Setting up a test environment

Using a Local Web Server to create a Development Environment

It’s not good to deploy untested changes directly onto your live store! Doing so can lead to outages and lost sales.

Instead, it’s best to test and debug changes (including new plugins) on a test store.

You have two options for setting up a test environment:

  1. Testing Locally: Creating a test store on your own PC
  2. Testing on your Server: Creating a test store on your server

Testing Locally

Using XAMPP (Windows, Mac, Linux) or MAMP (Windows, Mac), you can create a test environment on your own computer for your Zen Cart.

For the remainder of this document, these tools will be referred to as AMP for convenience.

1. Make a backup of your files and database

Follow the procedure specified in how do I backup my store?

2. Set your store on your local computer.

  • Put your files at the webroot defined in your AMP.
  • Load your database and create a database user.

3. Update your configure.php files

You will need to go through this file and set each entry to point to your local environment.

4. Try a simple update to see if things work.

Try updating (for example), includes/languages/YOURTEMPLATE/english.php and, then refresh your browser page and make sure the change appears.

Testing on your Server

This is not as good as a local test environment, but better than putting untested changes on your live site and potentially breaking your store.

1. Create a new test store on your server

Create a NEW database in cPanel called test_store. Create a database user that has full permissions to access this database.

Use the backup that you just made from your live site to fill the database with data. (See restoring the database.)

Create a new folder on your server called test_store. Copy the files from your live store directory into this folder

2. Prepare the configure.php files

In your test_store folder, update the includes/configure.php and admin/includes/dist-configure.php files:

  • Set the path names to your test store.
  • Set the database name to test_store.
  • Set DB_SERVER_USERNAME and DB_SERVER_PASSWORD to the new database user and password you created in the first step.


Still have questions? Use the Search box in the upper right, or try the full list of FAQs. If you can't find it there, head over to the Zen Cart support forum and ask there in the appropriate subforum. In your post, please include your Zen Cart and PHP versions, and a link to your site.

Is there an error or omission on this page? Please post to General Questions on the support forum. Or, if you'd like to open a pull request, just review the guidelines and get started. You can even PR right here.
Last modified March 10, 2022 by Scott C Wilson (f224f7e).