How to Install Zen Cart on CentOS 7

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Post Date: January 20, 2019
Last Updated: October 06, 2026

Introduction

This tutorial covers the step-by-step installation process for Zen Cart, an open-source e-commerce platform, on CentOS 7.

Zen Cart is an easy-to-manage shopping CMS platform written in PHP. It can be deployed on top of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack and can be used to create online stores for managing and selling products and merchandise.

In this guide, we will cover the basic prerequisites, PHP configuration, database creation, Zen Cart installation files, and the initial installation process.

Requirements

Before installing Zen Cart on CentOS 7, make sure the following requirements are available:

  1. A Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack installed on your CentOS 7 server.
  2. Root or sudo access to the server.
  3. A domain name or server IP address that points to the server.
  4. Required PHP extensions for Zen Cart.
  5. A MySQL/MariaDB database and user for the Zen Cart installation.

For setting up the LAMP stack and OpenCart on CentOS 7, you can refer to our related article:

How to Install and Configure OpenCart 3.0.2 on CentOS 7

Step 1: Install System Prerequisites for Zen Cart

1. Install Required Utilities

First, log in to your CentOS 7 server through SSH and install the unzip, zip, and curl utilities.

yum install unzip zip curl

These utilities are required to download and extract the Zen Cart installation package.

2. Install Required PHP Extensions

Zen Cart requires several PHP extensions to function correctly.

On CentOS/RHEL, install the required packages using:

yum install epel-release

Then install the required PHP extensions:

yum install php-curl php-xml php-gd php-mbstring

After installing the required PHP modules, you can verify the installed PHP extensions using:

php -m

Look for the required modules in the output.

3. Configure PHP

Next, open the PHP configuration file:

nano /etc/php.ini

Update the required PHP settings according to your application’s requirements.

The original configuration includes the following settings:

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 64M
upload_max_file_size = 64M
date.timezone = Indian

For the timezone, use the appropriate timezone value for your server’s geographical location.

You can refer to the official PHP timezone documentation for the supported timezone identifiers:

PHP Supported Timezones

Note: The timezone value should be a valid PHP timezone identifier, such as Asia/Kolkata, rather than a generic regional name.

4. Restart Apache

After updating the PHP configuration, restart the Apache service:

systemctl restart httpd

You can also verify that Apache is running:

systemctl status httpd

5. Create a Database for Zen Cart

Zen Cart requires a relational database to store application data.

Log in to the MySQL/MariaDB console:

mysql -u root -p

Create a database for Zen Cart:

CREATE DATABASE zencart_shop;

Create a database user and grant the required privileges:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON zencart_shop.* 
TO 'your_user'@'localhost' 
IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';

Then flush the privileges:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit the database console:

EXIT;

Replace zencart_shop, your_user, and your_password with your own database name, username, and password.

Important: Use a strong and unique database password instead of the example password shown above.

Step 2: Install Zen Cart on CentOS 7

6. Download Zen Cart

Download the Zen Cart archive to your server.

The original article uses the Zen Cart 1.5.x series package. You can download Zen Cart from its official download resources:

Zen Cart Official Download Page

The original installation uses:

wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/zencart/files/CURRENT%20-%20Zen%20Cart%201.5.x%20Series/zen-cart-v1.5.5e-03082017.zip

Note: This is the older Zen Cart version used in the original tutorial. Before deploying this version in production, check the current Zen Cart release and its compatibility requirements.

7. Extract the Zen Cart Files

After downloading the ZIP archive, extract the files:

unzip zen-cart-v1.5.5e-03082017.zip

Copy the Zen Cart files to the Apache document root:

cp -rf zen-cart-v1.5.5e-03082017/* /var/www/html/

The /var/www/html/ directory is the default Apache document root used in this example.

8. Set Apache Ownership

Next, change the ownership of the Zen Cart installation files so that the Apache web server can access them:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/

You can verify the ownership with:

ls -ld /var/www/html/

9. Start the Zen Cart Installation

Once the files have been copied and the required configuration is completed, open a web browser and navigate to your server’s IP address or domain name:

http://your_domain.tld/

Replace your_domain.tld with your actual domain name.

The Zen Cart installation page should appear in your browser, where you can continue with the web-based installation process.

Important Note About This Tutorial

This tutorial was originally written for CentOS 7 and an older Zen Cart 1.5.x release. CentOS 7 and the specific Zen Cart version used in the original commands are legacy software.

For a new production deployment, check the currently supported Zen Cart version and its system requirements before following these commands exactly.

Official Zen Cart Documentation

For additional information about Zen Cart installation and configuration, refer to the official Zen Cart website:

Zen Cart Official Website

Zen Cart Downloads

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we covered the basic steps required to install Zen Cart on CentOS 7. We installed the required system utilities and PHP extensions, configured PHP, created the Zen Cart database, downloaded and extracted the application files, configured Apache ownership, and started the web-based installation.

You can further configure Zen Cart according to your store requirements after completing the installation.

FAQs

1. What is Zen Cart?

Zen Cart is an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP that can be used to create and manage online stores.

2. Which stack is required to install Zen Cart?

Zen Cart can be deployed on a LAMP stack consisting of Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP. The original tutorial uses CentOS 7 as the operating system.

3. Where should Zen Cart files be placed on CentOS?

In this tutorial, the Zen Cart files are copied to /var/www/html/, which is the default Apache document root used in the example.

4. How do I access the Zen Cart installation page?

After copying the files and configuring the server, open your domain or server IP address in a browser, for example:

http://your_domain.tld/

Talk to Our Experts

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