Joomla theme and VirtueMart theme?

[Nemesiss]

Ok, this might be a boneheaded question but I've never really seen a true answer to this.   If I have a joomla theme already installed and running on a site and I install virtuemart onto that site, will it use the joomla theme as the default for displaying items, etc in the Virtuemart shopping areas?  Or, do I need a seperate VirtueMart them installed on a clean version of joomla?  Or can I run a joomla theme, as well as a virtual mart theme as part of the same joomla install and site?

I'm just trying to figure out how that works as I've used many joomla themes (commercial) before, but i do see virtuemart commerical themes for sale but I don't know if they are required or not.

Thanks!

[smilingchi]

That is a good question!  I'm curious about this too.  I have a great template I'm using for the articles and the front page, but the category pages and product pages are terrible?  Is there a way to have both?

[Nemesiss]

It's good to know that I'm not the only one wondering about this, but given the lack of response to such a simple question makes me wondering if VM is going to be difficult to trouble shoot in the future.   

[jenkinhill]

Nemesiss please remember that this is a peer support forum, so you must allow for the fact that members who may be willing to give up some time to answer your question might only visit the forum once a week or so.

What you are asking is really a basic Joomla question but is not simple, as the theming of component or module output is not just related to VirtueMart but can affect all other extensions.

You can use VirtueMart in whatever Joomla template you wish; the style of the component output will be partly controlled by your template css and also by VirtueMart's own css file. With the use of template overrides and custom css styling you can tailor the layout and style to suit not only the Joomla template but also your preferences. This just needs a little knowledge of HTML, css and some PHP - nothing complicated.

Where a template is labelled as a VirtueMart template it will usually consist of a Joomla template with overrides and css already made to control the layout of the VirtueMart component and modules. There can be issues for some users who buy these templates and do not understand how they work and/or have no code skills at all. Due to requests by VM users the default template layout has been changed with some of the version updates. This means that any VM template overrides have needed some re-working.  If the user does not know how to do this then they have had to ask the template developer for updated filesets.

There can be issues with some commercial templates, as described here:  http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=107502.msg359365#msg359365

Any commercial template/theme should be supported by its developer.  http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=108212.0

[Nemesiss]

Nemesiss please remember that this is a peer support forum, so you must allow for the fact that members who may be willing to give up some time to answer your question might only visit the forum once a week or so.

Fair enough, I didn't mean to come across as pushy in this instance I just figured with the enormous user participation in the VM forums I would see a response right away. 

What you are asking is really a basic Joomla question but is not simple, as the theming of component or module output is not just related to VirtueMart but can affect all other extensions.

You can use VirtueMart in whatever Joomla template you wish; the style of the component output will be partly controlled by your template css and also by VirtueMart's own css file. With the use of template overrides and custom css styling you can tailor the layout and style to suit not only the Joomla template but also your preferences. This just needs a little knowledge of HTML, css and some PHP - nothing complicated.

Where a template is labelled as a VirtueMart template it will usually consist of a Joomla template with overrides and css already made to control the layout of the VirtueMart component and modules. There can be issues for some users who buy these templates and do not understand how they work and/or have no code skills at all. Due to requests by VM users the default template layout has been changed with some of the version updates. This means that any VM template overrides have needed some re-working.  If the user does not know how to do this then they have had to ask the template developer for updated filesets.

There can be issues with some commercial templates, as described here:  http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=107502.msg359365#msg359365

Any commercial template/theme should be supported by its developer.  http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=108212.0

That was the information I was looking for, thanks!!