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The "General" preference page features a handful of specific settings that couldn't could not fit in the other menus. They are nonetheless essential:
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- Name of the theme. Make sure the name is not already used by another theme.
- Name of the theme's directory. If you haven't have not already created a theme folder, PrestaShop will create one for you.
- Copy missing files from existing theme. This is the cleanest method to start a new theme from another theme's files. It is highly recommended, when you begin, to create a new theme from the default theme's files, as this makes sure you have all the needed files.
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URL is short for "uniform resource locator", or simply put, the online address of a web page. You can read more about what a URL is at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL
By default, PrestaShop's deep URL (that is, specific pages rather than online the domain name) are rather uninformative to both the customer and search engines: an URL such as http://www.myprestashop.com/product.php?id_product=27 doesn't does not help visitors know what product is on that page. Friendly URLs are the way to achieve that, and get for instance http://www.myprestashop.com/2-music-players/27-ipod-nano-green.
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- Shop domain.
- SSL domain.
- Base URI.
Most of the time, you shouldn't should not touch these fields without knowing exactly what you are doing. One mistake could break your shop.
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A robots.txt file enables you to block specific automated bots and web spiders, which crawl the web in order to find more web pages to add to their company's servers. Some bots you want to have full access to your website, such as Google's or Yahoo's, and some others you 'd would rather not, such as spam bots, content stealers, e-mail collectors, etc. Note that the worst of bots do not respect this file's directives, as it is purely advisory.
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- Image quality. You have the choice between two of the major file formats: JPEG and PNG. Both are well established among browsers. JPEG has a good compression ratio, but can result in visible artifacts. PNG's compression algorithm is not as good as JPEG's, but there are comparatively fewer visible artifacts; nonetheless, older browsers might not recognize this format.
Choosing between one or the other is often a matter of taste. That being said, JPEG remains the recommended choice. If you 'd would rather prevent information loss because of a format change, choose the second option, "Use PNG only if the base image is in PNG format".Warning PNG format is not compatible with the Watermark module.
- JPEG quality. Do not choose anything below 80 or at worst 75, for fear of visible compression artifacts.
- PNG quality. Do not choose anything below 7 or at worst 6, for fear of visible compression artifacts.
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You can choose how these stores are displayed in the front-office. All your stores are listed in a handy list, giving every store's information as well as an indicator telling whether the store is currently active or not – you might for instance want to gather the information for a new store in advance, in order to have its page ready for the launch.
Adding a new physical store
As usual, click "Add New" to reach the store creation form.
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Finally, the business hours are an essential part of any physical store, and you should be as precise as possible about them.
Parameters
- Display in the footer. By default, PrestaShop displays a link to the store locator, titled "Our stores", in your shop's footer. In the default theme, it appears in the "Information" block, below the special product listing pages (best sellers, new products, specials, etc.). You can choose not to have that link appear here.
- Display in the sitemap page. You can choose to add the "Our stores" link in your shop's sitemap page, which lists all the pages on your site (not to be confused with your Google Sitemap file, which is for SEO purpose).
- Show a simplified store locator. The store locator presents itself as an interactive map with a search field. You can choose to make that interface much simpler by only displaying a list of stores.
- Latitude by default and Longitude by default. The default starting position of your map. Very useful when you have many stores and you would rather primarily point customers to a specific area.
Contact details
This section enables you to give the main details of your company, rather than those of a specific shop. You should fill all the fields with information on your headquarters, as this is certainly the address customers will use to contact you, or even visit you.
Most of these fields are obvious, but some fields should be carefully crafted:
- Phone. Use your shop's contact phone. If you would rather customers not call you, do not put anything in there.
- Shop e-mail. Use the general contact e-mail address that the customers should see when they receive an e-mail from your shop.
- Registration. Indication your shop's legal registrations numbers. This proves that you are a fully registered business, and brings more customer trust to your online shop.
Search
The "Search" page enables you to configure your shop's search features.
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When customers make a request using your shop's internal search engine, they may make mistakes in spelling. If PrestaShop does not display the right results, the "alias" feature can address them. You 'll will be able to take words containing spelling errors, and point them to the real products sought by customers.
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You can choose which countries can access your shop (by default, all of them), and set PrestaShop's behaviors for restricted and unrestricted countries (or "other" countries). You choose between these three options:
- Visitors can't cannot see your catalog.
- Visitors can see your catalog but can't cannot make an order. In effect, you shop is in "Catalog mode".
- All features are available (only for unrestricted countries).
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