different till you fix the .htaccess file

Error 4: WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@         WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!          @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Permissions 0644 for '/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/webocreation-bk/LightsailDefaultKey-us-east-1.pem' are too open.
It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.
Load key "/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/webocreation-bk/LightsailDefaultKey-us-east-1.pem": bad permissions
bitnami@3.238.31.110: Permission denied (publickey).

Solution Error 4: Give permission to the key file of 0644 by running “chmod 0644 pathofkeyfile“

Error 5: Error while generating the SSL certificate

Failed authorization procedure. dpsignadvertising.com (dns-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficient authorization :: Incorrect TXT record "oujxGkfDXUloV5IUO3__gNQA47b1wePnF4rvUcQWclM" found at _acme-challenge.dpsignadvertising.com

Solution Error 5: Check the TXT record and wait till it propagates.

Error 6: Class ‘Scssc’ not found

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class 'Scssc' not found in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/admin/controller/startup/sass.php:9 Stack trace: #0 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/action.php(79): ControllerStartupSass->index() #1 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/router.php(67): Action->execute() #2 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/engine/router.php(46): Router->execute() #3 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/framework.php(165): Router->dispatch() #4 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/startup.php(104): require_once('/opt/bitnami/ap...') #5 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/admin/index.php(26): start() #6 {main} thrown in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/admin/controller/startup/sass.php on line 9

Solution Error 6: Check the vendor folder and upload the right Opencart version vendor folder.

Error 7: This site can’t be reached

This site can’t be reached 
dpsignadvertising.com’s server IP address could not be found.
Try:
Checking the connection
Checking the proxy, firewall, and DNS configuration
ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED

Solution Error 7: Either you just make DNS changes, so better to wait up to 1-2 hours. Or the IP address given is not correct.

Error 8: mysqli::__construct(): (HY000/2002): Connection refused

Warning: mysqli::__construct(): (HY000/2002): Connection refused in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db/mysqli.php on line 7Warning: DB\MySQLi::__construct(): Couldn't fetch mysqli in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db/mysqli.php on line 10Warning: DB\MySQLi::__construct(): Couldn't fetch mysqli in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db/mysqli.php on line 10
Fatal error: Uncaught Exception: Error: <br />Error No: in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db/mysqli.php:10 Stack trace: #0 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/storage12/modification/system/library/db.php(35): DB\MySQLi->__construct() #1 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/framework.php(80): DB->__construct() #2 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/startup.php(104): require_once('/opt/bitnami/ap...') #3 /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/index.php(31): start() #4 {main} thrown in /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs/system/library/db/mysqli.php on line 10

Solution Error 8: Make sure your database server is not down.

In this way, you can set up the Opencart in AWS Lightsail. You can see how to set up Opencart in google cloud. Hope you liked this opencart tutorial, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for Opencart video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/lightsail-how-to-create-instance-from-snapshot

https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/amazon-lightsail-using-lets-encrypt-certificates-with-lamp

This Opencart user manual is for getting started with the Opencart online eCommerce website for 2024 for beginners, we are listing the best videos, blog posts, examples guides, tips, and tricks to run your Opencart shop successfully. We are showing both the frontend and backend management of Opencart.

Introduction

In this opencart 4 user manual, we are showing how we can set up an online eCommerce store with Opencart 4 for 2024. This is a list of topics covering the Opencart user manual

Get a domain name and hosting – We use onlydomains.com as we can get a domain name at $8 which is the cheapest that we found and for hosting you can use Google Cloud which gives $300 for free or use another hosting as per your choice.

Install Opencart

In the above tutorial, we will show how to install Opencart and set up the custom URL with the virtual host.

Login into Opencart Administration

Go to http://YOURURL/admin, enter your username and password and you will be in the Administration section.

Admin user profile change in Opencart

In the default Opencart installation the default user’s First Name and Last Name is John Doe so to change it just click in the John Doe on the top right corner and click “Your Profile” Then you can change the User details, and we will show you how to change by going on System Users later.

Change as per your username. first name, last name, email, image, and password.

System

In the System section, we manage and enable global or system settings of the Opencart eCommerce store like users, localization, languages, statuses, length, weight classes, and many more.

