Zen Cart is a free open source eCommerce shopping cart software, which is widely used by online stores. Most of the shopping carts seems to be built with much complicated programming, but Zen Cart is the one who puts the merchants and customers needs at the first place. It is an eCommerce software, easy to install and setup by any non-technically skilled person that has basic knowledge of computer.

There are many free and open source shopping carts available to download and install, but none can compare with the features and support Zen Cart offers.

Depending on your web hosting provider for backing up your Zen Cart store database is not always good. The backup and restore of your databases done by the Web Hosting UK company will benefit only them, not you. Usually, the web hosts will perform the full server backup instead of the selected databases you want. You cannot ask them to restore a particular database from the full server backup, its kind of tricky and may not accept your request.

Hence, it is always better to know how to backup and restore Zen Cart MySQL Database on your dedicated server hosting server by your own. Backing up and restoring your Zen Cart Database can be done using the following two different methods:

• Backup and Restore Database using phpMyAdmin
• Backup and Restore Database using Database Backup – MySQL Plugin

In this article, we will show you how to backup and restore Zen Cart MySQL Database using both the methods. Let’s start with the first method.

Backup Zen Cart MySQL Database using phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is one of the widely used and popular tool available in the cPanel to manage MySQL databases. Usually, it is installed default into cPanel and offered by almost every web hosting provider. If it is not installed on your dedicated server, you can ask your web host to install it on your dedicated server. This is one of the best and easiest way to backup and restore specific MySQL database tables.

Step 1: Login to your cPanel control panel and click on phpMyAdmin.

Step 2: Now, on the left panel click on the Zen Cart database.

Step 3: A screen will appear showing you the tables available inside your Zen Cart store database. Forget those, and simply click on the “Export” tab on the top of the tables.

Step 4: Select your Zen Cart files shown in the “Export” box starting with the “zen_” or “Select All” to select all the files by default.

Step 5: Under that export box make sure you select the “SQL” to download your backup file in .sql format.

Step 6: Under the “SQL options“ make sure you tick the following settings.

1) Structure:

a) Add DROP TABLE
b) Add AUTO_INCREMENT value
c) Enclose table and field names with backquotes

2) Data:

a) Complete inserts
b) Extended inserts
c) Use hexadecimal for BLOB

Step 7: Select the box “Save as file” option and don’t make any changes to the file name template.

Step 8: Select the compression method “gzipped”.

Step 9: Hit the “Go” button and save the fie to your local machine.

That’s it! Now, you know how to backup database using phpMyAdmin, let’s learn how to restore a backup using phpMyAdmin.

Restore Zen Cart MySQL database backup using phpMyAdmin

We totally assume that you have logged into your cPanel >> phpMyAdmin.

Step 1: On the left panel, click on the Zen Cart database.

Step 2: Click on the “Import” tab on the top of the tables.

Step 3: To select the database backup file from your local machine, click on the “Choose File” button and select the backup file you want to restore.

Step 4: Hit the “Go” button.

That’s it! Your Zen Cart database backup fill will be uploaded to the server and restored successfully.

Backup Zen Cart Database using Database Backup – MySQL Plugin

Database Backup – MySQL plugin is a module available in the Zen Cart eCommerce Hosting shopping cart Admin panel that allows fast backups and restores of databases from within the Admin Panel of your Zen Cart. Let’s see, how to backup your Zen Cart database using the database backup – MySQL plugin.

Step 1: Login to your Zen Cart Admin Panel.

Step 2: Now, click on the “Tools” menu and click the “Database Backup – MySQL” option.

Step 3: Hit the “Backup” button to backup your Zen Cart database.

Step 4: On the right side panel, you will need to select the file compression method. We recommend you to select the GZIP compression as it will reduce the size of your backup file.

Step 5: You can download the backup file directly to your local machine without storing it on the server. If yes, tick the Download without storing on server” option. If don’t, unchecked it, and the file will be saved to the server in the admin backups directory. If you wish to download it from the server, you can always download a copy of it using your favorite FTP client.

Step 6: Now, hit the “Backup” button to proceed.

That’s it! You will receive a message to the Top Left Corner “Success: The database has been saved.”

Restore Zen Cart Backup File using Database Backup – MySQL Plugin

Step 1: In order to restore the backup file stored on your local machine, you need to put it in the /admin/backups/ directory on your server using favorite FTP client.

Step 2: Login to your Admin Panel of Zen Cart Store.

Step 3: Now, click on the “Tools” menu, navigate to “Database Backup – MySQL” option and click on it.

Step 4: Choose the backup file you wish to restore from the list of the backup files.

