I know this post is going to ruffle a few feathers, but I have been spending the last 24 hours trying to access an app that I know is supposed to be an excellent ecommerce solution - yet I think the user experience trying to simply login after installation has a lot to be desired and I am just about ready to throw in the towel. If this process is so tainted, what will actually using it be like?
I have a cPanel account that I use to test different solutions. I have several apps installed - ranging from OpenCart to accounting apps to video hosting and cloud server apps - all without a single problem during installation and accessing the administration consoles for each app in order to evaluate the features has also been no problem.
I installed PrestaShop 1.7.8.2 through cPanel yesterday. No problems encountered during installation, and I was excited to try it. I have been plagued with unexplainable denials to login to the the back office account under the administration. When I try to login immediately after a successful installation at the back office url:
https://{my-domain}/presta/admin123
1. I cannot access any of the administration features to setup the store. When I use the correct admin account and correct password, I get an error message:
"The employee does not exist, or the password provided is incorrect."
NOTE: I have confirmed that both the account and password existed in the database.
2. When I try to resend the password and enter a known employee account for the admin, I get a message:
"This account does not exist."
NOTE: The account does exist confirmed by looking at it in the MySQL database.
I have spend several hours reading different solutions spanning all the way back to 2010 with similar problems. I have tried different things - like trying to reset password through email (see #2 above), copying the cookie_key into the database and setting as MD5, etc ...
None of this is working. Now, I know some will agree with me, some will shoot off something to try, and some will be defensive and possibly insulting. However, what is undeniable, is that this is a horrible user experience - is it not? Just think about it for a minute ... since this problem has come up many times over the years, don't you think that maybe a different post-install login experience should be considered? How many users over the years just gave up for something that should be so functionally easy, like logging in after installation, - and has become a major problem troubleshooting issue before even taking the software for a spin?
What in the world could be so different about PrestaShop that causes so many problems logging in after a successful installation that so many other apps do so well? They are all PHP apps using MySQL backends. I am not trying to be critical - I am offering a suggestion for a much better out the box experience than trying to spend 24 - 48 hours trying to login to the backend to setup your store, and still not able to do it ...
Any feedback or silver bullet solutions for why you cannot login after a clean, successful installation without even having modified the installation or changing a single thing yet?