I know that there is another thread on this but it is over 12 months old and the way things move along.....

I am looking at a ecommerce add on for my Joomla clients. I liked the look of Rokquickcart but it seems there are a few issues such as when you purchase the items, there is no clear indication to the client that it has been processed.

I did try VM but got an error when trying to edit it once installed.

Looking at freeway and they have said that they will be releasing a new version for Joomla users soon. Hopefully it will be soon.

So in other peoples opinion, what is the best out there both paid and free?

Cheers,

JL

it depends a bit on what you are trying to do - can you tell us more?

I guess it will depend on the client but the one I am chasing has a small local running shoe shop. They have said that they would like to sell their products online. So I guess it could be about 50 to 100 products if they decided to sell mostly what they have in stock but it might only be a few select items.

I have been trying to install VM and I get this error:

Update Log

* Frontend files successfully extracted.
* Frontend archive file successfully deleted.
* Backend files successfully extracted.
* Backend archive file successfully deleted.
* The sample data was installed successfully.

Fatal error: Call to a member function loadBot() on a non-object in /home/evolvewe/public_html/editor/editor.php on line 32

I tried turning off the editor (saw this suggestion somewhere else) but with no luck.

For a someone wanting to sell only a few items then paypal would be the way to go but I am looking at something a little more professional that you can pay through paypal.

Cheers,

JL

Edit: Seems that if I change the file "editor" to editor-orig" that it seems to work. Not sure of the implcations of this but at least I have moved a step further ahead in the VM world.

Other advice still appreciated.

Freeway seems to be full of nothing but promises. VM has its issues, but at least has a large community. If you use VM, be sure to check out the Australian GST add-on to produce legal tax invoices.

This is something to be aware of with any e-comm app.. You need to generate tax invoices that comply with the Australian legislation.

I know Dex has some experience with Magento, which is reputedly quite good. Also Discouri is releasing Tiendo/Tienda, a new e-comm for Joomla very shortly. I believe they are in beta at present.

Good luck!

I am looking at a simple ecomm addin to one of my sites so am on the same learning curve.

VM seems to be ruled out for me, partly due to the ongoing management being a little too complex for the part time staff involved, but also because it seems to require purchasers to be registered users on the site. This conflicts with another requirement to restrict registered members to financial members of the organisation.

I am currently investigating SimpleCaddy which seems to have the following advantages:

1. It is simple to manage once set up - though adding/editing products is from the backend
2. It is easyish to tweak the messages and custom fields
3. It is light-weight
4. It supposedly allows backend batch download of orders (untested)

Possible downsides might be:

1. It presents the same checkout form/fields irrespective of the type of purchase (ie same for event regn as for resource sale even though the info required would be different)
2. It only offers Paypal as the payment gateway

Any comments, corrections, suggestions welcome.

I think VM works pretty well with the latest update. It would be the best free out of the box solution. You dont hear anything about freeway these days.

I like VM. It might seem complex. I like to think of it as feature rich. It has a great Australian following for many years so its easy to find Australian extensions. Best of all it has all the tax stuff and shipping configurations you could want. Downside is that I don't think it plays nice with CB.

I have tried RocQuickCart. It was easy to setup and comes with a PayPal sandbox for testing. Looks good. Its a simple pay pal solution that I was impressed with. The only downside is that someone said in the comments that it was hackable through firefox. The prices can be changed. Im not sure if that's true or not. I would consider it for selling the odd thing.

For those that know VM, am I right that it is not possible for a non-registered user of the site to transact via VM (and stay a non-registered user of the site)?

My client would not want a person who makes a small purchase to have access to the members only content areas.

Thanks for your help - David

No. I think you have run into the same issue with VM as I have. VM takes over the Joomla users. In my case, Community biulder does the same, and the two wont play together. You could try to control them with ACL. Ie control who gets to see what. But that would be a question for a professional to comment on.

VM wants total control. I can see how this works from a security point of view. But its really annoying from an integration perspective.

Yeah, that is how my thinking is developing too. Thanks.

Ive gone the Dual Joomla Install using a subdomain for the shop/Virtuemart and Community Builder for the main site. It allows me to stick to the same site/back-end layout. Even better it also meets one of the PCI DSS requirements of having separation and control of passwords.

Thanks for keeping us up-to-date. I would be interested in any quick notes on the complications of running a dual Joomla site as a solution to this problem.

The dual Joomla works well. The shop is ready to install before the main site. The template is the same so is the back end. So no probs there.

What I do have a problem with is the whole state of VirtueMart. I've grown bored of searching forums for fixes and half implemented mods. In fact I've lost interest totally. I'm now thinking that if you have to run a separate site for the shop it may as well be one that is complete. i.e. Magneto or something. But watch the space for Tienda. First let me say this all has to be Non Commercial solutions i.e. free.

Here is an example.

Captcha to stop the spammers. This should be a basic feature on today's websites. We are all getting used to it. So after some digging I find that VM actually has some code for SecurityImages included. Good. Install, search some more, patch have a fiddle. Looks good but its missing 2 pages "Ask a question" and "tell a friend". Another day of searches, core hacks, test and failures. I wonder why the washing hasn't been done. So I have Captcha but not everywhere, and that's the way it will stay.

Don't get me started on the email invoices. I've settled for getting someone to buy a "VM email Editor" for me. It was just easier.

I know its free and you get what you pay for but it has been around for a while. A lot of people are involved in it yet it still is not quite there. They are rewriting all the code at the moment so it might improve later in the year.

I've got a demo site Backup with all the fixes to download if anyone wants a head start. If its legal. Can you create a Joomla demo then package it and give it away?

Just an update on this. I decided on using Open Cart and so far it works pretty good. Very easy to setup, free to download and third party templates are very resonable. WOuld be interested in hearing any others that have used the application and the positives and negatives found.

There was a new version released not to long ago so maybe how long ago you used it if any comments are made?

Cheers,

John