Installation Instructions for
ShopSite SC 5.0
for Windows 2000/NT Servers

To install ShopSite on your Windows NT or Windows 2000 server, you need admin access to the server and an FTP program.

I. Pre-Installation Considerations

• Before installing ShopSite, make sure that your system meets the minimum hardware and software requirements.

   

• Be sure your Web server software is working correctly, including user authentication. If your Web server is not working, you cannot install ShopSite.

II. Planning ShopSite Folders

The ShopSite standard setup places ShopSite files in predefined folders, as illustrated below. If those folders do not match the configuration of your server, you can choose a customized setup and enter folders and URLs that do match your server. The setup program will prompt you for the locations of five folders:

• A Back Office folder, which will contain the programs for creating and managing the stores. This folder needs to be aliased in your server and accessible to merchants through URLs.

 

• A Shopping Cart folder, which will contain the CGI programs that let customers order products from the store. This folder needs to be aliased in your server and accessible to customers as anonymous users.

 

• Images used by all ShopSite stores are stored in a separate folder that must be accessible by the Web server.

 

• Each store needs a data folder to hold its databases of products and pages.
  ®The installation program will set the permissions on the data folder so that your Web server can access it, but it must not be accessible from a browser. In other words, do not put the data folder under the Web server's document root folder or any folder that is aliased by the Web server.

 

• Each store also needs an HTML output folder in which to store its HTML files, which are the generated pages for the store. The storefront URL must be aliased to the store's HTML output folder.
  ® Put the HTML output folder wherever your existing HTML goes.

  Note that the images for your store are kept in a media subfolder of the store's HTML output folder, and you may want to configure FTP access to the media folder.

Plan the folder locations before starting the installation. The folders for the standard installation look like this:

C:
InetPub
wwwroot
    StoreName = HTML output folder, aliased to Storefront URL
               defined in store.auth file
    Store pages
    media - merchant may need FTP access
    Store images
    shopsite = ShopSite folder, will contain virtual folders
               linked to ShopSite, Shopping Cart, and images folders
Program Files
    ShopSite
        data
        StoreName = data folder
        images = shared ShopSite images
        sc = Shopping Cart folder
        ss = ShopSite folder

The ShopSite Setup program will set the requried access permissions for each directory.

III. Create the Merchant User Account

As part of installing a ShopSite store, you must create a user account for the merchant and a group named "ShopSite." (Note that you should not use "ShopSite" for the merchant account name.) You can do these steps before starting the installation or when prompted to do them by the setup program. Click on the link that corresponds to the Windows version that you use for detailed instructions.

• Windows NT
• Windows 2000 Server

IV. Run the Setup Program

1. If you have not already done so, FTP to support.shopsite.com and download setup.exe and your store.auth file to the folder from which you will run the install. (Note that you must log in with a password provided by your ShopSite account manager.) If you use FTP to retrieve the files, be sure to use a binary mode transfer.

 

2. If there is a patch folder in the Windows folder on the FTP server, open it. Download all of its contents to the install folder on your server. If there are patches, you will install them after completing the regular installation.

 

3. Double-click setup.exe to start the setup process. Click "Next" in the InstallShield unpacker dialog box to reach the setup Welcome screen.

   

Note: If the Welcome screen that you see does not look like the one pictured here, you have an older version of the ShopSite setup program. Please use FTP to get the latest version and start again.

 

 

4. Click Next to advance to the ShopSite Installations screen. Since this is a new installation, there are no current installations listed. Click Add.

   

 

 

5. On the Add ShopSite Install screen, click "Create a new ShopSite installation" and then click Next.

   

 

 

6. On the next screen, type in the location of your store's auth file, or use the Browse button to locate it.

   

 

 

7. If you did not create a user account for the merchant before running the setup program, click the Add User/Group button on the Add New User and Group screen to launch the appropriate Computer Management application.

   

   For detailed instructions, click on the link that corresponds to the Windows version that you are using.

• Windows NT
• Windows 2000 Server

After you have created the merchant account and the "ShopSite" group, close the Computer Managementprogram and click Next on the ShopSite setup screen.

 

8. On the Destination Location screen, either leave the default installation location or use the Browse button to specify a new location. The rest of these instructions assume you've chosen the default location.

   Type a name for this ShopSite installation. An installation can be different from an individual store. You can host one store per installation, or several stores can be run from one installation, all sharing the same program files.

