Installing OSCOMMERCE
On GoDaddy Hosting

Installing on GoDaddy Web Hosting

 

Installing OSCOMMERCE on a GoDaddy Web Hosting Account

Getting the files uploaded to GoDaddy

Since there is no SSH access to GoDaddy web hosting, download the OSCOMMERCE file in its zipped version (or .tgz version if you have a program to decompress it). Unzip the file and manually FTP the "catalog" directory to your hosting directory, making sure you do so in "ASCII" mode. This took a little over an hour for me on a T1 line. If you are on dialup and need to do this, it might be one of those things you start before going to bed.

Once the OSCOMMERCE files have been uploaded, you can open up a web browser and go to http://www.yourdomain.com/catalog and you should be able to view the introduction screen.

Creating a database on GoDaddy

Go to your account on GoDaddy and open up the hosting manager:

 

Go to the MySQL management, and create a database:

Note: On GoDaddy web hosting, the database name and the user name will be the same. The Description above is just that, a description.

After hitting continue, you will be asked to confirm the above information before submitting it. After confirmation, the database will be created. Once the database has been created, go back to your browser, which should still have the http://www.yourdomain.com/catalog introduction screen up. Continue through the first screen, and on the next screen, fill out the form with the correct MySQL database information:

Database Import

Please enter the database server information:

Database Server:
Hostame or IP-address of the database server
The database server can be in the form of a hostname, such as db1.myserver.com, or as an IP-address, such as 192.168.0.1
Username:
Database username
The username used to connect to the database server. An example username is 'mysql_10'.

Note: Create and Drop permissions are required at this point of the installation procedure.
Password:
Database password
The password is used together with the username, which forms the database user account.
Database Name:
Database Name
The database used to hold the data. An example database name is 'osCommerce'.
Persistent Connections:
Enable persistent database connections.

Note: Persistent connections should be disabled for shared servers.
Session Storage:  Files   Database  
Store user session data as files on the server, or in the database.

Note: Due to security related issues, database session storage is recommended for shared servers.

Note: Make sure all of your information here matches the database information you created in the prior step.

Note: To find your GoDaddy MySQL host name, click on the MySQL link in the Hosting Manager. When the table comes up that has the database you just created, hit the edit button on the right hand side (this button looks like a little pencil). You will then see something similar to the following, only the number in the hostname, between the "mysql" and ".secureserver.net" will probably be different:

MySQL Database Information
Host Name mysql351.secureserver.net
Database Name commerce
Description commercedb

Use the information after "Host Name" for the requested Database Server in OSCOMMERCE (but make sure to use the correct information and do not just copy the above "Host Name" information into OSCOMMERCE).

If you entered all data successfully, you should see the following on the screen:

New Installation

Database Import

A test connection made to the database was successful.

Please continue the installation process to execute the database import procedure.

It is important this procedure is not interrupted, otherwise the database may end up corrupt.

The file to import must be located and named at:

/usr/home/yourdomain/www/data/catalog/install/oscommerce.sql


 
Securing the Admin console

The OSCOMMERCE admin interface is located at the URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/catalog/admin. It is not secured and anyone who knows the structure of OSCOMMERCE, can easily gain access to the admin interface just by going to the "admin" directory. Securing the Admin console could be done by renaming the admin directory or the index.php. This type of security is called security through obscurity, and is not recommended. The proper way to secure the Admin console on a GoDaddy web hosting account, is to create .htpasswd and .htaccess files and place them in their proper respective locations. Instructions for securing a directory on can be found in the help section of GoDaddy's web hosting account manager:


If you feel comfortable doing so, you can create an .htaccess file to password protect a directory in your Linux hosting account. We cannot provide instructions or troubleshooting for this, but you can find tutorials and password generators at Apache's Web site.

You'll need to know the full server path of your Linux hosting account to create an .htaccess file. It is:

/home/content/u/s/e/username/html

Replace "u," "s," and "e" with the first three letters of your hosting login, and "username" with your full hosting login. This is not your customer account login, but rather, the login you use to FTP files to your site. For example, the hosting login "maynard" would translate to the following path:

/home/content/m/a/y/maynard/html

Alternately, you can find the full server path by embedding the following script in a file, and then uploading and running the file:

<?
echo __FILE__;
?>

You can also use JavaScript to create a very basic (and non-secure) form of password protection on our Linux-based hosting plans.

If you have a Deluxe or Premium hosting plan, you could also use Perl to develop password protection, though some programming skill would be required.