Custom fields not showing on product page

[james.webbuddy]

Hi all,

I have a site running Joomla 2.5 and Virtuemart 2.0.6 and for some reason when I enter a custom field for a product (non stock control) it simply will not show up on product page. I am using the core Joomla and Virtuemart files, not a e-commerce bundle so it should have all files that should be there. I have tried using a custom field that already existed in the admin back-end, but that doesn't show either. Have TRAWLED through forums (again!) and read the documentation and followed it exactly ... have also tried on standard Joomla template in case it was a template issue, but it still doesn't show ...

the site (in development is - http://www.fonefun.ie and the product page in question is http://www.fonefun.ie/index.php/apple/iphone/hold-and-protect/black-metallic-sock-piglet-skdi-mp-pig1-bc-detail

losing faith in Joomla - seem to spend so much time on forums looking for fixes, WAAAYYYY more than WordPress or Magento - is that just me

Any thoughts / help would be appreciated.

[MissyW]

Hi all,

I have a site running Joomla 2.5 and Virtuemart 2.0.6 and for some reason when I enter a custom field for a product (non stock control) it simply will not show up on product page. I am using the core Joomla and Virtuemart files, not a e-commerce bundle so it should have all files that should be there. I have tried using a custom field that already existed in the admin back-end, but that doesn't show either. Have TRAWLED through forums (again!) and read the documentation and followed it exactly ... have also tried on standard Joomla template in case it was a template issue, but it still doesn't show ...

the site (in development is - http://www.fonefun.ie and the product page in question is http://www.fonefun.ie/index.php/apple/iphone/hold-and-protect/black-metallic-sock-piglet-skdi-mp-pig1-bc-detail

I am also having this problem with Joomla 2.5.6 and VirtueMart 2.0.12b.  I am using simple custom fields (strings and integers).  They used to display correctly in an earlier release of VM.  Don't have any clue what is the problem.  The template settings in VM Config are all set to default.  I have tried leaving the custom field layout position blank and/or setting it to "ontop" in the latest release of VM, but nothing works.  It is very frustrating.

losing faith in Joomla - seem to spend so much time on forums looking for fixes, WAAAYYYY more than WordPress or Magento - is that just me

Any thoughts / help would be appreciated.

Hi James
This is an interesting comment.  I have not tried WordPress or Magento, but I have heard that Wordpress is a great deal easier than Joomla.  Joomla's strength and weakness is in the fact that it has such a wealth of third party extensions, many of them free.  I find I spend a great deal of time chasing problems that are caused by bugs or conflicts in these extensions, and it is a very frustrating process trying to resolve them.  I would be interested to hear how you find VM compares with Magento.
Regards,
Missy

[PolishedGeek]

VM2 custom fields have probably been the one thing that has frustrated more VirtueMart admins than any single other part of the journey from 1.1 to 2.0.  That's why we developed a way for you to take control again of your custom fields, and get a whole lot more power and flexibility as well. Check out our posting in the 3rd party extension forum - there is now a way to replace non-stockable custom fields with an embedded form component.

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=108824.msg364211#msg364211

[quayfee]

Hi Missy,

I would be interested to hear how you find VM compares with Magento.

I've worked on a number of Magento projects. It's a very powerful ecommerce solution and would meet pretty much anyone's requirements. it has a strong 3rd party extension community and has far more functionality out of the box than VM2. However... (and it's a big one) it needs massive processing power compared with VM2. So much so that I would not recommend doing a custom installation on any shared hosting system that wasn't set up to support it. It uses a highly flexible but processor intensive database model. I have also found the template system fairly complex. That having been said I have even seen it integrated into a warehouse picking system and on the same installation integrate directly with the post office package booking system. So it's got power...

TBH My biggest frustration with VM2 is not the change in methodology, but the lack of clear documentation for developing plugins of varying types. The basics information is there, but no guidance for those of us who are not 'hard core' and need a little help to kick us in the right direction.

I can recommend Deb and his team at Polished Geek if their solution will meet your requirements. I've used a couple of their extensions for VM1.1 and their support was first rate.

[james.webbuddy]

Hi all,

thanks for the comments ... I never got this fixed, but I will try PolishedGeek extension, hopefully that will help.

Just in response to other comments in relation to Joomla! vs Magento vs Wordpress, it really depends on the size of the database / store as to which one would be best to use. I have traditionally always used Joomla! first (since 1.0) and the other two as alternatives, but I have to be honest and say I have become very frustrated with Jooma 2.5 and Virtumart 2 - I have lost so much time on it since I have started using it, and it has slipped to third in a list of three, but as it is Open Source, I try to be patient. I am going to give it one last go, and hopefully over the last few months, the newer revisions will have ironed out the bugs I encountered. I have just upgraded site in question to VM 2.0.14 with Joomla 2.5.8 and will try again to get around the problems I have been having.

I must also say Missy is entirely correct in her appraisal of Magento - i.e. it does need processsing power and a decent server and page load can be slow, I only use it on my VPS and never on a shared hosting package - certainly needs considering before use, but seems better 'out of the box'

thanks all - PolishedGeek here I come ...