CS-Cart System Requirements

Web Server Environment

CS-Cart is developed to meet most server configurations, ranging from shared hosting accounts to dedicated servers.

There are two core requirements for your host to run CS-Cart:

  • PHP version 5.3.6, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, or 7. We recommend:
    • PHP 5.6 for CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.3.1 - 4.3.6.
    • PHP 7.0 for CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.3.6 - 4.4.3. Earlier versions don’t support PHP 7.

PHP 7.1 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.4.3.

  • MySQL version 4.1 or higher (MySQLi or pdo_mysql should be supported).

We recommend a Unix-like operating system for your server, such as FreeBSD, Linux, or OS X. These systems are scalable, more secure, and offer better performance.

CS-Cart is compatible with almost every server that supports PHP and MySQL. However, we recommend Apache or Nginx as the most robust and stable servers for your web store.

Server Configuration Requirements

  • safe_mode PHP directive should be disabled.

  • file_uploads, allow_url_fopen PHP directives should be enabled.

  • magic_quotes_gpc, magic_quotes_runtime, magic_quotes_sybase PHP directives should be disabled in PHP 5.3 (ignore this if you have PHP 5.4 or higher).

  • The following PHP commands should be enabled:

    ini_set ftp_exec ftp_connect ftp_login ftp_get
    ftp_put ftp_nb_fput ftp_raw ftp_rawlist mysql_pconnect
    eva system exec shell_exec passthru
    escapeshellarg escapeshellcmd set_time_limit    

  • Either GD or Imagick PHP extension must be installed. These extensions are used for image manipulation, such as creating thumbnails, applying watermarks, etc. We recommend Imagick, because it offers much better quality of the processed images.

    • GD is included in PHP, however PHP should be compiled with the --with-gd flag. For detailed installation instructions please refer to the official PHP documentation.

      Please make sure your GD configuration includes the FreeType font library.

    • Imagick is a PECL extension. Please check the official documentation for installation instructions. ImageMagick version 6.5.3-10+ and PHP 5.4.0+ must be installed on your server.

      We strongly recommend using at least ImageMagick 6.9.3-10 or higher, as it includes a critical vulnerability fix. ImageMagick 7 is not supported yet.

  • cURL support should be enabled. You need this PHP extension to ensure support of secure connections, some payment systems such as PayPal and Authorize.Net, and real-time shipping rate calculators for FedEx and DHL/Airborne.

  • mbstring extension should be enabled, especially if you plan to use a language with non-Latin alphabet. This extension allows CS-Cart to work properly with multi-byte strings (for example, strings that contain Cyrillic symbols).

  • Phar extension should be enabled (built into PHP since v5.3.0).

  • ZipArchive extension should be enabled (built into PHP since v5.2.0).

  • .htaccess file (if supported) should have the following directives allowed:

    DirectoryIndex Deny Allow Options Order
    AddHandler RewriteEngine RewriteBase RewriteCond RewriteRule

  • If PHP was compiled with the Suhosin extension, then configure it in the php.ini file as follows:

    suhosin.memory_limit = 0
suhosin.post.max_vars = 3000
suhosin.get.max_totalname_length = 3000
suhosin.session.encrypt = Off
suhosin.session.cryptua = Off
suhosin.cookie.cryptdocroot = Off
suhosin.session.cryptdocroot = Off

    Suhosin is a PHP extension intended for protection. However, it can cause various issues with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor.