shopping cart software

Volusion is highly customizable - allowing merchants and designers to change images, HTML, CSS elements and more to tailor their Volusion store's design to their needs. Many merchants or designers use popular web design programs such as Adobe's Dreamweaver to create or modify site designs and automatically update their Volusion store using its built-in FTP account.

This article will explain how to set up an FTP account for use with Volusion and how to connect to that account using software programs such as Adobe Dreamweaver.

Note: For information on how to login to your Volusion store's FTP account using an FTP application or troubleshooting issues connecting to your FTP account, please see these articles on FTP Account Usage and FTP Connection Troubleshooting.

Also note that FTP account access is only available for Volusion subscribers. Volusion 14-day free trial users do not have access to their demo via FTP.

Creating an FTP Account:

All Volusion merchants have the ability to create and access FTP accounts for use with their Volusion store. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is used as a method to transfer files between computer systems over the Internet. Programs such as Dreamweaver can connect to websites using FTP to upload images, HTML files and more to update a site as it is being designed.

• FTP accounts for Volusion stores can be created by logging into my.volusion.com.
• In the my.volusion.com account page, click on FTP under the My Store heading.
• Next, choose the appropriate store domain name from the drop-down list at the top of the page.
• Next, click the Add button to create a new FTP account.
• The system will automatically generate an FTP account name and password.
• Merchants can edit the username and password for the account as they wish. (Keep in mind there are character limitations/requirements.)
• Note that after creating the initial FTP account within my.volusion.com, when creating subsequent FTP accounts, merchants will have the option to define both the account's user name and password.
• Merchants can assign read and/or write access to the FTP account. For the purpose of using this account with a website editor such as Dreamweaver, both read and write access must be enabled.
• Finally, click save to create the account.

Setting Permissions:

You'll notice that below the auto-generated user name and password for the FTP account you'll find a drop-down menu labeled, Folder. This drop-down folder contains a listing of every directory or sub-directory your Volusion FTP account can have access to.

Below the Folder menu, you will find two check boxes labeled, Read and Write. Using the Folder menu, you can select any of the directories within your Volusion FTP account's access and assign access permissions to each folder for that account. By default, most folders will be assigned read and write access.

To change, this simply select a directory from the Folder menu and check the Read or Write options to assign it the permissions you wish. Click Save in order to accept these changes. You can use this function to create limited FTP access to your store for your own sales personnel, staff or even customers.

Note:

The username and password for an FTP account must contain at least 8 characters each, must contain upper-case and lower-case letters and at least 1 number.

Summary:

Once the account is created, users can log into the account using any standard FTP program. Please review the following Volusion knowledge base articles on FTP Connection Troubleshooting and FTP Account Usage for more information on how to use your Volusion FTP account.