Prestashop and Shared SSL

[sliksock]

In the last few days I have been trying to install Prestashop (www.prestashop.com) on a secure server using a shared certificate. In researching this I have come to the conclusion that this is widely considered not possible, or extremely difficult. Those who say it is extremely difficult do not explain how it can be done and say you should simply spring for a full certificate and be done with it.

 

Only wanting to use my shared certificate (hell, I'd paid my web provider www.futurequest.net for it, I was damn well going to use it).

 

Anyway, I couldn't get Prestashop to work correctly with my shared certificate and I didn't like any of the other options, most of which seemed to be just as unlikely to work on a shared certificate as Prestashop, according to the information I would read about each one.

 

What was I to do?

 

I had given up on Prestashop and was turning my attention to Zen Cart as that had proven to be usable with a shared cert. according to what I had read. However, upon reading the explanation for how to install Zen Cart using a shared cert. on futurequest, I began to wonder if the same technique could be used to install Prestashop on the cert.

 

Long story short, it looks like I did it. I've been playing with it for almost a full day and it seems to work flawlessly with my shared cert. Perhaps I am missing something of which I am not yet aware, but I thought I would post the technique I used so others could do the same and we could all compare notes.

 

Ok. Before I lay it all out I should point out that this technique was first posted as a way to install Zen Cart at futurequest's community website at the following url:

 

http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?t=23987&highlight=zen+cart

 

It was posted by a user named Matt. If this technique ends up working for you (and the rest of us) we should all go to his house and throw him a surprise party, he will have earned it.

 

Anyway, here are the steps I followed based on his original post:

 

Futurequest creates a folder in your webspace called Secure_Server for SSL. All of these steps were used on futurequest, I cannot vouch for how they will work on other servers.

 

Step 1: Create a folder in Secure_Server called shop (or anything you want).

 

Step 2: Copy the Prestashop install in this folder.

 

Step 3: Download Putty from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

 

Step 4: Run Putty and log into your main www.website.com address (do not log into the secure server) using SSH.

 

Step 5: Type (without the quotes): "cd .."

 

Step 6: Then type (without the quotes): "cd www"

 

Step 7: Then type (without the quotes): "ln -s Secure_Server/shop shop"

 

Step 8: Go to your web browser https://xyourdomain.merchantquest.net/shop/zc_install and install Prestashop normally.

 

Step 9: Using FTP (I use filezilla http://filezilla-project.org/) go into your Secure_Server/shop folder and delete zc_install and rename admin to whatever you want just like normal.

 

Step 10: Navigate in FTP to your root directory (on futurequest it's www) and delete your shop folder that was created by putty (in filezilla there will be a little arrow on it). You can close the ftp program now.

 

Step 11: Run Putty again and redo steps 4 to 7.

 

This is how I did it. Some of these steps may not be necessary, however, better safe than sorry.

 

Now, here I paraphrase Matt from his original post:

 

Note: Any changes you make to Prestashop, templates you install, etc. should be uploaded to the Secure_Server directory, NOT the www directory. The symlinks will take care of the rest and you don't have to worry about maintaining two copies of the same file or whether Prestashop expects a secure or unsecure path.

 

That's it. So far, it's working like a charm for me, all the problems I had have vanished. I haven't come across any new problems.

 

I hope many of you will try this and let's see if it works for everyone and if there are any pitfalls I have not yet come across.

 

Thanks for reading and let me know how it goes for you if you try it.

 

Alex