Having worked on numerous Virtuemart e-commerce websites I have spend many painstaking hours trying to configure Virtuemart urls to be Search Engine Friendly (SEF). Therefore, I thought it would be useful, not only for me, to collate and compile… a list (if you like) of useful resources, utilities, plug-ins and extensions to assist in improving SEF urls.

1. SEF Router for Virtuemart

router.php is used to change the non-sef into sef urls in Joomla 1.5. This file does the same for Virtuemart component and you don’t need to use third party SEF component to make your category and products page search engine friendly.

Example:
www.yoursitename.com/category/category_id/category_name
www.yoursitename.com/category/category_id/parent_category_name/category_name
www.yoursitename.com/details/product_id/category_id/product_name

This download is free.

Video Instruction:

2. Yagendoo VirtueMart SEO

All you have to do to obtain this is to copy 1 file into your Joomla! installation, and you will promptly be able to create wonderful Virtuemart SEO links with the Joomla!-included SEO.

At the same time, you’ll be minimizing the risk from using external SEO components. For who can guarantee you that this component will always be available and not canceled, as has often been the case already? Needless to explain what this may imply for a shop. If your links change because you have to adapt to another SEO component, you will catapult your web site to the scrap pile. And possibly your existence as well?

Yagendoo Virtuemart SEO completely confides in the Joomla!-included SEO, which is bound to exist as long as Joomla! itself. Without any risk!

With our Virtuemart SEO, the following results can be obtained:

- for linked categories and products

www.domain.com/en/shop-menuitem/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/product.html

- for unlinked products/categories

www.domain.com/en/shop-menuitem/id-category/id-category/id-category/id-category/id-product.html

This download costs €10

3. Artio JoomSEF

SEO component to make your Joomla! URLs SEF (search engine friendly) and easily human understandable with metadata generation capabilities. Supports URL translations at multilingual sites using JoomFish. Wide component through extension system. Proved to work both with Apache and IIS. Online upgrades and extension installtion. Custom 404 Page Not Found, duplicate URLs management.
Now also with new security functions to prevent URL code injection!

Main features:
* generate SEF URLs
* generate metadata (component – based)
* can override default metadada generated by component or Joomla (title, meta tags)
* duplicates management
* support for other components through extension modules; each component extenstion has own configurable parameters
* multilinguality support (JoomFish) and URL localization
* UTF-8 URLs support
* URL caching
* editing .htaccess capability
* URL variables filtering option – prevent URL code injections! with custom filter defintions
* URL source tracing to help allocate problematic code
* 301 Redirections management
* 404 Page Not Found customization
* online upgrades and extension installations

Support for many Joomla components: AdsManager, AlphaContent, Contacts XTD, Community Builder, Datso Gallery, DocMan, EZ Realty, Fireboard forum, Glossary, iJoomla Components, JE Comparison Charts, JEvents, Jomres, Joomlaboard, JoomFish, Joomla Tags, Jomres (Joomla Residents), Portfol, Seyret Video Component, SMF Bridge, SOBI2, Marketplace, Mosets Hot Property, Mosets Tree, ReMOSitory, RSGallery2, VirtueMart, Zoom Media Gallery. …
at the moment, there is more than 90 extensions available directly from ARTIO – see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-extensions for complete list, plus many more from 3rd party developers.

For changelog details, see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-for-joomla-1-5-version-history

NEW! 3.4.0 – New GUI, improved duplicate managements, metadata generation, improved pagination and much more!
NEW! 3.3.0 – You can now specify canonical links!
…more in changelog at project homepage

Get support and download this from http://www.artio.net.

