We've just updated...

[David Preston]

After much delay and apprehension, we finally took the plunge and upgraded from Mambo to Joomla, and then from phpshop to Virtuemart.

It looks as though the double upgrade was successful, as everything seems to be working (fingers crossed!). For anyone still to make the jump, I would say that it is not as difficult as you might think. Obviously you need to back everything up before you start, and follow the instructions available both from Joomla and here, but it looks as though, if everything works before you make the change(s), then with very minor issues to sort out, everything will work afterwards as well!

With half a day downloading backups and installing them on a local server to rehearse the upgrades, the whole process took less than a day and a half, and the site was actually offline for less than half an hour!

You can see the fruits of our labours at http://www.tedcarter.co.uk.

[Eiteall]

Out of interest, what component are you useing for your second hand items?

[David Preston]

It isn't actually a component. Having had a few tries to make components and failed miserably, it's just a bit of a kludge.

But it works like this...

The data is uploaded via ftp automatically by our shop computer system, as a csv file, so, when we're open it's almost 'live' data. Each time the page is requested, the csv is parsed by a php script I wrote, and included using kl_php into a static content page.The script generates links to a Facile Forms form, then passes item details via the url. The form gets user details from Joomla if the user is logged in.

It would probably be preferable to have a proper component, especially as items on that page don't appear in any internal search results, but it gets spidered by the search engines, and it is a way to (sort of) integrate our Microsoft-based shop system into the web site.

[Eiteall]

cool, nice work. The reason I asked as many have asked for a similar function.

[coos]

The shop looks fantastic David!

Thanks for sharing the info on the Second Hand pages... not something I need right now, but you never know, right?! 

I did click on one of the second hand product links, and when the new email opened, the subject field was blank.

The URL was ?&subject=... wonder if the ?& is causing the upset?

Got a few fishing-mad friends I'll be sending your way!

Coos

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Puh-leeeeease help a Newbie-in-Need!
http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&topic=17144.0

[nightwind23]

Since you are using alot of the modules of Joomla, it looks like a bunch of rectangles with text all over the page.  Its a little overwhelming to the eye at first glance.

[coos]

Hey Nightwind! 

I see where you're coming from...

You can become half-human half-Joomla! and forget the kind of affect all our funky little modules have on fresh eyes!

Whilst I don't think it takes long to get used to, I did see a great feature whilst surfing today right here:

http://www.thejfactory.com/

Click on 'TOOLBOX' just under the logo and the right section glides into action, with each of the contained modules all being collapsible- NICE!

David, not sure if this is something you could, would or would want to integrate into your site, but I thought I'd post the link anyway!

[David Preston]

Thanks for all the comments, guys.

I should update my original reply to dmglampers, and say that the Facile Forms email enquiry form was ditched due to a wierd error I only discovered after I made that post. In IE (and only IE; the proper browsers - Firefox and Opera - were unaffected) the form was off the righthand edge of the page. Probably a css thing but I couldn't fix it, so it had to be changed to a mailto link.

<rant> BTW I detest css for on-page object positioning - it's ok for text styling, but will someone please explain the problem with using tables for layout? At least all the browsers understand them without loads of workarounds and fixes (like fake calls to voice attributes) and whatever else garbage is deemed necessary by the css police!!! </rant>

coos, thanks for your approval, and the heads-up on the ?& thing. I only referred to one webpage on how to form mailto links, and they did it that way, but apparently only them! I've changed it to just ?, which is probably more correct.

nightwind23, you are not the first person to suggest our layout is a bit cluttered, and I know exactly what you mean. At the moment, the thinking is that most of all the modules do have a valid reason for being there, mainly either related to promotions on products, SEO or site stickiness. The Latest Products, Top Twenty and Search Cloud are all there to let Google find plenty of keywords relating to new/popular/buzz products on the first page as much as they are there for the customers. The Random Image and the Polls are trying to get visitors to get involved and visit more often so we can sell them stuff.

My justification for the layout being ok are that

• visitors are used to that kind of layout (hey, there are more cluttered layouts out there)
• we don't complain about newspapers having a multi-column layout, because we are used to them

However, I do read Jakob Nielsen, and I do know it's nowhere near perfect. So I'd really welcome feedback for and against 'cluttered' or 'simple' layouts.

(But read The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites first!!)