Building E-commerce Sites with VirtueMart Cookbook by John Horton dedicates his time helping people make their websites, applications and e-commerce solutions. Along with his professional activities, he likes shooting zombies especially with his two sons.
To understand the concepts of this book, one needs to know the basics of Joomla! (hands-on Joomla! is an added advantage) and there is no prior working experience required in VirtueMart.
Following are the Chapter wise details:
Setting up shop:
This initial chapter deals with introducing Joomla; installing Joomla; configuring the environment so as to make Joomla run bug-free; installing VirtueMart and the necessary adds-on / plugins; resolve the challenges which are expected to occur setting up your stop using VirtueMart.
Author has explained each and every step and procedure very minutely, demonstrating using relevant screenshots for better and easy understanding to the readers.
In my view-points, the best part of this chapter is that author has taught us how to fight with the possible errors and warnings and succeed in overcoming them, along with sharing useful tips-and-tricks to provide firm understanding to the readers.
Merchandising VirtueMart:
The chapter starts with how to initiate setting up your store and covers how to create manufacturer and product categories; tabular forms consisting of various required tabs like information tab, product description tab, status tab, dimension and weight tab, product image tab, etc. ; creating custom fields for different purposes like charging different prices for different versions of each product; charging based on a specific unit entity, formulating and displaying related products; setting threshold quantity of the product for the store admin to receive product exhaust notification; grouping the products; and adding sorting and searching functionality for the product.
Alike previous chapter, author has explained the procedure in a crystal clear manner, demonstrating the concept and process using proper screenshots and sharing additional tips-and-tricks.
Shipping and Taxes:
Covers how to implement complete shipping and taxation functionality which includes, setting up and configuring shipping methods based on product weight and it’s range, country to be shipped, zip code and shipping based on a set of different criteria; and tax implementation based on different rules like configure whether the tax should be included or excluded to the total delivery cost for a specific product; auto include and/or exclude tax based on the start date and end date respectively; and configuring different tax rates for different product categories.
Author has again explained the concept and all the steps in a simple manner, covering each and every concept minutely and demonstrating the procedure using relevant screenshots for better and firm understanding to the readers.
Making your store look amazing:
This chapter teaches us how to work on the design and template of your VirtueMart store both at Joomla as well as VirtueMart levels and make it look appealing and amazing. Author has covered how to customize the branding on Joomla footer; installing and customizing Joomla and VirtueMart templates; how to install and create templates using Artisteer Design Software; how to install and customize Warp and Gantry framework and template; how to create cool header banners using jQuery and Sourcerer; and finally how to uninstall your Joomla template incase you don’t like the previous one and like to change it.
Author has explained the concepts in a very neat and clean manner, demonstrating the steps using screenshots and code snippets (whatever necessary) for better understanding to the readers.
The best part of the chapter I believe it the recipe wherein author has explained and demonstrated how to use Artisteer to use (existing templates) and create your own template out of it from scratch.
Going Live:
Till this chapter, author has covered how to build the basic functionality and UX design for your VirtueMart store. Before the store is ready to go live, there are a few of the important functionality which needs to be in place.
This chapter cover these functionalities like installing and configuring payment gateway, for instance Paypal; configuring countries and currencies; how to enable SSL to boost security factors; test the shipping and refund functionality and check whether the funds are being redirected to the correct address or not; and how to take and restore Joomla code and database backups.
Alike all the previous chapters, author has explained the concepts and processes using simple language, demonstrating with relevant examples which consist of related screenshots, code snippets and tips-and-tricks for firm understanding to the readers/developers.
Killer SEO:
This chapter covers various ways to make your portal and Mart more SEO friendly so that they get recognized and visible to the end users on search engines. This is one of the important capabilities a portal to have for better exposure to the real world.
To provide the desired capabilities to the portal, recipes like installing and setting up Piwik analytics for both Joomla and VirtueMart; how to choose the right keywords; how to create SEO friendly articles, categories etc.; writing good metadata and how to enable Joomla SEF URLs to boost its search capabilities; have been discussed in this chapter.
Author has explained the concepts in a simple manner, demonstrating using screenshots and associated code snippets. Moreover, a number of important reference links have been shared with the readers, giving them an opportunity to explore further, especially for building mobile apps.
Extending Joomla and VirtueMart:
This chapter covers how to play around with the advance functionality and the possibilities to add them to your Joomla and VirtueMart; for instance, how to install Sourcerer and jQuery and how to use them together; how to personalize your store content using Sourcerer; how to use Sourcerer and GeoIP so as to detect the user’s country; installing and configuring Weever App; installing VM Affiliate component and how to setup and test the campaign using it.
Author has explained each and every topic using simple English; usage of screenshots, reference URLs and code-snippets for each step being the priority. Hence, adding a flavour to the chapter in terms of quick and better understanding to the readers.
The simplicity and level of guidance provided in the chapter makes it even special and demanding to the aspirants.
VirtueMart Alternatives:
This chapter seems to have been written mainly to discuss on the backup-plans (incase you don’t wish to use VirtueMart by any chance); ie. A few alternatives to VirtueMart (as per the author’s recommendations).
The chapter introduces HikaShop, RedShop, J2Store and MyMuse as a few of the alternatives to VirtueMart and covers concepts like what is HikaShop and how to install and configure it; installation and configuration of RedShop; installing and configuring J2Store for in-article products; and installing and configuring MyMuse for digital download products.
Author communicate to the readers that HikaShop and RedShop are full-fledged e-commerce solutions; however, J2Store and MyMuse serve well which are specific to their associated activities of e-commerce, which can’t be considered as a full replacement to VirtueMart.
Alike the previous chapters, author has shared detailed and stepwise guidelines to explain the concepts; demonstrating using screenshots and reference URLs for better and firm understanding to the readers.
Blueprint – Making an Android App out of Your Site Content:
This chapter is a complete walk-through starting from how to prepare the right environment to build your android app, develop it and finally publish it to Google Play.
Topics like installing Java Development Kit (JDK), Eclipse, Android SDK, and Android Development Tools plugin; configuring android emulator, wrapping the site in Android WebView; testing the app on emulator; exporting the app to be used on actual Android device; branding the WebView; and finally publishing the app on Google play have been covered and described.
Author has discussed the above important topics elaborately, demonstrating the process and steps using associated screenshots and code-snippets.
The best part of this chapter is that these important topics have been covered in an appropriate flow; describing the concepts using simple English so as to provide ease to the readers in terms of understanding. Moreover, a couple of tips-and-tricks have been shared in the chapter which definitely adds value to it.
Apps, VirtueMart, and Joomla! Resources:
This is a very short section wherein the author has shared the guidelines and reference URLs to refer so that readers get an opportunity to explore out-of-box which are associated to Apps; where to get paid and free VirtueMart and Joomla templates; and finally the store to get VirtueMart extensions.
Conclusion
Building E-commerce Sites with VirtueMart Cookbook a must for the Joomla developers who intend to explore playing around with e-commerce solution. Since there is no restriction imposed to the readers to use VirtueMart, book is flexible enough in terms of using VirtueMart and other robust e-commerce solutions.
Disclaimer
I volunteered to review this book and received a free copy from Packt Publishing.
This review has been cross posted at GoodReads.com .