Step 5: Simply click on the “Restore” button on the right side bar. Make sure you click the Restore button on the right side and not the button under the backup files list.

That’s it! The restoration of the Zen Cart backup file will be done successfully.

There exists multiple methods of taking a backup and restoring the MySQL database. Here, in this tutorial, we will try to learn about how to backup and restore Mambo website database using PhPMyAdmin from the cPanel control panel.

Steps to Back up the Mambo Database

The procedure to backup the Mambo Database is simple, hence one should be able to maintain a regular backup of your websites database. Furthermore, it is essential to take a backup of the database before you install or remove any components.

In order to proceed with the process, you must first login to your cPanel and go to phpMyAdmin.

Step 1 – You must choose the Export tab located at the top of the phpMyAdmin screen. To backup the data, the tool would simply put it in a format which would enable you move it wherever you wish to use the database.

Step 2 – Upon clicking the Export tab, various options would be displayed.

Step 3 – Now, look for a section named “ Export ”, you should be able to find it at the top left location of the screen. Now, click on Select All option, it is located at the bottom of the list. Here, we would be taking a complete backup of the database. But, if you intend not to do this, you can even select certain tables. You can select the tables by holding the Control button on your keyboard and clicking the table name using the left mouse button.

Step 4 – Look of the section named “Structure” located at the right-side of the page. You must check the box against the Structure box. This enables you with backing up the structure of your Mambo database. Further, you must check the “Add DROP TABLE” check-box. Though it isn’t a mandatory step, but can avoid few future hassles at the time of restoring the database.

Step 5 – Incase you are taking backup which would be restored on the same server with no change in the settings, then there isn’t anything to bother about. But, if you plan to move it over to a different server all-together with a different MySQL version, then you must choose a relevant Export Compatibility.

Step 6 – Ensure if the box besides the Data is checked, failing to do that would not successfully take backup of the actual data within the database.

Step 7 – Check the box against Save as file. Failing to do this would backup the database as plain text in a textbox.

Step 8 – Choose the type of compression you intend to have. If you have a website with not much data, you can skip this step. Though, choosing to compress it would cause no harm. But, if you have large amount of data, you must select the option of “gzipped” as it offers better compression of files.

Step 9 – Hit the Go button located at the bottom right of the screen.

Step 10 – Having done that, you would be presented with a dialogue box. You must choose the location on your local machine where you wish to save the file.

This finishes the process of backup.

Steps to Restore the Mambo CMS Database

There may be multiple reasons when you would require to restore the database backup of your Mambo website. The below procedure would enable you to restore it with ease.

Step 1 – Login to your cPanel, go to phpMyAdmin

Step 2 – Go to the Structure tab.

Step 3 – Select and click Check All option located below the list.

Step 4 – At the right side you should be able to find a drop down menu, there you must choose Drop option. You must take caution when doing this. Incase you have multiple systems running on a single database (ie. concurrent forum, Mambo, gallery systems etc.), unless the backup file contains all the tables, you should NOT choose to drop all tables, only the Mambo ones, that begins with the prefix: mos_

Step 5 – You would see a box asking you to confirm the list of tables that you wish to drop.

Step 6 – You must click Yes. Upon doing so, you would be shown a box displaying confirming the execution process.

Step 7 – Now look for the SQL tab, hit the mouse button.

Step 8 – Hit Browse now.

Step 9 – You would be shown a dialogue box where would have to select the destination of the backup file on your local machine.

Step 10 – You can choose the gzipped option if you are are sure about your backup file was gzipped, else you can choose the Autodetect choice.

Step 11 – Hit Go

Upon execution of the request, you would be presented with a box stating the successful completion of the process.

This ends the process of backup and restoration of your Mambo Database.

Choose our Cheap R1 Soft Backup solutions to keep your data safe. Further Mambo is offered for FREE with all our Linux Affordable Web Hosting packages.

Magento is an Open Source eCommerce Platform which helps in your online business and stores growth. Backup of Magento eCommerce software database and website is one of the vital step, webmasters should always perform. Usually, backing up the website data is a planning to prevent data from worst scenarios. If a disaster takes place, you will need those backups to restore your data and put your Magento store online as soon as possible with minimal data loss. Most of the business owners, perform backup tasks at night, when its bit quiet.

Most of the web hosting service providers offers backup service on daily basis for a little fee. Though its better and worth the fee, but it also comes with cautions. The advantages are that the backups of your Magento store are done on daily basis and you don’t have to worry about it. The disadvantage is that you don’t have any control on the backups. You need to rely on the web host if you wish to restore a backup. It’s better to know, how to backup and restore Magento database by your own.