   

 

 

9. The Web Site screen shows you the Web site and output directory that will be used for this store. It contains these sections:

   

 

1. Web Site - If you are hosting multiple Web sites on your server, use the drop-down list to select the site that will host this ShopSite installation.

   Note:

   It is highly recommended that you stop this web server while ShopSite is being installed. If you have not yet stopped the web server, click the IIS Manager button and do so now.

 

2. Home Directory - Use the Browse button or type in the path to the home folder for that Web site.

 

10. The ShopSite Folders and URLs screen shows you the folders and associated URLs that ShopSite will use for the installation. You can change any of the settings by double-clicking the component name. It contains these sections:

    

 

1. Back Office - Identifies the path and URL of the folder containing the programs for creating and managing Shopsite stores. Each store can have its own Back Office folder, or multiple stores can share one set of CGIs.

 

2. Shopping Cart - Identifies the path and URL of the folder containing the programs that let customers order products from a store. Each store can have its own Shopping Cart folder, or multiple stores can share one set of CGIs.

 

3. Images - Identifies the path and URL of the folder containing the common images used by all ShopSite stores in this installation.

 

4. Output - Identifies the path and URL of the folder that will contain the HTML files produced for this ShopSite store. The URL is set in the store's auth file and cannot be changed. Each store must have it's own output directory.

 

5. Data - Identifies the path of the folder containing the databases for the store currently being installed. Each store must have its own Data folder. This folder must not be under the Web server's document root folder and it must not be accessible via a browser.

 

11. On the E-Mail Settings screen, enter the name or IP address of your mail server and the e-mail address that ShopSite should use to notify the merchant of new orders.



 

 

12. Select a locale and currency for the new store. The merchant can change these settings later. These initial settings will be used for both the merchant interface and the store pages.



 

 

13. In the Configuration Options screen, leave the boxes checked to have the setup program set access permissions and create virtual directories. Uncheck either or both of the boxes if you are not using IIS as your web server, or if the setup program encounters an error when running, or if you want to do something unusual with directories and permissions. In any of those cases, you will have to set access permissions and create the virtual directories manually. You can follow the instructions for IIS 4 or IIS 5, but if you're using a different web server, you're on your own.



 

 

14. Before the setup program starts copying files to your server, it shows you the folders and settings that it will use. Review this information. If it is not correct, click the Back button and make changes on the appropriate screens. If the information is correct, click Next, and the setup program will install ShopSite.

 

15. When the setup program is finished, the ShopSite Setup Complete screen gives you several options:

    

     

    • Check the option box to view the setup log when you exit the setup program. This will open your browser and display all of the settings used during the installation, which can be useful for your server records.

     

    • Check the option box to launch IIS Manager so that you can restart the Web server.

     

    • Click Finish to exit the setup program.

    You can rerun the setup program to install additional stores or locales.

 

16. If you downloaded any patch files, install them now. Patches are usually a newer version of a CGI file that was originally installed as part of ShopSite, so each patch will have the same name as an existing file on your server. Locate the existing file in the ShopSite folders and make a copy of it or back it up to some other location.

 

17. Copy the patch file over the existing file.

 

18. Repeat the last two steps for each patch file that you downloaded.

V. Enable Logging

To view the Web Server statistics (hits, pages viewed, etc.) from ShopSite, the server log format needs to conform to the NCSA format. Follow the steps for the version of IIS that you are running.

• IIS version 4
• IIS version 5

VI. Build A Store!

Once you've installed the software, the merchant can start building a store! Assuming you used the default folders, tell the merchant to point a browser at http://ServerURL/shopsite/ss/start.cgi. After entering a username and password, the merchant will see the first page of the ShopSite Store Setup Wizard, which will guide him or her through the process of building a store.

VII. Troubleshooting

If your installation did not work, pay attention to the error messages you receive; they should point you in the right direction. If that fails, try checking the following:

• Are file permissions set correctly for all the folders that you specified? Not having file permissions set correctly is the number one installation problem that users run into. Specifically, the user account under which the install program is executed needs to be able to write in the ShopSite folders.

   

• Do you have administrator permissions, which are required to run the install program?

 

• Is your Web server configured correctly?

   

• Did you enter the same store ID and URL that you told the salesperson when the store.auth file was originally created? If you've changed your mind, you'll need a new store.auth file.

   

• Try downloading a fresh copy of setup.exe from shopsite.com; sometimes the file can get corrupted in FTP transit. Be sure to use a binary-mode transfer.

ShopSite Help and Resource Center December 7, 2001 Give Feedback

Copyright © ShopSite, Inc. http://www.shopsite.com