Make a Local Development Copy of Prestashop 1.4 Installation

To make a copy of working Prestashop 1.4 online shop installation we’ll need a backup of all files from the FTP account you want to copy. Make such backup with control panel or just copy all files from your prestashop installation. Download yout copy of WAMP server to fit your operating system and online software of your server.

After installing wamp server download its addons to fit your internet server software of online Prestashop installation. After that enable mod_rewrite for Apache. Click on Wamp icon and go to Apache > httpd.conf menu item. Open it withNotepad or something and find #LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so. Remove # to uncomment it. In WAMP menu again, go to Apache modules and put a checkmark on rewrite_module.

When WAMP is set up, put your prestashop files in a new directory called the same as your site. Create a new database with same name as online in phpMyAdmin. Import database of your online site backup into the local one. Find table called *_configuration, enter it, then use Search on top menu to find by name PS_SHOP_DOMAIN and PS_SHOP_DOMAIN_SSL and change it to localhost

On Wamp the database user is root and there are no passwords for your database.

Go to your Prestashop local files, enter /config folder and find settings.inc.php file. The settings of your local prestashop installation are there. You need to change your database name (if changed), as a user put root and remove also the password. Following settings should be used:

define('__PS_BASE_URI__', '/your local folder name/');
define('_DB_NAME_', 'your db name');
define('_DB_SERVER_', 'localhost');
define('_DB_USER_', 'root');
define('_DB_PASSWD_', '');

Now if you are using mod_rewrite on your online shop your store front still will redirect you to online version of your shop. But you’ll be able to access your local site copy back end admin screen. Enter with your user / password and go to Tools > Generators – regenerate your .htaccess and robots.txt. Disable caches and enable force compile.

Now you should be able to see your local store front. Notice that some custom made direct links (i.e. in CMS articles, custom menus, etc.) on your front end may not work right, but native links of prestashop theme, like products etc will be ok. So no worries about that. Online they will work as before.

Now I will try to make 1.5 upgrade locally. Wish me a good luck!