Backup Magento MySQL Database using phpMyAdmin

If your web host have installed the phpMyAdmin in your cPanel, you can backup your Magento MySQL database with phpMyAdmin using the interface. Follow the steps given below:

1. Login to your cPanel and click on phpMyAdmin
2. Now, Select the database you want to backup from the left panel
3. Simply click on the “Export” tab on the top
4. Select the options, Add DROP TABLE and Save as file to save the backup file on your local machine in .sql format. Keep the default selection as it is.
5. Click the Go button at the bottom, and save the file on your local machine.

If you don’t have phpMyAdmin installed in your cPanel, but have access to SSH on your Linux dedicated server hosting platform, then using shell access you can use the following command to dump your Magento mysql database.

mysqldump -hHostname -uUsername -pDatabasename > Filename.sql

Where:

1. Hostname: is the database server hostname.
2. Username: is the user with full privileges to the database.
3. Databasename: is the full name of the database which your Magento store is running.
4. Filename:  name of the file which you think is suitable for the backup file.

Make sure, you keep (-h, -u and -p) at the start of the hostname, username and databasename.

How to Restore a Magento Database from a Backup File ?

Usually, the Magento store database uses a foreign key constraints to make sure the database integrity. For example: if you delete a particular category from your Magento store, you will need to delete all the categories under that main category.

When you backup your Magento database with the built-in backup function which is available in the Magento Admin, it inserts special line in the .sql backup file to avoid the foreign key checking when the backups are restored.

Using other methods like phpMyAdmin, if you perform backups, it will not add such special lines in the .sql file. And when you perform the restoration of database, you will get the following errors:

Cannot add or update a child row: a foreign key constraint fails

To avoid such errors when restoring Magento database from a backup file and restore backup without foreign key checking, you need to add the following lines at the beginning of your .sql backup file.

SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT;
SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS;
SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION;
SET NAMES utf8;
SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0;
SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;
SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE=’NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO’;
SET @OLD_SQL_NOTES=@@SQL_NOTES, SQL_NOTES=0;

In order to “Turn On” the foreign key checks again, add the following lines at the end of the .sql backup file.

SET SQL_MODE=@OLD_SQL_MODE;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS;
SET UNIQUE_CHECKS=@OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS;
SET CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT;
SET CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS;
SET COLLATION_CONNECTION=@OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION;
SET SQL_NOTES=@OLD_SQL_NOTES;

By doing the above modifications, you will be able to restore your Magento database successfully from a .sql backup file on your dedicated server.

Softaculous is an auto installer tool same like Fantastico, but has around 176 ready Java and PHP based scripts to install within few clicks compare to Fantastico one-click installer. It allows you to install various scripts supported and build your own websites, blogs, forums, photo galleries and many more! WHMCS is one of the scripts available and supported by Softaculous.

In order to complete the WHMCS installation with softaculous, you will require a WHMCS License Key to enter during the installation process. WHMCS allows you order a Free Trial License Key to test it in your cheap web hosting environment, which is valid only for 15 days. This key is used to install the WHMCS on your website using the Softaculous Auto Installer.  Let’s begin with how to obtain a whmcs trial license key.

How to Generate WHMCS Free Trial License Key

Step 1: Navigate to https://www.whmcs.com/freetrial.php , it will show you the below form:

Step 2: Fill all the required information given below, make sure you enter your actual details or else it won’t work.

1. First Name:
2. Last Name:
3. Company Name:
4. Email Address:
5. Address 1:
6. Address 2:
7. City:
8. State:
9. Postcode:
10. Country:
11. Phone Number:
12. Enter Password:
13. Confirm Password:

Step 3: Once you have filled all the information, Click on the Signup button. It will take you to the “Order Confirmation” page as show in the image below. You can save your order number and use it within 15 days, if you want to upgrade it to full version.

Step 4: Check your Mail Inbox, you will receive your WHMCS free trial license key. Use it during the installation of whmcs using softaculous.

Installing WHMCS with Softaculous Auto Installer

Step 1: Login to your cPanel Account using the username and password you have received after signing up your domain web hosting account.

Step 2: Type “Softaculous” in the Find box to the left of your control panel or scroll down and look for “Software/Services” section and Click on Softaculous.

Once you have click on softaculous application, it will launch and show you the below screen:

This is the home screen of Softaculous Auto Installer, on the left side you will see that there are around 176 scripts available for you to install.

