Joomla!

[cafe-central]

Hi all,

Ive just paid out £1k for somebody to help me start building an e-commerce site and they have advised they use Joomla as a template to build it out.

Ive always thought of Joomla as a beginners tool really... am I mistaken?

Thanks

 

[Zeal]

You are indeed very mistaken.

Even WordPress - (looked upon as the basic CMS) - when used correctly can be an awesome platform

Saying that.... What e-commerce platform are you using? I sure hope it isn't a FREE plug-in

 

[cafe-central]

Complete noob so dont understand the jargon...as far as i'm concerned, havent used anything free, everything is costing me but I dont mind as long as I know I am paying for quality.

 

[Zeal]

Complete noob so dont understand the jargon...as far as i'm concerned, havent used anything free, everything is costing me but I dont mind as long as I know I am paying for quality.

Ask the person doing this for you - what "e-commerce" system it is using?
Examples of FREE systems: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e-commerce

They are other systems what can be integrated with Joomla! which are worth £1000

Point is - just make sure you know exactly what your getting


But to your original questions - Joomla! is more then up for the job

 

[florenceij]

Joomla is not a bad platform for e-commerce websites. The best joomla e-commerce extension is virtuemart but there are other paid and free versions. A plugin/extension is just the added bit of code that makes joomla function as an e-commerce site. If you are paying £1k. I hope you will be getting the best paid version with full support

However I am not a fan of joomla based e-commerce website. It really depends on what features you want in your e-commerce store e.g loyalty points or discount coupon features, recover cart sales etc. These should have been discussed in your initial consultation.

Anyways look forward to seeing your website once it launched.

 

[cafe-central]

Joomla is not a bad platform for e-commerce websites. The best joomla e-commerce extension is virtuemart but there are other paid and free versions. A plugin/extension is just the added bit of code that makes joomla function as an e-commerce site. If you are paying £1k. I hope you will be getting the best paid version with full support

However I am not a fan of joomla based e-commerce website. It really depends on what features you want in your e-commerce store e.g loyalty points or discount coupon features, recover cart sales etc. These should have been discussed in your initial consultation.

Anyways look forward to seeing your website once it launched.

Yes, have been advised it is Virtuemart they are using - the £1k includes google analytics set up, customer log ins, news section etc. As I am just launching, features kept to a minimal until I can determine how busy site is and add additional features at a later date.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[Zeal]

In my opinion - unless there's a "**** hot design" so to speak... There's a dozen people on this forum who could have halved the cost for you.

Good luck though! Look forward to seeing it!

p.s- what you selling?

 

[toomanylogins]

We use joomla and viruemart and it works well. I dont think £1K is a lot if you are getting a new joomla site, template and virtuemart setup, payment gateway etc. Thats quite a lot of work without considering the content and product information.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Rob S]

Sorry to hijack the thread. I had a quick look at Joomla and was about to install, but I couldn't see a Windows 7 version - is the Vista OK to use?

 

[toomanylogins]

Joomla requires PHP and a webserver. it is not sensitive to the version of Windows. needs now to setup the web server and the mysql database.

 

[JoomGuru]

If you want to install joomla, you download the zip file and unzip it and then upload it to your server using an FTP program. Afterwards, if you have done that right go and setup a database on your server and then you can install it.

If you don't like doing that I run a hosting company that gives you a simple single-click install for £24.99 a year [with free support] and that's usually the latest version [currently 1.5.18] and its also the simplest way of setting it up properly without fuss.

 

[Flying Hippy]

Tried Joomla before was not impressed with it.

If you are spending a £1000 you can get a professional cart with CMS. You will tend to find most Open Source software is free like Joomla but if anything goes wrong or needs upgrading ect will cost you more in the long term for support.

Please choose wisely there is a lot of options out there.

 

[florenceij]

Hi all,

Ive just paid out £1k for somebody to help me start building an e-commerce site and they have advised they use Joomla as a template to build it out.

Ive always thought of Joomla as a beginners tool really... am I mistaken?

Thanks

She has already paid the company. Her site is in production phase too late for her to back out.

I am sure it will work out fine for her needs. I am looking forward to the launch.

 

[JoomGuru]

She has already paid the company. Her site is in production phase too late for her to back out.

I am sure it will work out fine for her needs. I am looking forward to the launch.

I agree and one thing is in its favour, there are a ton of joomla developers who can fix anything so its not as if they will be trapped with no way out. I would be interested in seeing the result too, perhaps you could send me a link when its done.

 

[GeeWizz_Designs]

Yeah, make sure you know exactly what you are getting, and ANY license that have to purchased for plugins etc etc, make sure they are either licensed to the domain or to you, otherwise, legally, your developer will own the license to the plugin.

