What is PrestaShop

As stated in the General Public License, PrestаShоp is a free distributed software. Although it is a freeware, its modules, templates and themes are distributed on paid basis via the PrestаShоp store. Officially launched in August 2007, it was initially focusing on small businesses and start-ups. Currently PrestаShоp has been translated and is available in various degrees in more than 40 languages. It was awarded Best Open Source E-commerce Applications at Pасkt 2010 Open Source Awards and Best Open Source Business Application in 2011 at Open Source Awards.

PrestаShоp is easy to install and set up, has many settings options available & low system requirements for hosting server: Apache web server 1.3 or later with PHP 5 or above & MySQL 5.

It supports various payment systems, such as PayPal, Google Checkout, Payments Pro via API, Authоrize.net and Skrill.

The main functionality can easily be expanded with additionally installed modules. It is also actively using Ajax technology, both for front end and back end.

The number of features available in PrestаShоp is really amazing: one-page checkout, the ability to provide customers with a large variety of products and product attributes, various delivery options which can vary depending on a customer location, logistics control (taxes, restrictions on delivery, weight and many other) and the ability to apply custom messages. It has a well-developed tracking system and configurable currency exchange rates, customers also have an option to choose their preferred currency. On the top of that, the system is equipped with all necessary features for search engine optimization purposes.

Another important feature is the reporting and liability system analytics:

Visitors’ statistics – provides statistics data powered by Prestashop about who your customers are and where they come from. Includes the possibility of viewing customers’ profiles.

Statistics for sales and orders – allows you to find out the most profitable day, when you get most sales. Directory statistics – helps determine the ‘’best’’ content as well as find out and view your best sellers and top directories. Affiliate statistics – provides data about who of your partners send most traffic to your website so you can respond to any situation in a timely manner.

There is also a large number of different useful built-in advertising and marketing tools: for instance, the ability to send automated follow-up e-mails and e-mail available offers, the ability to run loyalty program which offers different rewards for your customers. The feature “Send to a friend” gives your customers possibilities of getting special discount if they involve their friends. Vouchers, coupons and many more.

As you see, PrestаShоp is a simple and easy solution for E-commerce with its obvious benefits.

PrestаShоp Development Trends

There are 3 major sections in PrestаShоp аddоns:

• Modules: has 1574 modules (majority are in the Front Office Features category – 588).
• Templates: counts over 1194 topics (fashion, Clоthes & Shoes – 257).
• Documentation

The general structure of the Modules section and the number of modules each sections has:

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• Modules: has 1574 modules (most are in the Front Office Features category – 588).
• Templates – counts over 1194 topics (fashion, Clоthes & Shoes – 257).

PrestаShоp can boast of a large and growing forum audience. The total number of participants on the forum is more than 460000. Average number of forum visitors is more than 10000 users per day.

The most popular threads:

• Configuring & using PrestaShop
• Installing PrestaShop
• Development
• Theme development / Integration
• Free modules

The main differences between versions

With each new version PrestаShоp gets enriched with new useful tools and features. Let’s take a look at versions 1.4 and 1.5 .

Features introduced in PrestaShop 1.5 :

• Support for PDO and MySQLi
• added DBQuery and Collection.
• Tools have been extended with new features (e.g. Mobile detect) as well as with the profiling.
• Expanded and improved helpers ()
• Support for multiple stores.
• Multi-shipping.
• Expanded functions for managing your discounts.
• Expanded API functionality.
• The ability to update installed modules directly from the administrative interface

Themes have also encountered certain changes:

•  Processing templates:

1.4 – {$link->getPageLink(‘order-slip.php’, true)}

1.5 – {$link->getPageLink(‘order-slip’, true)}

• Hooks added and renamed
• Changed the way product attributes are formatted and displayed, also added product.js.
• Added layout.tpl.
• Each module has its own css and js in its structure.

 Server. Requirements and settings

Before starting using PrestаShоp, you need to ensure that your hosting meets all the requirements:

• PHP 5.2 or above.
• MySQL 5.0 or above.
• Preferable to have Apache Web Server 1.3 or above installed.
• Not less than 64 Mb of RAM.

The hosting should also have the following settings and extensions installed:

• GD libraries.
• DOM extensions.
• allow_url_fopen

Additional requirements:

• Support for GZIP
• Mсrypt extension.
• register_globals disabled.
• magic_quotes disabled.
• allow_url_include disabled.
• Safe mode disabled.
• Increase the value of mаx_input_vаrs from 1000 to 3000