4. sh404SEF

sh404SEF rewrites Joomla URL to a more user-friendly format (SEF URL or URL rewriting): mysite.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=69&id=34… becomes mysite.com/en/sh404SEF-and-url-rewriting/list-of-available-plugins.html).
It is also a security component and manages title and meta tags : automatic tags, or manual for every page. It works with or without .htaccess file. Joomfish compatible. Caching system for high speed and very small DB queries overhead.
Support many components natively but uses also sef_ext from OpenSEF/SEF Advanced. VirtueMart, Fireboard, Community Builder, mosetsTree, HotProperty, Sobi2, Docman, myBlog, iJoomla Magazine,News Portal, Remository and more supported natively. SSL switch, automatic 301 redirection from non-sef to sef and from Joomla SEF to sh404SEF, insert Google news style numerical ID,.. Many backend parameters to control URL construction behaviour.

Unfortunately, there isn’t that many serious Virtuemart templates provider out there who are producing high quality Virtuemart themes. So I though I would share my experience and hopefully point you in the direction of finding the best of best. This article isn’t reviewing Virtuemart template providers, but more concerned with my experience of developing e-commerce websites using Joomla / Virtuemart templates.

Shape 5

I have personally used a number of Shape 5 templates for Joomla and Virtuemart. Currently, Shape 5 have three Virtuemart templates available. All three are not free but certainly worth the money. Shape 5 have utilised the demo sites for each template to provide guidance and instruction on setting up the template.

1. Your Store. This template is very customisable and has 21 module positions, and 20 colour variations.

2. eMerchantilism. This template has 19 module positions and various menu styles and colour variations.

3. Shopper Frenzy. This is my personal favourite of the three. I recently used this template to build www.gemmsdream.com. This template boasts 23 module positions and various menu styles.

VJ Templates

Probably the largest provider that I have found of Virtuemart templates. Currently, they have 30 templates covering many categories and theie design style can be observed in most of their templates. The only draw back is you can only use the template on one site; however, the documentation provided with the template is very comprehensive and their online forum is also very helpful.

I have only used one template from this site: www.homefurniturewarehouse.co.uk.

Template Monster

At the moment there are ten Virtuemart templates listed here covering a number of popular categories. They do offer a buy out fee of several thousand dollar, which I personally think it way too much to own the template outright. I haven’t personally used any templates from here, so if any has it would be great to hear your views.

Ice Theme

Ice Themes only have produced one Virtuemart template called The Store 2. I am unsure whether there ever was a Store 1, as it doesn’t appear on their site. The design of the template very much follows the Ice Theme styling of their Joomla templates. I personally have never used this template; however, I hope to get my hands dirty with this one in the near future.

Mall WP

I came across this website be chance whilst actually writing this article via Google Alert keyword Virtuemart. They predominantly provide WordPress themes, and only have one Virtuemart template called Top Shop. Normally, this templates is sells for $40; however, at the moment they have it for $5. Bargin!

I know this never going to be an exclusive list, so if you do find other Virtuemart template providers, please let me know and I’ll take a look.

I was browsing around the web the other day looking for some guidance, advice and tutorials on taking a web design from Photoshop and coding the design for WordPress. Having spent a good hour of browsing I came across http://www.psd2cssonline.com. Basically, this web site automatically converts your Photoshop PSD file into css, xhtml or templates for Joomla or WordPress once you have applied the relevant slices to the PSD design. I thought immediately, what a fantastic resource, and something that will save so many people a huge amount of time coding sites by hand (so to speak). Promptly, I booked mark this site and it into my list of ‘things to do’ for writing a blog, in the hope that this will add some further awareness of this fantastic resource.

As yet I haven’t tested the site, so I cannot write a review on how it works; however, I’m sure I will once I’ve had the opportunity to test it out. Certainly though, looking at the samples provided on the web site, it appears to work well.

Step 1: Check server settings:

Compare the server settings of your current host to the settings on the new host to make sure that your new server is compatible with Joomla! and the extensions you have already installed.

Step 2: Back up everything:

This includes all Joomla! files, third-party component files, and any other files that you have added to your site such as images, videos, and so on. Create a folder on your local system, and download all files to that folder using your FTP client application.

Step 3: Export your database:

The third thing you need to do is export your Joomla! database. The best thing to do is to export it into an SQL file, which makes importing it easier in a later step. The SQL file will contain all of the necessary SQL commands for creating your database tables and filling them with your data. Be sure you export the entire database.

