Falang and VirtueMart conflict?

[nicolechen]

Joomla 2.5.1. Falang 1.1.1. VirtueMart 2.0.1f.

Enabling Falang's "System - FaLang Database Driver" plugin will cause products to fail to display.

[nicolechen]

Turns out the problem was fundamental.

As it stands, the new VirtueMart (with multi-lingual support) should conflict with both JoomFish and FaLang. That is, anyone using JoomFish or FaLang won't be able to use VirtueMart (the new one, at least).

VirtueMart's addition of multi-language support is slick and fantastic (I'll get to fixing the translation of custom fields soon enough). However, it did not turn off translation done by JoomFish or FaLang.

I fixed the problem with a thin wrapper for the DB object in VirtueMart.

I'm not sure if the fix is correct, though.

To put the fix in FaLang or JoomFish would pretty much be asking them to cater to "Joomla and VirtueMart". Seeing as Joomla is much larger than VirtueMart, it would seem that FaLang/JoomFish are doing what they are supposed to do: cater for the Joomla masses, without knowing the myriad of shopping carts available for Joomla.

If VirtueMart is the overwhelming norm, more so than FaLang/JoomFish, then perhaps they would cater to VirtueMart.

I don't know if VirtueMart wants to cater for FaLang/JoomFish, or vice versa. For now, I'm running my own fix to the compatibility problem.

Any suggestions on future directions in this regard?

[jjk]

Any suggestions on future directions in this regard?

Depends on why you need something like Joomfish. You didn't mention which problem you want to solve with Joomfish or FaLang. (I don't miss it yet on my J2.5/VM2 mulitlanguage site - Joomla Menu/Article and VM2 translations work well for me)

However, you might wait a little bit and see what the Joomfish team comes up with when they release their jf-future project which resides on github. You will find a link here:
http://www.joomfish.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=10970#p37498
(Some time ago a Joomfish team member did have a look at how VM2 handles translations and afterwards stated that he considers it a good solution)

[nicolechen]

Any suggestions on future directions in this regard?

Depends on why you need something like Joomfish. You didn't mention which problem you want to solve with Joomfish or FaLang. (I don't miss it yet on my J2.5/VM2 mulitlanguage site - Joomla Menu/Article and VM2 translations work well for me)

JoomFish / FaLang / VirtueMart multilanguage mechanism are all great (or at least the way things should be done). Joomla's multi-language mechanism is not. VirtueMart doesn't give me translations for Joomla, only for VirtueMart itself. I need a JoomFish / FaLang to fill in.

However, you might wait a little bit and see what the Joomfish team comes up with when they release their jf-future project which resides on github. You will find a link here:
http://www.joomfish.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=10970#p37498

According to many on that forum, that "wait a little bit" has become quite a long wait. I looked at FaLang's code, and did a quick comparison to JoomFish's. The updates required to make JoomFish work with 1.7 (or 2.5) didn't seem all that much. I haven't tried JoomFish yet (since I start off with Joomla 2.5.1). But I must say that JoomFish is still the standard (FaLang has many missing areas, for now). If I need to, I'll contribute to either project. I just don't know which one yet.

(Some time ago a Joomfish team member did have a look at how VM2 handles translations and afterwards stated that he considers it a good solution)

To be fair, JoomFish / FaLang did not have VirtueMart's luxury of working "only with its own objects / records". FaLang (and consequently JoomFish) are good enough.

Having a "language translation table" for each DB table may not be a good "consolidated solution" approach that "handles Joomla plus every add-on out there". Still, it makes for a lot of convenience, and a lot less confusion (mapping is direct). If I understand VirtueMart's translation mechanism correctly, that is.

[thezak]

I fixed the problem with a thin wrapper for the DB object in VirtueMart.

If i use native joomla language, when i clink on the flag, bring me to the home page for translate (or default page), so, if some user find my product page in italian language, and clink on english flag, he redirect do home (england) page.. and have to search again the product !!

So, Can you explain, step by step, how to fix this problem ? (i'm very beginner  )

bye, zak.

[sbou]

Hi,

I'm stéphane from faboba (Falang).

Can you send me the wrapper you have done.

I will have a look to see if i can do something for the virtuemart specific problem.

You can do it directly by the contact form on my site.

Thanks,
Stéphane

[luxuryvps]

Hey Stéphane,

Good to see you here on the VM forums. This is probably the best person to help you nicolechen. As mentioned earlier, the use of FaLang is pretty much un-needed in VM2 - so I would doubt the VM dev team would go out their way to make it compatible with something almost nobody needs or wants to use.(In VM that is, JaLang is fundemental to alot of websites I, and others, design without VM).

Liam

[sbou]

Hi,

I'm not sure it's a no need feautre, because you have to translate other page than just shop page.
If you have just a shop without cms , prestashop it's better in this case.

It's possible to have by made the wrapper ?

Stéphane

[Zuske]

"Joomla 2.5.1. Falang 1.1.1. VirtueMart 2.0.1f.

