A special section in your store Admin area aggregates information about your store environment and allows you to perform advanced maintenance tasks, including checking system logs of all executed actions.

Information about the current software core version and the basic properties of the server on which the software is installed is aggregated automatically and can be viewed in the Admin area of your store:

The "Environment" page provides information about the current software core version, the directory the software is located on the server, PHP and MySQL versions currently used on the server, the server operating system, the actual time difference between the server and the store, and some other parameters you may need to know when working with your store.

This page also allows defining Curl and upgrade options for your store.

The ‘CURL options’ section allows you to change the details of the SSL certificate assigned to the site.

The ‘Upgrade options’ section allows you to choose your preferred access level to your store's software updates.

By default, the access level is set to “Merchant,” which means that a store admin receives notifications on any updates available for the store only after they have been fully tested and released in the "Merchant" wave. However, there is a special option for X-Cart developers and early adopters to be notified of any updates available while those updates are still in the testing stage. This is called the “Developer” wave. Being able to access software updates in the "Developer" wave may be helpful if you need to adapt certain add-ons to the new X-Cart core version by yourself, or want to try an update beforehand to make sure it will not cause issues in your specific store environment.

To change your level of access to updates:

The "Installation requirements" section of the page provides information about any possible issues on the server where the software is installed that may interfere with the store's operation.

If any of the checks are marked as ‘Failed,’ you need to find out the origin of the problem and resolve it as soon as possible. You will find additional info in the tooltips:

The “Cache management” page of your store Admin area provides tools that allow you to perform force clearing or (re)generation of cache files and quick tables.

In situations where X-Cart needs the same data set to be retrieved relatively often, you can have this data set cached (saved in a cache file or a quick table) so that X-Cart can receive it from there rather than by having MySQL select the necessary data by running the same queries on the same data set each time. Use the “Calculate quick data” option for the purpose. Sparing the necessity for MySQL to run through the data repeatedly, cache files, and quick tables considerably reduce the load on your MySQL server.

This functionality is most useful after an import procedure. However, it can also be helpful after the store administrator has modified the database or some files manually, or in case you suspect that some data may have been miscalculated due to an interrupted procedure.

The “Database” page of the store Admin area (System tools -> Database) provides built-in tools for database backup and restoration.

See more info on how to work with the database backups here.

The “Integrity check” page provides a tool to verify the overall integrity of the store files. This may be required when it is necessary to determine whether any code changes have been introduced directly to the files of the software core or add-ons.

The “Consistency check” page of your store Admin area provides a tool that allows for improving the consistency and quality of data structures in your store’s MySQL database.

The database used by your store is designed so that your data is stored in multiple tables there. The way the X-Cart shopping cart application works requires, in some cases, combining data from two or more tables. In such cases, MySQL binds the data together across tables.

For example, product titles are stored in one table, and product prices - in another one. Since each product in the store is supposed to have a price, MySQL associates each product title field in the former table with a price field in the latter. If, while making alterations to your database tables, you fail to consistently change all the related data (for example, if you add a new product but fail to add a price for that product), MySQL will not be able to join the respective tables and perform the selection of data from them properly. Performing a database consistency check with the built-in tool allows you to ensure that all the tables required for the store’s operation are present in the MySQL database used by the store and helps you to detect any flaws and inconsistencies that may appear as a result of alterations to the database design caused by maintenance or new inclusions to the database structures performed bypassing X-Cart interface.

The “System logs” page of your store Admin area (System tools -> System logs) aggregates records on all possible actions that might occur in the store starting from the moment of the installation. For example, it logs any possible errors in the store's functioning, internal and external requests to the marketplace and different services, etc.

The log records are split into month/year periods. To find a certain record:

The “Remove data” page of your store Admin area (System tools -> Remove data) provides tools that allow you to empty your store of any content data with which it might have been populated for testing purposes.

Clicking the ‘Trash’ button opposite a certain data category removes the information and settings related to products, categories, orders, customers, etc., respectively.

The tool can help you bring your X-Cart installation to a state where the store will eliminate all unnecessary data, retaining the configuration settings defining how it should function.

The “HTTPS settings” page of your store Admin area allows you to switch your store to a secure HTTPS mode in case there is an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate installed on your server.

Enabling HTTPS protocol for X-Cart if HTTPS is not properly configured on your server may break access to X-Cart’s Admin interface. If this is your case, see Inaccessible Admin Area after Enabling HTTPS.