Using phpMyAdmin on both servers makes this step easier, because it offers the ability export your entire database to an SQL file. It also makes importing your files easier in step 6.

Step 4: Modify Configuration.php:

Every Joomla! installation has a configuration file in its root directory called configuration.php. This file stores basic configuration information that Joomla! uses throughout the system. Most of the parameters in the file will stay the same, but some will change due to the different settings on the two servers:

• $host – This value is the database host. In most cases, this will be “localhost,” but if you are using a different server for your database, you will need to change this.
• $user – This is the database user. Change this if it is different from the user on your other server.
• $password – This is the database user’s password.
• $db – This is the database name.
• $ftp_host – In most cases, the FTP host will be “127.0.0.1,” but if you are using a different setting you will change it here.
• $ftp_port – In most cases, the FTP port will be “21,” but if your server uses a different port you will change it here.
• $ftp_user – This is your FTP username.
• $ftp_pass – This is your FTP password.
• $ftp_root – This is the root path to which your FTP user has access.
• $tmp_path – This is the absolute path to the tmp directory on your server. It will probably look something like “/path/to/joomla/installation/tmp.”
• $log_path – This is the absolute path to the logs directory on your server. It will probably look something like “/path/to/joomla/installation/logs.”
• $offset – This is the time zone offset for your server. For example, if your company is in one time zone, but your server is in a time zone two hours ahead, you will need to see this to “-2.”
• $live_site – This parameter is optional. You can probably leave it blank, but if you use it, this is the URL of your site. It will probably look something like “http://www.example.com” or “http://www.example.com/joomla.”
• $sendmail – This is the path to the sendmail program on your server. If you are not using sendmail, you can ignore this.
• $smtpuser – This is the username for your SMTP server. If you are not using your SMTP server for sending e-mails from your site, you can ignore this.
• $smtppass – This is the password for your SMTP server. If you are not using your SMTP server for sending e-mails from your site, you can ignore this.
• $smtphost – This is the host name or IP address for your SMTP server. If you are not using your SMTP server for sending e-mails from your site, you can ignore this.

Step 5: Upload all of your files to the other server:

Using an FTP client application (like FileZilla), upload all of your files to the location on your new server where you want to install Joomla!.

Step 6: Import your database to the new MySQL database:

Using phpMyAdmin (or console commands if you are an advanced database administrator) and the SQL file you generated in step 3, import your old database into your new database.

Step 7: Test your new installation

Your move should now be complete, but please don’t take my word for it. Test your site to make sure that everything is in its proper place and working the way you expect it to. For example, if you did not use relative URLs for your links on your old server, they may not work properly on your new server.

Having worked on numerous Virtuemart e-commerce websites I have spend many painstaking hours trying to configure Virtuemart urls to be Search Engine Friendly (SEF). Therefore, I thought it would be useful, not only for me, to collate and compile… a list (if you like) of useful resources, utilities, plug-ins and extensions to assist in improving SEF urls.

1. SEF Router for Virtuemart

router.php is used to change the non-sef into sef urls in Joomla 1.5. This file does the same for Virtuemart component and you don’t need to use third party SEF component to make your category and products page search engine friendly.

Example:
www.yoursitename.com/category/category_id/category_name
www.yoursitename.com/category/category_id/parent_category_name/category_name
www.yoursitename.com/details/product_id/category_id/product_name

This download is free.

Video Instruction:

2. Yagendoo VirtueMart SEO

All you have to do to obtain this is to copy 1 file into your Joomla! installation, and you will promptly be able to create wonderful Virtuemart SEO links with the Joomla!-included SEO.

At the same time, you’ll be minimizing the risk from using external SEO components. For who can guarantee you that this component will always be available and not canceled, as has often been the case already? Needless to explain what this may imply for a shop. If your links change because you have to adapt to another SEO component, you will catapult your web site to the scrap pile. And possibly your existence as well?

