Applications like Zen Cart collect credit card information and therefore security is of utmost importance.

Here is the role of the Zen Cart SSL certificate that encrypts communications between the customer’s browser and the webserver.

However, bad Zen Cart settings and incorrect server settings may cause problems after installing SSL for Zen Cart.

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to set up an SSL certificate as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, we’ll see how our Support Engineers setup SSL for Zen Cart and fix the related errors with it.

How we configure Zen Cart SSL certificate

Often, many customers confuse whether they need an SSL certificate for a website or not. Our Support Engineers always suggest installing SSL for their websites/shopping carts. This adds a trust level to the website. And, then only users share their sensitive data with online store without any hesitation.

Here, we’ll see how our Support Engineers activate SSL certificate without any errors.

Before activating the SSL for Zen Cart, the customer needs to buy an SSL certificate by generating CSR.

1. We install the SSL certificate by using the collected certificates from the customers.

2. Then, we login to Zen Cart to activate the SSL on Zen Cart.

3. Next, we edit the main configuration files for the Zen Cart application. In the file Zencart-root-directory/includes/configure.php, we change the value of website links as:

define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.YOUR_SHOP.com');
define(‘HTTPS_SERVER’, ‘https://yourdomain.com’);

and in the file Zencart-root-directory/admin-folder/includes/configure.php, we set the link as:

define(‘HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER’, ‘https://yourdomain.com’);

Also, we change the following values from false to true

define(‘ENABLE_SSL_ADMIN’, ‘true’);
define(‘ENABLE_SSL_CATALOG’, ‘true’);

That’s it!

Finally, the same can be confirmed from the Zen cart panel at:

Common problems after setting up SSL for Zen Cart

From our experience in managing servers, we’ve seen customers facing different kinds of problems with Zen Cart SSL.

Let’s see how our Support Team solved these common errors.

1. Bad Zen Cart settings

Recently, one of our customers had a problem with their site after installing SSL for Zen Cart. His site didn’t load with an SSL certificate and showed a red strikeout on websites.

On checking, our Support Engineers found that the settings in the files /includes/configure.php and /admin-folder/includes/configure.php were different. The settings in both files should match to work with the installed SSL.

So, to make SSL work correctly, we edited the settings in both files and made them alike.

2. Force HTTPS settings for Zen Cart

Similarly, another customer contacted us with an SSL problem. He could no longer log in to the admin area of Zen Cart after installing SSL. He was redirected back to the login page when they attempted to log in. Also, it didn’t show any error messages.

Then, our Support Engineers found a bad setting in the admin configuration file.

Therefore, we fixed it by updating the configuration file for the admin area, which is located /admin/includes/configure.php.

*/
define('HTTP_SERVER', 'http://www.example.com);
/**

Here, we replaced https:// instead of http:// for the “HTTP_SERVER” setting. Then it will force the store to use HTTPS only for secure access to all pages and the admin panel.

[Having trouble while setting up SSL in Zen Cart? We’ll fix it for you.]

Conclusion

In short, Zen Cart SSL certificate secure credit card data shared by clients through an online store. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers enabled SSL for Zen Cart and fixed the related errors.