Enabling Falang's "System - FaLang Database Driver" plugin will cause products to fail to display."

vm:2.0.2
joomla:2.5

i dont have this problem
i both use falang, and the database driver.
my products are displayed in the frontend and backend.

i need falang, because i have a joomla site plus shop, and not only a shop

[thezak]

Hi Zuske,
can i see your online site ?
and can you tell me something about your configuration? php version and other ...

thankyou, bye
thezak

[Zuske]

i use: joomla. 2.5.1 and VM 2.0.2
link to my shop, u can see falang language switcher and products
http://www.mongolianlife.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=18&virtuemart_category_id=6&Itemid=118&lang=en&showall=1
installed extensions, falang component, falang module, falang package
plugin: System - FaLang Database Driver


-------------
PHP Built On    Linux dutch56.digitalus.nl 2.6.18-274.el5PAE #1 SMP Fri Jul 8 17:59:09 EDT 2011 i686
Database Version    5.0.77
Database Collation    utf8_general_ci
PHP Version    5.3.9
Web Server    Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
WebServer to PHP Interface    cgi-fcgi
Joomla! Version    Joomla! 2.5.1 Stable [ Ember ] 2-Feb-2012 14:00 GMT
Joomla! Platform Version    Joomla Platform 11.4.0 Stable [ Brian Kernighan ] 03-Jan-2012 00:00 GMT
User Agent    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.2
-----------------
Safe Mode    Off
Open basedir    None
Display Errors    Off
Short Open Tags    On
File Uploads    On
Magic Quotes    Off
Register Globals    Off
Output Buffering    On
Session Save Path    /tmp
Session Auto Start    0
XML Enabled    Yes
Zlib Enabled    Yes
Native ZIP Enabled    Yes
Disabled Functions    None
Mbstring Enabled    Yes
Iconv Available    Yes
------------------
Configuration File

 
offline    0
offline_message    Deze website is tijdelijk niet beschikbaar i.v.m. werkzaamheden.<br /> Probeert u het later nog eens.
display_offline_message    1
sitename    Mongolianlife, ontdek het leven van de nomaden
editor    tinymce
list_limit    20
access    1
debug    0
debug_lang    0
dbtype    mysqli
host    xxxxxx
user    xxxxxx
password    xxxxxx
db    xxxxxxx
dbprefix    xxxxxxxxxxxx
live_site    
secret    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
gzip    0
error_reporting    default
helpurl    http://help.joomla.org/proxy/index.php?option=com_help&keyref=Help16:{keyref}
ftp_host    127.0.0.1
ftp_port    21
ftp_user    xxxxxx
ftp_pass    xxxxxx
ftp_root    
ftp_enable    0
offset    Europe/Amsterdam
offset_user    UTC
mailer    mail
mailfrom    info@mongolianlife.com
fromname    Mongolianlife.com
sendmail    /usr/sbin/sendmail
smtpauth    0
smtpuser    xxxxxx
smtppass    xxxxxx
smtphost    localhost
smtpsecure    none
smtpport    25
caching    0
cache_handler    file
cachetime    15
MetaDesc    Ontdek het leven van de Nomaden in Zuid-Mongolië, waar ze in gers (yurts) aan de rand van de Gobiwoestijn wonen. Zij maken vilten-, lederen -en houten traditionele Mongoolse producten. Deze producten bieden ze U aan in de Zaya webshop.
MetaKeys    Mongolian Life,Mongolian, life, Mongolia, travel, Mongolian travels, Mongolian products, products, projects, Mongolië, Ger, Mongolië,Ulaanbaatar, Bayankhongor, Nomaden, gers, yurts, vilten, Gobi, Gobiwoestijn, Nomadenreis, Miat, Eznis, schapenwol, kamelenwol, Khadag, Chinggis Khaan, paardenmelk, Terelj, Naadamfestival, Zayashop, Yurt, Leven in Mongolië, Reizen naar Mongolië, het mongoolse leven, Life in Mongolia, Mongolia Life.
MetaAuthor    1
sef    0
sef_rewrite    0
sef_suffix    0
unicodeslugs    0
feed_limit    10
log_path    /var/www/html/logs
tmp_path    /var/www/html/tmp
lifetime    15
session_handler    none
MetaRights    Mongolianlife.com
sitename_pagetitles    0
force_ssl    0
feed_email    author
cookie_domain    
cookie_path    
robots    
offline_image    
captcha    0

[thezak]

interesting (as Spock would say second in command of Interprise) ..

the only configuration differences I found were:
php built: server33 Linux 2.6.32-5-686 # 1 SMP Mon Jan 16 16:04:25 UTC 2012 i686
php version: 5.3.3 (your 5.3.9)
database version 5.1.49-3 (your 5.0.77)
Joomla version 2.5.3 (fresh install)
vm 2.0.2 (fresh install)

but nothing works for me .. everything goes to hell
have downloaded the commercial version of faboba? perhaps has some differences ..

bye,
thezak.

[tkoletsis]

Having the same problem. Falang 111 with virtuemart 2.0.2 causes problems in category products. If i unistall falang everything is working Ok.
I have seen this problem so many times in virtuemart forums but still no solution is found.

[thezak]

Hi,
if i disable falang driver, and i change manually the link on browser, it work good!

example:
www.myname-sitezak.com/hello
to
www.myname-sitezak.com/en/hello

i just add "en" (i write directly on browser-bar) and i can see all my products on english language correctly !

so maybe not the driver that causes problems, but the module does not run properly?

configuration default joomla language filter:
all = yes
(but i try many combination with same result)

nobody have solution for this ? just thezak need to have a nice e-commerce multilanguage ?

    bye, thezak

[Zuske]

Hi Thezak,

hold your horses

i just checked but, i use the original commercial version of falang, (Falang Version V1.0.0 (basic))
AND NOT 1.1.1.
So might this be the problem??

i bought the extension.

Did u try the old version?

bye Zuske