LiteCart is an eCommerce platform built with PHP, jQuery, and HTML 5. It’s lightweight and fast, clean and simple, easy to install and use, and supports jQuery and the latest HTML 5. When deciding on how to run an online store to sell your products, two things you may want to make sure you’re doing. First, find a great eCommerce platform and ensure all the pages are HTTPS compliant with SSL/TLS certificates installed correctly.

How to install LiteCart on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx support

As described above, LiteCart is an eCommerce platform built with PHP, jQuery, and HTML 5. It’s lightweight and fast, clean and simple, easy to install and use, and supports jQuery and the latest HTML 5. Below is how to install it on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx support.

Install Nginx

LiteCart works with a website. Nginx HTTP Server represents the E in the LEMP stack. It’s the second most popular web server in use. So, install it, since LiteCart needs it. To install Nginx HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below. After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Nginx service to always start up with the server boots. To test the Nginx setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see the Nginx default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Nginx is working as expected.

Install MariaDB

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with LiteCart. To install MariaDB run the commands below. After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots. Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access. When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter Set root password? [Y/n]: Y New password: Enter password Re-enter new password: Repeat password Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to the MariaDB server Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

PHP 7.2 isn’t available on Ubuntu’s default repositories. To install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories. Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2 Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules. After installing PHP 7.2-FPM, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Nginx. Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is great setting to apply in your environments. After making the change above, save the file and close. After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Nginx to reload PHP configurations. To restart Nginx, run the commands below

Create LiteCart Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for LiteCart to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank LiteCart database. To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below. Then create a database called litecart Create a database user called litecartuser with a new password Then grant the user full access to the database. Finally, save your changes and exit.

Download LiteCart Latest Release

Next, visit the LiteCart site and download the latest package, or run the commands below to download and extract LiteCart content. After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file and move it into a new LiteCart root directory. Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for LiteCart to function properly.

Configure Nginx LiteCart Site

Finally, configure the Nginx server block file for LiteCart. This file will control how users access LiteCart content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called litecart Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location. Save the file and exit. After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

Enable the LiteCart Site and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below, then restart the Nginx server.

Install Let’s Encrypt Client

To get Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS certificates on your Ubuntu machine, you should first install its client. The client helps automate the process for you. To install it, run the commands below. If python-certbot-nginx isn’t already installed, you may have to add its PPA repository and install the package.

Obtaining your free SSL/TLS Certificates

After installing Let’s Encrypt Certbot client module for Nginx, run the commands below to obtain your free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate in the domain specified. make sure to replace example.com with your domain. After running the above commands, you should get prompted to accept the licensing terms. If everything is checked, the client should automatically install the free SSL/TLS certificate and configure the Nginx site to use the certs. Choose Yes ( Y ) to share your email address This is how easy is it to obtain your free SSL/TLS certificate for your Nginx-powered website. Pick option 2 to redirect all traffic over HTTPS. This is important! After that, the SSL client should install the cert and configure your website to redirect all traffic over HTTPS. The highlighted code block should be added to your Nginx LiteCart configuration file automatically by Let’s Encrypt certbot. Your LiteCart site is ready to be used over HTTPS. You’ll have to manually renew the certificates. You’ll get an email reminder to reset when the certificates are about to expire. To test the renewal process run the commands below. To set up a process to automatically renew the certificates, add a cron job to execute the renewal process. Then add the line below and save. The cron job will attempt to renew 30 days before expiring After that, open your browser and browse your domain name to launch the LiteCart configuration wizard. You should see the LiteCart setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully. Type the database connection info and the store admin account. then click Install Now Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed LiteCart with Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificates. After installing, run the commands below to delete the installer folder. sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/litecart/install To login to the LiteCart backend portal as admin, go to the URL below Enjoy! You may also like the post below: