What is the limit?

[doopz]

I hope this is the proper section to ask - I ran some searches and came up with no answer to my query.
I've always been a Joomla user until I was informed the framework could not handle what I need it to do. I'm unsure if that is in fact correct.
I would very much like to build my ecommerce store using VM, but how much could it truly handle?? It would be VERY extensive - I'm talking about 50,000 items and images!
Any sort of direction would help my decision!
Thanks a bunch!!

[jenkinhill]

50,000 should present no problems apart from requiring a good high spec server. There is a report of some search speed issues on a site with 800,000 products but part of that was host related and the site has a very very large number of manufacturers. http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=112495.0

The next full version, VM 2.1, should be faster than the current versions.

[jjk]

I agree with Jenkinhill who replied a minute before I finished typing this:
There are plenty of VirtueMart shops of this size. However, you will need to select a hosting package which gives you some freedom and flexibility in configuration, i.e php settings and sufficient CPU power. So it probably would not be a good idea to host your shop on a hosting package where you share the server with several hundred other websites. And initially I would recommend to leave away some resource-hungry 'nice to have toys' like huge slideshows, live chats, etc. Such things require a lot of finetuning in order to get fast page loading times.

...until I was informed the framework could not handle what I need it to do.

Just curious - what did the person suggest to use instead?

[doopz]

Thanks guys!!
I don't know all the ins and outs of this stuff, I'm far from being a pro by any means. I know just enough to get things up and "going" somewhat.
Is there any place/company you can recommend that would be able to help with making the site work at it's best? (adding whats needed, removing or disabling what is not etc)
Thanks for all your help!!!

[jjk]

Perhaps you should first write down some kind of checklist which lists what you already have (i.e a product database with/without images), what needs to be done (including i.e. legal requirements, tax requirements, payment options, shipment options, etc, SSL-certificate), what you want to do yourself, what is your budget in areas where you probably need help...

You will get some ideas what to look for if you search in Google for something like e-commerce, shop, checklist, questionaire...
(Example search result: http://www.awsp.com/blog/web-design/ecommerce-checklist-are-you-ready/)

You mentioned, that you are familiar with Joomla already. So I would recommend that you install xampp (available here: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) on your own computer, then install the latest version of VirtueMart and play with it for a while in order to get a better idea of what needs to be done.

If you get stuck somewhere, search for tutorials in 'Google Search', YouTube, etc.

[doopz]

jjk, thanks! Already did the whole xampp install and all that stuff. I've played around with VM before, of course it was an older version - I'm sure much has changed or updated since. I guess my main concern was I didn't wanna put hours in to it just to have it crumble with so much information.
I just hope it's not too hard to figure out all things to make and keep it running smoothly. Again, thanks I appreciate it!!