Untimely disconnection of PrestaShop backoffice

It is a remark that we often have on the official PrestaShop forum, some customers want to keep their session open on the backoffice or, at least, not have to reconnect to each validation of a new product sheet that they took time to write.

Situation

We need to separate two things, the frontoffice - the store open to the customer - from the backoffice - the management space for the store administrators.

The management of customer access or access to the back office is done by cookies that are saved on the visitor's browser.

It is the lifetime of this Cookie which will define the time of conservation of this one before having required to create a new one.

Cookies management on PrestaShop

On PrestaShop, this management is done in one place for the frontoffice and the backoffice.

PrestaShop 1.6

Go to your backoffice in Administration >> Preferences

In the section General parameters

PrestaShop 1.7

Go to your backoffice in Advanced settings >> Administration

In the section General parameters

Explanations

• Automatically check for module updates: Not related to our cookies, but this is where you can enable or disable checking for updates to modules installed on your backoffice from the official PrestaShop Addons platform.
• Check the IP address of the cookie: This is a very important option because it keeps the session open even when your IP address changes. Beware, this can create security concerns but it can be convenient when you have to manage your store on a network that chnage IP address regularly.
• Front-office cookie lifetime: The crucial option for your customers who may come back several days after shopping without having to log in again ... if they have not changed their IP address with the previous option enabled. The basic value is 480 (hours) or 20 days.
• Lifetime of the back-office cookie: Same as the frontoffice but for the adminsitration part of your store.

 Conclusion

This management is very convenient, but don't abuse it too much because it can open doors to hackers on your store, especially the management of IP addresses control.

Personally, I only disable this option on my test installations so that I don't have to reconnect between my office and my home and yes because I also work from home :-)