Doesnt sound like too much of an issue, but if you fall out with your current developer in the future, problems may arise.

This is something I have experienced with 1 of my client.

 

[principleweb]

Hi Rob S

You need a webserver, running PHP & mySQL for Joomla. It's not Windows (or Mac or Linux) software.

However, if you want to set-up a local webserver environment in which to test and develop a Joomla site, you can use WAMP, MAMP or LAMP - software that creates that environment for you on Windows (WAMP), Mac (MAMP) or Linux (LAMP).

They stand for Windows / Mac / Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP.

Have fun!

 

[sitedesign]

Hi,

I too use Joomla to build websites.

It is actually used by Harvard University, Cable & Wireless, Porsche and may other large organisations, so I wouldn't be too concerned about the software - its pretty stable and "up to the job"

As for the price, I usually charge around £450 per year for development, hosting and updates (no initial setup fee), so I'm not sure how that compares to your one off charge and what you are paying for hosting.

Hope this helps

David at SiteDesign-Group dot co dot uk

 

[cafe-central]

Ill let you know when site is up and running. Jargon is a bit much for me to understand at the moment - hopefully you can identify what I may be missing once its up?

Thanks alot for all your replies - it really helps.

 

[da8iwr]

I used to be a core developer for Joomla until a couple of years ago, but still produce some considerably large extensions for it which you can see in my signature.

Joomla is soooo versatile and can be manipulated to do almost anything you wish as there are so many possible solutions to use.

As for the costs, i would charge about the same if not a little more for making a site. If your going to make a template from scratch and then also mould the virtuemart templates to do as you wish, then you will spend a good bit of time on it.

Just making the design and converting it into good XHTML i would charge easily half if not more than that, so paying £1000 is not bad.

If anybody is looking for really GOOD commercial eccom software, you can always try www.tradingeye.com, which is produced by a Newcastle based company. Incredible support, amazing system and just perfect... but its not free

 

[SteveSant]

Joomla, like any other CMS is only going to last as long as you maintain it. It's eminently flexible, but also vulnerable to new exploits being developed - as is any CMS. So, regardless of who develops your site, make sure you factor in regular security updates, and patches.

 

[c.smith]

Joomla is not for beginners.i would say do not under estimate Joomla. it will be the best for you..
And the best thing is, it is open source.So go ahead for it.

 

[cafe-central]

Sorry to bring this post back up... i've made my site live temporarily... still needs more information, images, etc added but this is more or less it:

www.bubblelicioustea.com

do you have suggestions on what needs to be improved on this?

Thanks

 

[Demus]

Hi, I came on here looking for e-commerce making info but I thought I'd comment; firstly it looks to me like a good website IMHO- the graphics look professional and it has a "clean" look to it.

The following is just opinion and I'm certainly no expert

On the homepage the top of the page seems spacious on my monitor, preventing as much info being seen on the page all at one time ie you have scroll a fair bit to see the products further down. I think you could keep your banner/logo the same size but just reduce the amount of space around it.

I tend to prefer search bars at the top of a page as they're immediately accessible. The same with the shop menu TBH...I like to be able to go to products immediately.

On the powders page, I think the "next page" buttons take up too much space and draw the eye too much. They might better on either size of "sort products by", pulling the products further up the page.

I'm not sure "list categories" performs much of a function and again takes up space.

Only tweaks though.
I assume you're going to, but in powders for the assorted items; currently there's no pick. You could add one showing an image of all the various colours in piles next to each other?

 

[cafe-central]

Thanks for the reply Demus - can I ask on the homepage bit - are you referrring to the advertisements between the shop intro and the the shop menu at the bottom? Initially, I did not want the shop menu on the home page at all as the Online Shop navigation key is at the top...

Agree about the search bar - I will look at changing that to top of screen next to Login

On the Online Shop tab, the menu stays on the left hand side at all times - do you prefer the tabs to be across the top?

Yep - still in intro stages so need to update more pics, product info etc... but just wanted more ideas of where could be improved for all users.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Demus]

are you referrring to the advertisements between the shop intro and the the shop menu at the bottom?

On the Online Shop tab, the menu stays on the left hand side at all times - do you prefer the tabs to be across the top?

I meant more between the top and "you are here" as atm (might be cos monitor is wrong res) most of what I can see in terms of content is the paragraph of text and then half of one of the adds and the logo etc at the top. Might just be me though.

Personally i prefer tabs at top but that's just me. I actually think it's good as it is.

For the pages where there are 18 products maybe have 3 columns as the products would still have enough space.

 

[bizfox]

www.bubblelicioustea.com

do you have suggestions on what needs to be improved on this?

Thanks

how about moving the 1st paragraph below the homepage header.