Downloadable Products Large Download Fails
After getting a few reports from one of my long term customers about their customers having troubles downloading files (different ones) I decided to see if this was a common issue or not. It so happens that a lot of people have had this issue with Joomla 1.5.x and Virtuemart 1.1.x. So that you fully understand the issue I have attached a more detailed description below. This is an issue that can be fixed with 4 lines of code.
Whats the Verdict? Virtuemart 2.0 Released
After a break at Christmas I thought I would actually spend some time researching the technologies we frequently use at work. One of the things on the list of course is Virtuemart. Knowing that Virtuemart was going to be one vendor releasing a new platform I thought I would check to see if they had released the final to 2.0. Well I was surprised that they had finally got it released.
Customise Top Ten Module Virtuemart
Recently I worked on a project for a client and they wanted to customise their “Best Sellers” or Top Ten Modules appearance. The design came back with a product image, product price and a link to the product details. To achieve this in Virtuemart is not overly hard however it does have its inherit draw backs. Some include the fact you cannot have multiple module positions on your site for the top ten module. Instead you have to do the design for the one width / position then work your to the final product from there. This of course is for Joomla 1.5.x and Virtuemart 1.1.x. If you need a similar solution for older versions I will not be able to help as you should be upgrading your virtuemart store to the latest version along with your Joomla Install.
Add Shipping Address issue with SH404sef Virtuemart
When combining virtuemart, joomla and SH404sef you tend to get a pretty good combination. The problem lies however with the flatterned urls in virtuemart. Joomla 1.5 has native support as most of you reading this would know however it does not handle many third party components to well. Virtuemart being a great example of this. In turn you are left with a large list of options. One of these being SH404sef and like any third party application it has its issues. This includes the way it handles some of the Virtuemart urls like the “Add Shipping Address” link in the account maintenance or even in the checkout sections of the Joomla / Virtuemart combination.
Virtuemart warning could not send a message to
No doubt alot of people have had the same issues as I have with this stupid coding issue with the latest version of virtuemart. There is a problem with the ps_order.php file. While this is an intermitent issue it is still one that can cause extensive issues for alot of people.
Virtuemart Migration From 1.0 to 1.1
While working on a new website for an existing customer I stumbled upon a problem which could have potentially taken me over 6 hours to complete. As it was the upgrade of their website was already quite extensive and had taken a fair amount of time. One of the major upgrades that was going to take place on the somewhat dated website was the Virtuemart component. So how big was this and what did I need to do to ensure that the Virtuemart Migration from 1.0 to 1.1 was successful? This site had approximately 1000 orders, 700 customers and about 750 users. There was a large amount of products (approx 500) which contained a mix of downloadable products and physical products. I was in a predicament where I did not want to spend much time on the moving of products.
Virtuemart Migration Issues
While working on a project for a client I had to move all their products and what not from their old version of Virtuemart/Joomla. Some of their products were digital products. While this is not really an issue per say I discovered that in the latest version of Virtuemart that there is no longer support for downloadable products within each product like there was in the past.
Joomla template css used to overwrite Virtuemart css
Some of you who have played with virtuemart have probably not had much luck browsing around the somewhat cumbersome filing system used to develop virtuemart. Do not get me wrong it is a 10 fold improvement on what was in past editions. I have been working continuously on this project for a client and discovered that with a bit of effort and fine tuning you can actually do all your Virtuemart customizations within your style.css file then make the remaining modifications to their files. Using the style.css file for formatting Virtuemart will also save you time and effort trying to track down the right file. This same theory can be applied to other joomla components. Joomla will always check in the themes css file over the components css file.
