Hi,

I posted this question on the Virtuemart forum and haven't gotten any response; I'm wondering if it's actually a core Joomla! configuration issue and more generally if you can help!

I am building a site with (among other components) Virtuemart (latest versions of both Joomla and Virtuemart). I created a menu item (on my main menu) for Virtuemart->front page but when you click on it you are taken immediately to the home page, and the menu indicates that you are on 'home', not 'shop'.

As a test, I tried building my own store front by creating a new menu item (a blank Joomla article) and putting a number of Virtuemart Category modules on it. Those modules display the VM categories just fine but when you click on a sub-category link you are immediately dumped (wait for it!) on the home page.

Hunh??

In case it sheds any further light on the issue, I had also tried to use K2Mart but found that whenever I tried to use their migrator to import products (I have only 2 dummy products right now, for testing purposes) the migrator would hang. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling K2Mart but it makes no difference. Thus for now I am trying to just get Virtuemart itself functioning properly.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Cheryl

Hi Cheryl,

I have a couple of Virtuemart installations, but don' seem to experience these problems. Is it possible you could post a link to the test site so we could see what's happening?

The problem may connected to the template. Try some different, very generic, templates and see if it still does it.

Let us know,
Ed

Thanks, Ed - we may be making progress!

I changed to a fairly vanilla template as you suggested and am now getting a new error message. Clicking on either "shop" or a subcategory still goes to the home page but now I get the error message, "you are not authorized to view this resource." I tried going through "users"-- "options" and ensuring that all user settings we set to view all but still not luck. Is there an additional place I should check to make sure I have the right user viewing settings?

Thanks again for your help,
Cheryl

Check all your users and see what group they belong to.
Check the usergroups and access levels in Virtuemart and see what they are set to.
Make sure your store is not offline in maintenance mode and that it's accessible to the public.

You would get that message if the shop was offline, so look for something that may be set incorrectly first.

Cheers,
Ed

Thanks for the suggestions, Ed. I have now double-checked all of my user settings and did find a couple that were perhaps a bit 'funky' and was able to eliminate that error message -- but still it redirects! I've also tried using the built-in vm tool to reset all config's to their defaults, also to no avail, and have tried creating a redirect in the 'redirects' plug-in from the URL listed by my 'shop' menu item to my URL/shop.index.

Any other ideas?

Is this on a server where we can see it? I'm feeling a bit blind since I can't reproduce the error on my site.


Ed

Absolutely, Ed - sorry about that. The site is: freedible.cloudaccess.net.

As you will see, my home page is a Joomla core article with a number of component modules on it, including a VM "featured products" module - which works fine (though one day I do need to learn how to resize those pictures!).

The problem lies in menu items and modules that relate to VM category links. I have created a bunch of different menu/submenu items to help demonstrate the problem:

- "SHOP": menu item type "VM-FrontPage".
--> Redirects immediately to the home page rather than to a VM "frontpage".

- "VM Category Mods": (sub-)menu item type "Single Article", with a number of VM category and other modules manually inserted.
--> Properly displays the VM category structures but when I click on one that I know to have products within it, it immediately redirects to the home page and does not display the products. [There are products in the following categories: cookies, cereal, lifestyle] Also, the module "SEARCH BY CATEGORY" on this page is a "VM CATEGORY" module type and the description says it's supposed to display a 2-level categories list. Yet when you click on either of the 2 menu items displayed, this ALSO bumps you to the home page.

- "TEST VM CATEGORIES LAYOUT": (sub-)menu item type "VM Categories Layout".
--> Redirects immediately to the home page.

- "VM CATEGORY LAYOUT TEST": (sub-)menu item type "VM Category Layout".
--> Redirects immediately to the home page.

Needless to say, I'm at a loss. I have posted the issue to the VM forum twice and still haven't gotten any replies so I would sure appreciate any ideas you might have!!

Thanks,
Cheryl

Oy - gave you the wrong URL. Try this one instead: funnytummyfoods.cloudaccess.net

Thanks!!

Try removing any redirection you've set up, and turn off SEF urls and redirection in Global Configuration.

Have you made any changes to your .htaccess file? Rename it temporarily so it's not influencing any redirection. Also look for any .htaccess files that might be in any subdirectories.

Ed

Thanks for sticking with me, Ed.

I think I solved the problem at last -- the issue was actually with a defunct K2Mart installation! I had installed K2Mart and then given up on it because when I tried to use the built-in Migrator to import my (two) VM products, it was still going 12 hours later. I then disabled it - and even tried uninstalling it - but it didn't change the redirect problem. However, just now I reinstalled K2Mart and selected my "Shop" folder as the root category and (ta-da!) it now works. Moreover, I found a very helpful thread on the Joomlaworks forum explaining out to fix the migrator problem by disabling JomSocial temporarily. [forum.joomlaworks.net/k2mart_2x/not-able...rtuemart-and-k2mart/] Progress!

Alas, 2 questions remain. First, I am concerned about the potential for error given that K2Mart and VM don't cross-sync all data (including in particular all category data). Do you have any views or experience on this? I noticed that one of your colleagues had recommended HikaShop -- do they offer a better option? I have to say their product looked great and the reviews were amazing but as a total newbie I feel more comfortable going with components (like VM) that have large developer communities creating extensions and offering wisdom and support.

Finally, any idea how to properly re-configure VM after UNinstalling K2Mart should I decide to do so?

That's a lot of follow-up questions, Ed - my apology. You know what they say about the prize for winning a sausage-eating contest, right? More sausage.

All the best, and I really do appreciate your patient SUPPORT (in all meanings of the word).
- Cheryl

Funny how one answer can raise so many more questions :)

Unfortunately this is not something I have experience with so it's hard to say for sure. One thing you might do is check the database in phpMyAdmin and see if there are still K2Mart tables there. Use the browse and see what's in them if there are. Check a few against VM products and see if there is a problem.

I like Hika shop, and one of the things that is great is that they have paid support so you know you can feel pretty confident you can get an answer. I actually wrote our Hika Shop tutorial, so I'm pretty familiar with it. But that being said, I'm doing a new site and I'm using VM for it. I say this all the time "The best one you can use is the one you know how to use". I've used VM more in the past, so it's comfortable. For you right now, it's a toss up since you don't have a comfort level with either. VM should do the job though.

Sorry on this one. I just haven't had to do that before. You might have to seek some guidance on the VM forum.

One thing you can do is to find a plugin for exporting all your data into a CSV file so you can preserve the data. With that you may be able to re-import it into any other shopping cart. I have used this company magneticone.com to do conversions for me from one cart to another and their support, which is not free, is nonetheless very good.

Keep asking questions.

Cheers,
Ed

Really helpful feedback, Ed - thanks again for all your support! Definitely glad now that I invested in OSTraining!

Cheryl

We're glad you're here Cheryl. Hope we hear more from you.

Cheers,
Ed