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joomlavirtuemart

Joomla - VirtueMart 1 or 2

I am pretty new to Virtuemart and now I do have to set up my first Webshop for a Customer. As there is already a Virtuemart 2 Version I am now not shure which Version to take. Well I think I am going to use VM1, because it is stable. But now I am asking myself:

  • What are the advantages/features of VM2?
  • Are there already Plugins out there for VM2? (Because I assume that they'll need to be rewritten for VM2)
  • When can I expect a stable version of VM2?
  • Do you already have experience with VM2?
Solution

  • Advantages/features of VM2

    • For faster and more secure programming they use now more abstract classes.
    • Completly redesigned table layout.
    • Added hooks for plugins (own views, own customer number system, and so on,...), look in the wiki for more information ( http://dev.virtuemart.net/projects/virtuemart/wiki/Plugin_system )
    • Added registering while checkout
    • New backend design
    • Hardened against hackers
    • New js (jQuery to avoid Mootools incompatibility problems)
    • Customfields for the computer/pizza configurator
    • Real multicurrency, real currency format defined by currency
    • Prices displaying configurable by shoppergroups (also rounding)
    • Various sorting and searching options
    • Update system using Akeeba Release System (ARS, more information akeebabackup.com/software/akeeba-release-system.html)

    Extensions for VM2

    The extensions directory contain a lot of extensions for VM and some were updated for VM2 ( http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/virtuemart-extensions )

    Stable version of VM2

    There is no clear data about this now. The current version at the moment is a release candidate which means a sable version is coming soon after sufficient users and developers test it and report the bugs.

    Experience with VM2

    I've used VM1 and migrated two websites for VM2 before. VM2 definitely worth the try, templates is way much better than the old table based ugly coded layout. Everything is perfect except if you are going to use Joomla 1.6 The modules does not work without glitches. Other that it's working with Joomla 1.5 perfectly.