Yagendoo Virtuemart SEO completely confides in the Joomla!-included SEO, which is bound to exist as long as Joomla! itself. Without any risk!

With our Virtuemart SEO, the following results can be obtained:

- for linked categories and products

www.domain.com/en/shop-menuitem/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/product.html

- for unlinked products/categories

www.domain.com/en/shop-menuitem/id-category/id-category/id-category/id-category/id-product.html

This download costs €10

3. Artio JoomSEF

SEO component to make your Joomla! URLs SEF (search engine friendly) and easily human understandable with metadata generation capabilities. Supports URL translations at multilingual sites using JoomFish. Wide component through extension system. Proved to work both with Apache and IIS. Online upgrades and extension installtion. Custom 404 Page Not Found, duplicate URLs management.
Now also with new security functions to prevent URL code injection!

Main features:
* generate SEF URLs
* generate metadata (component – based)
* can override default metadada generated by component or Joomla (title, meta tags)
* duplicates management
* support for other components through extension modules; each component extenstion has own configurable parameters
* multilinguality support (JoomFish) and URL localization
* UTF-8 URLs support
* URL caching
* editing .htaccess capability
* URL variables filtering option – prevent URL code injections! with custom filter defintions
* URL source tracing to help allocate problematic code
* 301 Redirections management
* 404 Page Not Found customization
* online upgrades and extension installations

Support for many Joomla components: AdsManager, AlphaContent, Contacts XTD, Community Builder, Datso Gallery, DocMan, EZ Realty, Fireboard forum, Glossary, iJoomla Components, JE Comparison Charts, JEvents, Jomres, Joomlaboard, JoomFish, Joomla Tags, Jomres (Joomla Residents), Portfol, Seyret Video Component, SMF Bridge, SOBI2, Marketplace, Mosets Hot Property, Mosets Tree, ReMOSitory, RSGallery2, VirtueMart, Zoom Media Gallery. …
at the moment, there is more than 90 extensions available directly from ARTIO – see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-extensions for complete list, plus many more from 3rd party developers.

For changelog details, see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-for-joomla-1-5-version-history

NEW! 3.4.0 – New GUI, improved duplicate managements, metadata generation, improved pagination and much more!
NEW! 3.3.0 – You can now specify canonical links!
…more in changelog at project homepage

Get support and download this from http://www.artio.net.

4. sh404SEF

sh404SEF rewrites Joomla URL to a more user-friendly format (SEF URL or URL rewriting): mysite.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=69&id=34… becomes mysite.com/en/sh404SEF-and-url-rewriting/list-of-available-plugins.html).
It is also a security component and manages title and meta tags : automatic tags, or manual for every page. It works with or without .htaccess file. Joomfish compatible. Caching system for high speed and very small DB queries overhead.
Support many components natively but uses also sef_ext from OpenSEF/SEF Advanced. VirtueMart, Fireboard, Community Builder, mosetsTree, HotProperty, Sobi2, Docman, myBlog, iJoomla Magazine,News Portal, Remository and more supported natively. SSL switch, automatic 301 redirection from non-sef to sef and from Joomla SEF to sh404SEF, insert Google news style numerical ID,.. Many backend parameters to control URL construction behaviour.

How do you keep informed with all the constant change in web development and design? Everyday there are new releases of software upgrades, new plugins, themes, and much much more.  I find myself everyday spending at least an hour of my time reading information, and updating the websites I manage with these new releases of software and plugins. To faciliate these releases, I subscribe to various websites via the RSS feeds and all these updates are presented in my blog reader. My preference is Google Reader.  It’s very well presented and easy to use, and this helps to decide what prioritise reading first. I’m not sure how many different blogs or RSS feeds I’m subscribed too, but I certainly get through at least a 100 different blogs or updates a day.  Although it can be time comsuming, however, it’s important to keep your website in tip-top condition ensuring it’s using the latest software and plugins. Failure can result in security issues, and the site not functioning in the most efficient and effective manner.