This installation guide is for X-Cart software versions 5.3.x and 5.4.x. Installation instructions for X-Cart 5.5.x can be found in the Getting Started section of our developer.x-cart.com website.

Please note that X-Cart does NOT recommend using shared web hosting due to limited resources. Instead, please consider using VPS or dedicated servers as a host for your store.

Server Requirements

Before you get started, you may want to check whether your web server spec meets X-Cart server requirements. Even if you don’t, the installation wizard will alert you during the installation process if anything is not set up properly.

You can always refer to the section Server Requirements and Setup for tips on a proper server setup.

Browser Compatibility

X-Cart 5 supports the following browsers:

Google Chrome (latest version)
Safari (latest version)
Firefox (latest version)
Microsoft Edge (latest version)

Installation Process

The steps of the installation process may be slightly different depending on the X-Cart version.

A video guide for installing X-Cart (produced using X-Cart 5.3.1.4) is available:

Published on Jan 18, 2017

Upload X-Cart 5 onto Your Server

Upload your X-Cart package onto your server.
The package is an archive, so unpack it to the web-root directory of your server. You can do it using the archive tools of your Control panel or using the following command via SSH:
for zip archive:
```
unzip x-cart-5.4.1.27-en.zip
```
for tgz archive:
```
tar -xzpf x-cart-5.4.1.27-en.tgz
```
(Be sure to replace the file name with the actual name of your package archive).

Create an Empty Database

Create an empty database for your store in your MySQL storage. You may also skip this step and let the installation wizard automatically create the database for you later.

Run the Installation Wizard and Follow the Steps

The installation wizard may ask you for an “Auth code” if it is run, not for the first time. Look for the auth_code in the etc/config.php file in the X-Cart software folder on the server the package was downloaded to and use the value specified there to proceed with the installation process.

Step 1. License Agreement

Open the link: http://<your-domain>/<x-cart-5-directory>/install.php in your browser. It will start the installation wizard. Accept the license agreement and click Next.

Step 2. Creating Administrator Account

At this step, you need to define the email and password for your store’s administrator profile. Once you are done with that, X-Cart 5 will send a notification to the email address you have specified, along with some service info.

Step 3. Environment Check

Now the installation wizard will check whether your server meets the system requirements for X-Cart 5. It will report if the requirements are not met. If everything is OK, you will be automatically redirected to the next step.

Step 4. Configuring X-Cart 5

At this step, you need to define the basic settings of your X-Cart 5 installation. Typically the page looks like the snapshot below:

Let’s walk through the settings you need to adjust. The first group of settings on this page is as follows:

MySQL server name: The name of your MySQL server. In most cases, it is localhost. If it is different, your host has likely notified you about it.
MySQL database name: The name of the database that your X-Cart 5 store will use (If you have created a database earlier at the step ”Create an empty database,” specify its name here. If you have not created a database yet, enter a name for the new database in this field, and it will be created automatically when X-Cart connects to your MySQL server.)
MySQL username and MySQL password: Specify your MySQL username and password; X-Cart needs them to access the database on your MySQL server.
Install a sample catalog: Whether you want to have sample data in your X-Cart installation for you to experiment with. If this is your first experience with X-Cart 5, we strongly recommend enabling this check box.

Below you will find links to some advanced configuration settings. Click on a link to access the respective settings section.

Here is the Advanced MySQL settings section:

In this section, you can adjust the following settings:

MySQL server port: The port for connection to your MySQL server. In most cases, it is 3306 and can be omitted.
MySQL server socket: This should be defined if the connection to your MySQL server is made via a socket, not via specifying a server and a port. It is quite a rare situation, and you almost always run the connection via specifying a server and a port. Anyway, if using a socket is your case, do not specify a server and a port. Just define the socket.
MySQL tables prefix: The prefix of tables to distinguish ones related to X-Cart from others in your database. However, it is highly recommended to use a separate database for X-Cart 5 and not put any other applications’ tables into it.

And here is the Advanced server settings section:

In this section, you can adjust the following settings:

Web server name: The domain name at which your store will be accessible from the Internet. The installation script defines it automatically, so you can keep what you see in this field.
Secure web server name: The domain name for secure connections (HTTPS). Usually, it copies the main domain name; however, in some cases, your hosting may provide a different domain name for your secure web server.
X-Cart web directory: The web-accessible directory of your server or hosting account where you will install X-Cart. The installation script defines it automatically.
Default time zone: Your store’s time zone. This needs to be defined to correctly set up the time, dates, number formats, etc.

Once you are done adjusting these settings, click Next.

Step 5. Setting up Directories + Step 6. Building Cache

These two steps are dedicated to some boring work that X-Cart 5 has to do. It creates MySQL tables, cache, development code, and so on. All the tasks at these steps are fully automated, so you need to wait and let X-Cart 5 do the job. Usually, it takes less than a minute.

Step 7. Installation Completed

Now the installation process has been completed.

Next, you can use the links provided to access your store’s Customer storefront and Admin area.

What to Do Next?

X-Cart store is ready to work, and the whole world is open to you.

Use X-Cart Beginner’s Guide to set up your store and start selling.

Execution of miscellaneous service and maintenance tasks in X-Cart requires a special cron job set up on the server. Hence, it may be useful to configure the server your X-Cart is installed at to run scheduled tasks as described here.

Also, if you change the cache driver settings on the server, do not forget to add a cron job described here.

P.S. And don’t forget about security measures!