Step 3: Now, Click on the arrow in-front of the “E-Commerce”, it will show you a drop down list where the “WHMCS” is listed. See below image:

Step 4: Click on the “WHMCS” as shown in the image above and it will take you to the “Overview” page showing the information about the software before installing it. Click on the “Install” tab shown in the image below:

Step 5: Once you click on the install tab, it will take you to the installation page. See below image:

Here you will need to enter the following required details to install the WHMCS for your website.

Software Setup

1. Choose Protocol: Different protocols are showing in the drop down list, if you website has an SSL, then you must choose the HTTPS protocol or else choose http://www. or http:// protocol.
2. Choose Domain: It allows you to select the domain name, if you have multiple domains in one account you can select anyone where you wish to install whmcs.
3. In Directory: You can enter the directory where you want it to install, make sure the folder should not exist, just enter the directory name such as “whmcs” and the auto installer will create a directoy with that name. If you want to install it in your root directory just leave the field empty.
4. Data Directory: Enter the directory name where you want to store its data, it should not be accessible by web. For example: if you enter the directory name as “whmcsdata” it will be created as /home/username/whmcsdata
5. Database Name: You need to enter the database name to be created for the installation.
6. CRON Job: Here you can specify the cron settings according to your requirement.

Settings

1. Company Name: Under the settings, you can set your company name if you have.
2. Company Email: You can specify your email address such as billing@yoursite.com .
3. Valid License Key: If you have your own whmcs license key, just enter it in that field or go through the process shown at start of this tutorial to obtain a free trial license key.

Admin Account:

1. Admin Username: Enter a username in this field for your admin login.
2. Admin Password: Enter a password in this field for your admin login.
3. First Name: Enter your First Name here.
4. Last Name: Enter your Last name here.
5. Admin Email: Enter your admin email in this field.

You can also put your email address in the last field below the install button to receive the installation details.

Step 6: After filling all the required information, click on the “Install” button at the bottom of the page. It will show you the following screen showing the message “Congratulations, the software was installed successfully” along with the Login URL of WHMCS Admin and where the WHMCS has been installed.

Now, you can login into your WHMCS using your “Admin username “and “Admin password” that you entered during the installation of WHMCS.

Have a Great Day!

Magento is an open source, free ecommerce software application, which is a universal solution for e-commerce businesses. Magento provides maximum flexibility in the use of both the buyer and the store managers. Accelerated deployment, versatility, many additional modules, the possibility of introducing unique modules designed for a specific functionality, all fully included in Magento.

In order to Install Magento using Plesk control panel on your domain, you need to go through the following simple procedure:

Step 1: First, login into your Plesk control panel on your dedicated server.

Step 2: Now, simply click on the Domains, listed under the domains section.

Step 3: Moving further, once the page is reloaded it will show you list of domains under your plesk control panel. Select the domain on which you wish to install magento application.

Step 4: By clicking on the domain it will reload and show you sections like Web Site, Additional Tools, etc… Search for Applications & Services section and click on the Web Applications icon.

Step 5: Now the next step is to Click on the “Install Web Application”.

Step 6: Put Magento in the search box and hit the Search button.

Step 7: Click on “Install” in order to start the installation of Magento application.

Step 8: Kindly, accept the License Agreement and move further and click on Next.

Step 9: Please fill the required information and enter the destination of the Directory where you would like to install the magento application.

Step 10: While entering the destination directory, please ensure you have entered the correct directory, or else the auto installer will overwrite it, if any data exists there. Entering the destination directory as [/] will install the magento application in the root directory.

Step 11: Now, to finish the magento installation on your dedicated server hosting, click on “Install”.

Done!!!

Now, to access the magento application, navigate to “http://yoursite.com/destination-directory”. Replace “yoursite.com” with your original domain name and the “destination-directory” with the directory you have entered during the installation process.

Magento is an e-commerce software application specifically designed to be simple to customizable. It offers great flexibility, scalability and appealing features for the growth of any business. It is an application that provides merchants full flexibility and good control over the presentation, functions and content of their online store. Magento installation on dedicated server hosting is very easy and can be installed within few clicks using the Site Software Tool present in the cPanel.

Lets begin with the magento installation with cPanel:

Step 1: Search for the Site Software tool which is listed in the Software/Services section in the cPanel.

Step 2: Click on the Site Software tool, find the Magento in the Ecommerce area and click on it to open.

Step 3: Once it open, you will have to enter the Admin User & Admin Pass in order to proceed with the Magento installation.

Step 4: If you wish you can specify a subfolder under the root directory for the installation. If you want to install it in your root directory then just leave it blank.

Step 5: Now, simply click on the Install button in order to finish the installation of Magento.

Installation Successful!!!

The installation is now finished, you will get a confirmation screen showing you the following things:

• Front-end and back-end URL’s to access your store.
• User and Pass to login into your store.
• Your Magento Encryption Key.