Settings

All settings details of the Opencart are in the link below, which shows local settings, options, mail settings, and server settings.

https://webocreation.com/settings-configuration-in-opencart-3-local-option-image-mail-and-server/

Users

To manage the users, user groups, access permission, modify permission, and API users in the Opencart check the following blog post:

https://webocreation.com/opencart-user-permissions-group-management-and-api-users/

Localization

In localization, we manage the local values of the stores like store locations, languages, currencies, stock statuses, order statuses, returns, countries, zones, geo sones, taxes, length classes, and weight classes.

Store location:

We can show multiple locations for each store so this is the section where we enter the store locations. Visit the blog below which shows how to add multiple stores and show it on the Contact us page.

https://webocreation.com/how-to-show-multiple-store-locations-in-contact-us-page-of-opencart/

Languages

Opencart supports multi-language, so the languages section manages the languages for the store, by default it has the English language. We can upload a new language, add a new language, set a different default language than English, and create a new custom language pack for Opencart. Check the following two links for languages:

https://webocreation.com/add-a-new-language-in-opencart-3-and-ways-to-set-a-default-language/

https://webocreation.com/how-to-make-the-custom-language-pack-in-opencart-3/

Currencies

Go to admin >> System >> Localization >> Currencies where you will see the currencies available for use in the storefront. In the store by default is the US dollar. There are Euro, Pound, and US dollars. Go to the following post to learn all about the currencies in Opencart.

https://webocreation.com/currencies-management-in-the-opencart-3/

Stock Statuses

In Opencart 3 we can manage the stock statuses. For that go to admin >> System >> Localization >> Stock Statuses then you can enter the Stock Status Name. For details go to the following post for stock statuses:

https://webocreation.com/stock-statuses-management-in-opencart-3/

Order Statuses

In Opencart 3 we can manage the order statuses. For that go to admin >> System >> Localization >> Order Statuses then click “Add New” and you can enter the Order Status Name. For detail go to the blog post:

https://webocreation.com/order-statuses-management-in-opencart-3/

Returns (Return Statuses, Return Actions, and Return Reasons)

Opencart 3 has return functionalities by default. In this Opencart user manual, we are showing you how returns are managed and handled in Opencart 3 by the site administrator and customer. Read the following post for details:

https://webocreation.com/how-product-returns-are-handled-in-opencart-3-opencart-user-manual/

Countries and Zones:

You can manage countries and zones in Opencart.
Go to the blog post and learn more:

https://webocreation.com/countries-and-zones-states-regions-management-opencart-user-manual/

Geo Zones set up in Opencart

Zone Shipping is simply shipping that is based on the different destinations, or geo zones, based on the weight of the total order.

https://webocreation.com/what-is-zone-shipping-and-how-do-i-set-it-up/

Taxes management in Opencart

We can manage and set up taxes with geocodes in OpenCart for each product.

https://webocreation.com/opencart-setup-taxes-geocodes-us-taxes-california-residents-8-75/

Length Classes and Weight Classes management in Opencart

Opencart user manual where we are showing how we can manage length classes and weight classes. These lengths and weights are used by Shipping extensions like FedEx, UPS, etc, and will be used by Shipping API to calculate the shipping cost.

https://webocreation.com/length-classes-and-weight-classes-management-opencart-user-manual/

Maintenance (Backup/Restore, Uploads and Error Logs)

In this Opencart user manual, we are giving you details of the Maintenance links: Backup/Restore, Uploads, and Error logs.

https://webocreation.com/maintenance-backup-restore-uploads-and-error-logs-opencart-user-manual/

Add categories and sub-categories in Opencart

The video shows steps to add categories and sub-categories in OpenCart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHbq5jxmol0

Add product options and attributes in Opencart 4

This video shows how to add products, their options, and attributes in Opencart, it shows physical product additions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8cFNrRJRA

Add Manufacturers or Brands

We can add manufacturers and brands in Opencart and assign them to products and brands to have their own pages. The video shows how to create the brands or manufacturers in Opencart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ob7GK09Zk

Reviews management

Visitors or customers can give reviews of the product, the video below shows how we can manage the reviews in Opencart.

https://youtu.be/9MI8YRdbnOQ

Add and change the Information page, edit the About Us page, and Add a new Information page

