Setting up a hosting account: We need a hosting account so that the files for our website have somewhere to live.. Creating a database on the hosting account: We need this to store our
Trang 1Deploying, Security,
and Maintenance
We now have a fully functioning e-commerce framework, suitable for use in a live
environment Now it is time for us to look at deploying sites using the framework
into a live environment and to examine security and maintenance concerns In this
chapter, you will learn:
How to deploy the framework into a production environment
Different ways we can enhance security with our framework
How to maintain a site running the framework
How to back up live sites
How to restore a live site from a backup
Deploying
The process of deploying a site to a production environment generally involves the
following steps:
1 Registering a domain name: This will allow our customers to access our
website through a web address
2 Setting up a hosting account: We need a hosting account so that the files for
our website have somewhere to live
3 Changing the nameservers on a domain: We make sure the web address
points to our hosting account
4 Creating a database on the hosting account: We need this to store our
product catalog, orders, and other content somewhere
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Trang 25 Importing a database to the database on the hosting account: This is done
because our database should have all of the products and content we want
6 Uploading our files to the hosting account: As a consequence, when
customers visit the website, they see our store
7 Changing the site's configuration files and any relevant database settings:
This sets the framework to use the database on the hosting account
Hosting accounts and domain names
When it comes to web hosting and domain names, there are a large number of
providers and registrars available This helps to ensure that prices are competitive
When looking for a web host, there are a number of factors that must be taken into
account when making a decision, including:
The amount of web space required
The amount of bandwidth required (data transferred from the web server to
customers and other visitors per month)
Any service-level agreements in place, such as a guaranteed uptime
Minimum contract term
Acceptable usage policy, to ensure they don't prohibit any of the functions of
our e-commerce website
To have software installed on the server, we obviously require PHP, MySQL,
and Apache with the mod_rewrite module
Of course, the cost of the hosting
Web-based control panels, such as cPanel or Plesk, are included with most standard
web hosting accounts This makes many administrative tasks easier, including:
Setting up and managing e-mail accounts
Setting up and managing databases
Viewing statistics, access, and error logs
Performing backups, restoring from backups, and so on
One of the most common control panels is cPanel, and is included with most shared
hosting and Virtual Private Server (VPS) providers Some aspects of this chapter
contain instructions specific for cPanel (manual deployment, and backing up and
restoring), along with alternative instructions for power users using the command
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Trang 3Packt Publishing has a book available specifically for cPanel, should you be
interested in learning more about it: cPanel User Guide and Tutorial by Aric Pedersen
(www.packtpub.com/cPanel/book)
Hosting providers
Some popular web hosting providers include:
1&1 Internet Inc (www.1and1.com), they provide shared hosting accounts,
virtual servers, and dedicated servers for larger websites and web
applications However, be careful as their lower-end shared hosting
accounts don't support databases, such as MySQL
A Small Orange (www.asmallorange.com), who also provide shared
hosting accounts, virtual servers, and dedicated servers They also have a
business hosting package, which contains useful features specifically for
e-commerce sites
MediaTemple (www.mediatemple.net) is a provider of scalable virtual
servers, with a control panel to make things as simple as with standard
shared hosting accounts
Slicehost (www.slicehost.com) is a Virtual Private Server provider,
designed for developers with functionality to easily upgrade and
downgrade server capacity
Research hosting providers
Web Hosting Talk (www.webhostingtalk.com) is a popular discussion forum focusing on discussing the web hosting industry, and containing many reviews and comparisons It is worthwhile taking some time to research for the different providers before signing up with one
Things to consider when looking for a hosting provider for e-commerce
websites include:
Are websites backed up regularly automatically?
What security measures are in place?
Do they offer SSL certificates and additional IP addresses, so we can enable
secure areas of the website?
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Trang 4Domain name registrars
In order to get a web address that can point to our website, such as
www.junipertheatricals.com, we need to register it through a domain
name registrar Some popular registrars include:
NameCheap (www.namecheap.com)
GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com)
123-reg (www.123-reg.co.uk)
These registrars make it easy to register a domain name However, often registrars
pre-select several names when making a purchase (for example also selecting net or
.eu domain names), so be careful to not purchase more than you want Domains are
generally registered for at least one or two years at a time, depending on the type of
domain It is vital to remember to renew domain names, or we risk losing them
Nameserver changes
Once we have our domain name registered, and a hosting account setup, we need to
change the nameservers of our domain to those of our hosting provider This ensures
any traffic to our domain name is directed to our hosting account
Manual deployment
The most straightforward way to get our files and database set up on our server or
hosting account is by manually transferring the data to that hosting account
Setting up the database
This section assumes a hosting account with cPanel installed
To set up the database, we need to:
1 Create a MySQL database on the server/hosting account so that we have a
database our framework can interact with
2 Export a copy of the database for our site so we can transfer it to the live site
3 Import that database into the database on the hosting account so that our
framework can interact with the suitably structured and populated database
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Trang 5Creating a database on the hosting account
The first stage is to log in to our control panel (this is usually, www.yourdomain.com/
cpanel), and within the Databases section click on the MySQL® Database
Wizard icon.
Next we enter a name for the new database; this is normally then combined
with the hosting accounts username, so the database name store would become
junipert_store Once we have entered a name, we need to click on Next Step,
to move on to the next stage of the database wizard
Then we need to create a user within MySQL, which will connect to the database
server to access the database we have just created It is important to use a
secure password for this; click on the Generate Password button to have
cPanel automatically generate a secure password for us