Installing QuickMunch

Upload the files, create an empty database, and answer four screens. Ten minutes on a normal host.

Before you start

You need three things: hosting that meets the system requirements, an empty MySQL database with a user that can write to it, and the ZIP you downloaded from CodeCanyon.

Already installed? If someone set QuickMunch up for you, this page has nothing for you — go straight to Your first hour.

QuickMunch does not create the database for you — it fills one you have already made. In your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk or your host’s equivalent):

  1. Create a database. Give QuickMunch one of its own, empty. Installing into a database that already holds another application’s tables invites name collisions.
  2. Create a database user with a strong password.
  3. Add the user to the database with all privileges. In cPanel this is a separate step from creating either one — it is the step people miss.
  4. Keep the three values to hand — database name, user and password. The installer asks for exactly these.

Serve the site over HTTPS if you can. Online card payments, push notifications and the installable customer app all need a secure address; plain HTTP is only fit for a private evaluation.

Install

The installer tests the server and connects to the database before it writes anything, so a problem stops you at the screen that names it — never half-way through.

  1. Upload the files. Unzip your download, then upload quickmunch.zip to the folder your domain serves — usually public_html — and extract it there. One upload rather than thousands of files. Visitors are routed into the application's public/ folder automatically; if your host lets you point the domain's document root at public/ directly, even better. A sub-folder install (example.com/order) works the same way — upload there and nothing needs changing, though its addresses carry a /public/ segment unless you can point the document root at public/.
  2. Open your site in a browser. With no configuration file present you are sent to the installer automatically. If you land on a blank page instead, the folder permissions are usually the cause — see below.
  3. Pass the requirements check.

    The first screen tests PHP, the extensions and the writable folders. Anything marked required must be fixed before you can continue; warnings can wait.

    Every row that fails carries its own fix hint, so you can hand the line straight to your host's support if the server needs a change.

    The requirements screen: every check listed with a Ready or Missing verdict
    Only rows marked required block the Continue button. Click to enlarge.
  4. Enter the database details. The numbers match the numbers on the screen:
    1. Host — usually localhost or 127.0.0.1.
    2. Port — leave 3306 unless your host says otherwise.
    3. Database name — the empty database you created above.
    4. Username — the database user you added to it.
    5. Password — that user's password.
    6. Table prefix — keep qm_ unless you must share the database.

    Then press Test & continue. The installer connects before it writes anything, so a wrong password fails here rather than half-way through.

    The database screen with each field numbered 1 to 6
    The database step. Click to enlarge.
  5. Name your site and create your administrator. The site name and address are filled in for you — change them if you like, or leave them; both are editable later under Settings → General.

    This is the account you will run the platform with. Use a real email address — password resets and system notices go to it.

    The password needs at least 12 characters.

    This is the press that installs everything: the tables, the sample content and this account all arrive together, so it takes a few moments. The seeded demo administrator is claimed rather than joined — its name, email and password become yours — so when the installer finishes, your details are the only administrator credentials that exist.

    The admin account screen: first name, last name, email and password
    Your Super Admin login. Click to enlarge.

After the installer finishes

  1. Sign in as the administrator you just created. The installer never asks how you run your business: every install starts as a marketplace, and you change it whenever you like under Settings → Business model — where each option is shown with the money flow it produces, rather than decided before you have seen the product.
  2. Set up the scheduled task. Several jobs — order clean-up, payment reconciliation, scheduled reports — only run if something calls them. See Scheduled tasks.
The installation-complete screen with Visit site and Sign in buttons
Done — the installer locks itself, and these two buttons are your ways in.

When it doesn't work

A blank white page instead of the installer

Almost always folder permissions. /storage, /bootstrap/cache, /public/uploads and the application root itself (the installer writes the .env configuration file there) must be writable by the web server. Set them to 755 first; some shared hosts need 775.

"Access denied" on the database step

The user exists but has no rights on that database, or the password is wrong. In cPanel, adding a user to a database is a separate step from creating it — it is the one people miss.

The site loads but every link is a 404

URL rewriting is off. On Apache, enable mod_rewrite and allow .htaccess overrides for the folder. On Nginx, add a rule sending everything that is not a real file to index.php.

It says the site is already installed

The lock marker /storage/installed already exists. The installer writes it (along with the .env configuration file) the moment your admin account is created, so its presence means the install finished. To start again, delete the marker — and be aware that the database keeps whatever is already in it.

Related System requirements · Choosing a business model · Scheduled tasks · Updating to a new version