Category Sections on Main Page - Module for CMS PrestaShop

Module documentation


Introduction

What is PrestaShop eCommerce?

PrestaShop is an eCommerce solution which is free for the basic kernel and open source. It supports payment gateways such as Google checkout, PayPal or payments pro via APIs.

PrestaShop is available under the Open Software License and officially launched in August 2007 for medium and small-sized business. The software, which is based on the Smarty template engine, is used by several thousands of shops worldwide.

What is PrestaShop module?

PrestaShop’s extensibility revolves around modules, which are small programs that make use of PrestaShop’s functionalities and changes them or add to them in order to make PrestaShop easier to use or more tailored to the merchant’s needs.


Getting Started

Thank you for choosing our module.
We hope you enjoy the quality and convenience of our module!

Preparation

Before you proceed to setting up your PrestaShop eCommerce, please make sure you are fully prepared. Please check the following points:

Editing software

To feel comfortable working with your PrestaShop template, we recommend you to download all required applications. You can see the list of required software on the template preview page. Requirements may vary depending on the template. We're going to tell you in general what's needed:

  1. First of all, you need application to extract the password protected sources_#########.zip archive. You can use WinZip 9+ (Windows) and Stuffit Expander 10+ (Mac).
  2. You may also need Adobe Photoshop application. It's used to edit .PSD source files and it's necessary if you want to edit template design graphics and images.
  3. To edit the template source code files, you need some code editor like Adobe Dreamweaver, Notepad++, Sublime Text, etc.
  4. To upload files to the hosting server, you may need an FTP Manager like Total Commander, FileZilla, CuteFTP, etc.

Server requirements

Please make sure your hosting server meets the PrestaShop requirements:

  • System: Unix, Linux or Windows. Unix is highly recommended.
  • Web server: Apache Web server 2.2 or any later version, Microsoft's IIS Web server 6.0 or later, and nginx 1.0 or later.
  • We recommend PHP 7.1 or later.
  • MySQL 5.0 minimum, 5.6 or later recommended.
  • At least 128 Mb of RAM on your server (64 Mb is comfortable, the more the better).

PrestaShop will work with PHP 5.1 or later, but the versions lower than 5.4 have bugs which might prevent some functions from working as expected (like invalid date timezone).

In order to run PrestaShop 1.7.x properly, your PHP installation must feature the following settings:

  • magic_quotes_gpc=off
  • memory_limit=512M
  • max_execution_time=300
  • max_input_time=300
  • upload_max_filesize=100M
  • post_max_size=20M
  • max_input_vars=10000
  • allow_url_fopen=on
  • safe_mode=off

Using the local server

You can run PrestaShop locally on your computer using the local server. To create a local hosting server, please use the localhost applications, such as WAMP, AppServ, XAMP, etc. Any of those can be easily installed as any other program and used to run PrestaShop.


Downloading

To install PrestaShop, you need to download the PrestaShop engine package from the official website at www.prestashop.com/en/downloads

Just insert your name and e-mail into the Download box input and click the 'Download' button.


Extracting Files

Once the PrestaShop engine package is downloaded, you will need to extract its files and folders from the archive.

This can be done with any archive manager like WinZip (Windows), StuffitExpander (Mac), etc.

Please check the following tutorials on how to extract files from the archives with WinZip (Windows) and StuffitExpander (Mac).

Please note: if your hosting control panel has the option to 'Extract' files, you can use it to extract the files directly on your server after the .zip file is uploaded.


Uploading PrestaShop engine files

If you have extracted the files locally to your computer, you will need to upload them to your hosting server.

This can be done using the hosting control panel File Manager or third party FTP Manager applications like FileZilla, TotalCommander, CuteFTP, etc.

You can check the detailed video tutorial on how to upload files to server using FTP manager and how to upload files to a server using cPanel (WebHost Manager, WHM).


PrestaShop engine installation

Please make sure your version of PrestaShop engine matches the specified version in "Technical Details" tab, mentioned as "PrestaShop Engine: 1.X.X.X".

When you are done with the files upload, you can start the PrestaShop engine installation. Open your web browser and type in the 'domain name/path to your PrestaShop directory' in the address bar, then reload the current page. You should see the welcome screen. Please follow the instructions below to install PrestaShop.


Installation Assistant (Choose your language)

Please select the installation language.

Please note: the installation language option will not affect your store language. By default, PrestaShop is offered in English. You can install additional localization packages to change the store language.

When you are done, click the 'Next' button.



Installation Assistant (License agreements)

  1. Please check the license agreement (1).
  2. When you are done, click the 'Next' (2) button.


System Compatibility

Check the PHP settings and directory permissions. In case of any errors, please contact your hosting provider for further assistance.

If everything is correct, click the 'Next' button.



Shop configuration

This step requires you to enter the store settings like Shop name, activity, country, timezone, etc.

All these settings can be changed later in your PrestaShop administration panel.



System Configuration

If you already have a MySQL database, please enter the database details into the appropriate fields below.

Otherwise, you can get the database details from your hosting control panel or by contacting your hosting provider.

When you are done, click the 'Next' button.



Installation is complete

This is the final step of the installation.

For security reasons you need to delete the /install/ directory on your hosting server.



Starting with version 1.5.4, PrestaShop takes care of renaming the administration folder for you: it becomes the word "admin" followed by 4 random digits, i.e. "admin8814." The renaming happens as soon as you reach the "admin" folder for the first time: PrestaShop renames it, then correctly accesses the renamed folder.

Log into the PrestaShop back office by going to your newly renamed "admin" folder, and start filling your catalog with your data.

If you face any difficulties, please check the official PrestaShop installation manual.

Module installation

Log into your PrestaShop admin panel and navigate to Modules -> Module & Manager . At the top of the page click Upload a module button.



In the modal window that appears, select a file from your computer or drag the archive into this window



After installation, reload the page and a new item will appear in the left menu



Basic tutorials

Configuration

The module works independently and has minimal settings

To configure the module, go to the tab Modules -> Module & Manager . and typing the word Section in the search will display the desired module..

Then click on the Configure button



And customize the module to your preferences



To add sections on the main page, go to Design -> Sections main page



In the settings you need to choose which section you want to see on the main page or in the product card

Either a category or specific products

If you select a category, then the products will not be displayed

Section activity



The category that will be displayed



Section name



The number of products displayed in the section



Selection of products to display in the section



Selecting a category to display a section with products.
The section in all products in the selected category will be displayed



After setting up or changing, clear the cache

Addendum

Thank you for reading!
We hope you can create the stunning website with our modules.

Help and Support

We did our best to make this documentation as clear as possible. However, if you have any difficulties with the PrestaShop template or any suggestions on improving the template or the documentation, feel free to contact our support team.

Useful resources

W3C validation

Both HTML markup and CSS styles used in our templates are semantically correct and valid. However, some W3C errors still can take place. Making code 100% W3C valid eliminates the usage of modern website technologies as CSS3 features and HTML5 markup. Our goal is to deliver rich user experience with high quality templates and sometimes we have to break some rules.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance

The GDPR is the official GDPR Compliance module, developed by PrestaShop team that aims to protect the personal data of EU citizens and applies to any organization doing business with EU data subjects. It offers a solution adapted not only for your site that processes the personal data collected by the PrestaShop solution, but also the modules installed in your store.

For the latest versions of the PrestaShop 1.7 templates, the module is available directly in your back office for free.