We can add an information page, change it, and edit the About Us page, the video shows how we can do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQb6qQ9HL8Q

Edit the Contact Us page and add a Google map to the Contact Us page

All the Contact Us page contents are handled from the settings, so if you have read the above settings posts then you can see how to change the contact addresses, phone numbers, and other stores. In the video below we show we can add Google Maps to the Contact Us page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlUs0TobctA
https://webocreation.com/how-to-add-google-map-contact-page-opencart/

Add and manage Recurring profiles

If you are selling products where you can distribute the prices in installments then the recurring profiles are ways to set up, likewise we products with a subscription. See the video below, where it is described how to set up the recurring profiles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4l7ONFqMtU

Add filters

If your eCommerce site needs filters then watch the video on how to set them up in OpenCart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A17pVsMh6U

Manage extensions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXhRSXw_ycE
https://webocreation.com/uploading-installing-configuring-uninstalling-deleting-removing-opencart-module/

Setup Marketplace

https://webocreation.com/signature-hash-not-match-opencart-solution/

https://webocreation.com/how-to-install-extensions-in-opencart-3-0-2-0/

Manage Advertising

https://youtu.be/AvkBLWAUojI

Manage Analytics

In this Opencart tutorial, you will learn how to add HTML in Opencart, similarly how to add Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Adroll, Facebook pixels, MailChimp conversion code, Google Ads conversion in success page only, and other third-party JavaScript code in the Opencart, likewise our best way to manage the JavaScript code through google tag manager and test and preview in the google tag manager.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnJjzUYfXbU

Manage Captchas in Opencart

https://webocreation.com/set-google-recaptcha-basic-captcha-opencart-2-3-0-1/

Manage Dashboard

https://webocreation.com/manage-admin-dashboard-in-opencart-3-add-and-remove-widgets/

Manage Feeds

https://youtu.be/tHz2VSv6n5E

Manage Anti-Fraud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baSR5_gjKUk

Manage Modules

https://youtu.be/mXhRSXw_ycE

Manage Payments

http://docs.opencart.com/en-gb/extension/payment/
https://youtu.be/4sSSKwA3KrM

Manage Shipping

http://docs.opencart.com/en-gb/extension/shipping/

Manage themes

https://youtu.be/v580dOJ94Oo

Manage Order Totals

See how Opencart Store credits work

How does the Store credit of Order total works in Opencart

https://isenselabs.com/posts/opencart-order-totals

Manage Modifications

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCtiqTyEoUA

Manage Events

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aH2hiUK-jo

Manage Layouts and Positions

https://webocreation.com/customize-layouts-positions-show-different-modules-opencart/

https://webocreation.com/how-to-customize-the-opencart-homepage-version-3/

Theme Editor

https://webocreation.com/administrator-theme-editor-in-opencart-3-0-2-0-default-theme/

Language Editor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5TuFBOpzP8

Manage Banners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O2Ih2GSnvM

Manage SEO URL

https://webocreation.com/25-seo-best-practices-for-opencart-3-seo-module/

https://webocreation.com/remove-route-in-opencart-for-contact-home-and-other/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y7DFjAKf-I

Sales and Manage Orders

https://youtu.be/1YtsodkHp74

Manage Returns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck1t8eubmwM

Manage Gift Vouchers

https://webocreation.com/manage-send-apply-and-design-custom-gift-vouchers-in-opencart-3/

Customers, manage customers, customer groups and customer approvals

It is the same for Opencart 3 and Opencart 2.3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCH2YIgfeho

Affiliates management in Opencart

https://webocreation.com/how-does-affiliate-work-in-opencart-3/

Manage Custom Fields

https://webocreation.com/managing-custom-fields-in-opencart-3-account-address-and-affiliate/

Marketing and Manage Marketing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKpcATEANXM

Manage Coupons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkklaSm9LaQ

Manage Mail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNuauBwLSOE

Reports, Who’s Online, and Statistics

https://webocreation.com/reports-whos-online-and-statistics-reports-in-opencart-3/

We hope these lists of videos and blog posts will help you to start the Opencart shop and go deeper into it. Please don’t forget to post your questions comments or errors so that we can help you. You can follow us on our Twitter account @rupaknpl. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for Opencart tutorials, and click to see all Opencart user manuals.