Make sure you save your magento encryption key in a safe place. See if your web host offer such Site software tools, if not you can consider eUKhost’s inexpensive Cheap Web Hosting and enjoy the fully functional features of cPanel.

FAQ’s on E-commerce Cloud Hosting Solutions:

1. Does eUKhost provide cloud hosting solutions for small e-commerce shops?

Ans: Yes, we do provide cloud hosting services for all types of e-commerce websites. Our cloud solutions are ideal for small as well as large e-commerce businesses.

2. Does cloud hosting cost more for larger e-commerce websites?

Ans: Cloud Hosting is an ideal solution for e-commerce due to the recurring nature of the business. Most of the online stores, vendors and retailers usually have huge amount of traffic to their online shops during the launch of new products and holiday season, that needs additional resources to fulfill their increased necessity for a very short-term. Our cloud hosting services allow businesses to add computing resources to cover their additional needs. Customers can upgrade resources like CPU, Memory, Space and Bandwidth on their Cloud Server anytime. This is why this service is known as a perfect solution for e-commerce.

3. Does eUKhost’s cloud hosting aid e-commerce business during their peak times of the year?

Ans: Yes, we do help our clients in all possible ways. An e-commerce business might see a huge increase in traffic during the peak times ie. in the month of November and December. Our Cloud Hosting enables the companies to upgrade their required resources for those months to meet their traffic necessity and once the demand period is over, they can downgrade those resources.

4. Why many of the large e-commerce sites do not use cloud services?

Ans: Many of the biggest e-commerce businesses are not aware of new technologies coming in web hosting industry, and the lack of knowledge may be one of the reasons they are unable to switch to cloud services. It is being said that by the end of year 2012, around 80 percent of businesses would be running on cloud hosting services. Hence, switching now to cloud hosting would be good decision and will help you in gaining knowledge about the new technologies in cloud computing.

Q. Do you accept payments for web hosting services via Moneybookers?

Ans. We gladly accept payments via Moneybookers for all our web hosting services including Dedicated Servers as well. You can fund your moneybookers account with your credit/debit card, or transfer money from your bank account from virtually anywhere in the world. Our Moneybookers account is Merchant Verified. Choose from our wide variety of our web hosting services and directly pay with MoneyBookers.

To pay via Moneybookers, all you need to do is follow these simple instructions:-

1. First place an order from our website.
2. Select Moneybookers payment option on the payment page.
3. You will then be forwarded to Moneybookers secure site to complete the payment.

Even if you do not have a Moneybookers account, you can still place an order. We will forward you to the Moneybookers site after you submit your order, where you can create a new Moneybookers account.

Q. In an eCommerce website, how are the transactions carried out and how do the payment gets deposited?

Ans :- Firstly you will need to setup a merchant account with either PayPal or 2checkout (whatever you are using as your payment gateway). Then there is a gateway setup option which you will get at the time of installation of the shopping cart on your website. This is how the online shopping wizard’s checkout page will get linked to your PayPal/2checkout account and the online payments done by your clients will get transferred to your account (either through paypal/2checkout, if your client selects paying through their PayPal account) OR through credit cart (if your clients select credit card option for paying the amount).

You may check our Plans at Ecommerce Hosting

Q. I am looking for ecommerce website hosting. Can I conduct financial transactions from my website? Is there a secure way a customer can pay online?

Ans. Yes, We at eUKhost offer a wide range of ecommerce hosting solutions ranging from Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, VPS Hosting to Dedicated Servers that adapt to the growing needs of your business. eUKhost’s web hosting solutions make ecommerce web hosting easy. Whether you’re an established business in the world of ecommerce or just starting out, we have the right ecommerce hosting plan for you. Plans include a comprehensive range of tools along with powerful shopping cart systems that make selling on the web so easy! You can host your e-commerce website on any of our web hosting services and sell products from your website.

For ecommerce website hosting, we provide shopping cart facilities along with our web hosting plans to be setup on your website. We provide various shopping cart options such as Zencart CubeCart and OScommerce free along with all of our cpanel hosting plans. These open source shopping carts can be installed on your website through Fantastico (cPanel control panel addon).

We recommend two payment gateways, (2Checkout and PayPal), these two gateways are more than sufficient to get started with your online store.

We also recommend a private SSL Certificate to be installed on your website since financial transactions will take place online on your website. SSL certificates can provide you with non-forgeable proof of your website’s identity, and customer confidence in the integrity and security of your online business. SSL certificate allows the web browser to verify the identity of a secure site before sending private personal information, such as bank account or credit card numbers