This is where you edit the configuration of your store.

Configuration tabs

The tabs you see when editing the configuration, along with a description of the fields and their purpose, are shown below.  Click on the relevant tab for details.

{tab Shop Information}

Virtuemart configuration shop tab

The tab is split into a number of sections. Information is grouped together for ease of maintenance

Shop settings

Shop is offline?

Shop will not appear and the "offline message below" will be displayed.

Offline Message

A short message to be displayed when the shop is offline. Example: "We are working on our shop to serve you better!"

Use only as catalogue

The cart functionality will be disabled. Customers will not be able to create orders for you store.

Select a currency converter module

If you have installed additional currency convert modules, they can be slected here. Currency modules fetch exchange rates from a server and convert one currency into another for the customer.

Enable Joomla Plugin

TBC

Enable SSL for sensible areas (recommended)

Run your shop and all pages using HTTPS and SSL - you dont need to set this if you are doing that for your site - if not , why not!!  Get an SSL certificate for you site and use it!. This will deliver pages via HTTPS for the links in the cart and the user area. Be sure to use the right Joomla settings for the user maintenance, the anonymous order, and the login. Or just force your stie to use HTTPS everywhere and you can leave this alone.

Use ReCaptcha for registration

Use google recaptcha for registrering shoppers - (requires Joomla configurations to be completed.

Language settings

If you have uploaded additional languages in your web host's control panel or cpanel, select them here.

Use english as fallback for untranslated stringsntranslated strings

Prevent untranslated messages from displaying in computer code, they will display in English instead.

Shop language

Choose the default language for your store - the Joomla default will be used if nothing is chosen.

Multilingual shop

If you shop is to support more than one language and the languages have been installed - select them here.

No Fallback

Do not attempt to use the default language if not translation exists.

Custom Fallback

Enter one or more pairs of language tags for the language fallback(s), e.g. pt-BR~pt-PT;en-US~en-GB.

Advanced settings

These settings can be left as default.

These settings are for developers and experienced VirtueMart shop implementors. Do not modify unless you know what you are doing!

{tab Orders}

configuration orders

The tab is split into a number of sections. Information is grouped together for ease of maintenance

EMail settings

Order-mail format

Order confirmation EMails - use the HTML format templates or the Text only format templates

USe the vendor email address

You can use the vendor email address or the one set in the joomla configuration. This setting depends on your selected mailer.

Invoice in user language

Use default shopper language or check this stting to invoice in the registered shopper language.

Debug Mail

Testing only to show the email in a debug frame.

Additional vendor email addresses

If required you can add additional email address for which to send vendor emails (leave empty if only the default vendor email address is to be used)

Email shopper fields for shopper emails

Default is email, but if multiple email fields exist for a shopper - then they can be selected here.

Default Order Status to send email to shopper/Default Order Status to send email to Vendor

Vendors and Shoppers can receive notification emails of order status changes, these can be different for vendor and shopper.  You do not need to send an email for every order status.

Configure the required order status notifications here.

When the order status is changed to one of those configured in the lists the email will be sent.

General mail attachment

You can send files along with an order notification email - these should be uploaded to your vendor/media folder

Specify which files to include here or leave blank.

e.g. our-terms-of-sale.pdf,our-returns-form.pdf

Orderstatus to use for attachment

Order statuses for which to send the attachment/s above.

Invoice settings

Status to create Invoice

Order statuses for which to generate an invoice (depending on other settings, a new invoice may not be generated if one already exists.)

{tab Shopfront}

configuration shopfront

The tab is split into a number of sections. Information is grouped together for ease of maintenance

Core Settings

Default weight unit

The default weight unit for products added to your store (this can be changed when adding or mainting products).

Default LWH unit

The default Length, Width, Height unit for products added to your store (this can be changed when adding or mainting products).

Show the Print View link

Show the print option on VirtueMart pages - page will be displayed in a popup for printing.

Show the pdf view icon

Show the PDF option on VirtueMart pages.

Recommend a product, ask questions

Show the Recommend to a friend link

Show a link allowing the shopper to send a recommendation email for a specific product.

Allow non logged-in to send a recommendation or ask a question

Only show the recomend option to logged in shoppers.

Use ReCaptcha for recommendations and 'Ask a question'

Use google recaptcha for sending a question to the vendor from product views - (requires Joomla configurations to be complete)

Allows to ask a question

Display a link to allow shoppers to send a question to the vendor.

Question minimum/maximum length

Number of characters, min-max for the question.

Enable coupon usage

Enable coupon usage

Allow coupons to be used in the store.

Coupons can be created and configured in "Orders and shoppers / Coupons".

Default coupon lifetime

Default time for coupon expiration after creation - can be changed when creating/editing coupons.

Order Status to Delete a Gift Coupon

A gift coupons is a for one time only use, to delete the coupon after use, select the order statuses here.

Product listing

Show the product navigation

Show the product navigation on the top of the product page.

Display stock level

Show the stock level for products in the product category and product pages.

Show product customfields in browse views

Show product customfields in the category views.  If customfields are required for addiding products to cart you need to enable this.

Show products of subcategories

TBC

Show uncategorised parent products in search results and modules

Display uncategorised parent products in searches and modules

Show uncategorised child products in search results and modules

Display uncategorised child products in searches and modules.

Show also products, which are not in at least one published category

Display products that are in at least one published category.

Display Subcategories in product detail view

Display Subcategories in product detail view

Latest Products - Number of days to display

When displaying latest products - show items created within this number of days.

Latest Products - Sort order of display

Sort latest products based on this choice.

MAX PRODUCTS PER VIEW IN FRONT END

The standard pagination list limit for the frontend views.

Action when a Product is Out of Stock

The options below allow you to chose how to handle the display/purchasing of items based on stock available. Stock quantities are configured in the product views and are updated by order statuses.

 Send the vendor an email notifying of an item that has a low stock value.  This notifcation value is set at a product level "Low Stock Notification".

Stockhandling on product level

Do not set this if items can be treated at a store level. Warning - this option can slow down large shops - due to the additional processing required when displaying category pages. You will need to configure the options below at product level if you check this.

Product display options based on stock level - Radio option

The default setting is to allow for ordering of all items, regardless of stock quantity 'Products Out of Stock are orderable, no special action'.

  • Products Out of Stock are orderable, no special action
  • Do not Display Product
  • Do not Display Product, if child products also out of stock
  • Displays 'Notify Me' instead of 'Add To Cart' button
  • Products Out of Stock are orderable, and the field 'Availability' below is displayed
    AVAILABILITY
    Select the text and image to display.
    Instead of AVAILABILITY text, an image can be used.
    Images are stored in directory /components/com_virtuemart/assets/images/availability/.

Shopper Review/Rating System

Auto-Publish Reviews

Publish reviews without review/acceptance by your administrators.

Comment Minimum/Maximum Length

Number of characters, min-max for the review.

Number of reviews

Number of reviews to show on a product page,

SHOW REVIEW

Decide which shoppers can see the reviews for products.

ENABLE REVIEW SYSTEM FOR

Decide which shoppers can write reviews for products.

SHOW RATING

Decide which shoppers can see the ratings for products..

ENABLE RATING SYSTEM FOR

Decide which shoppers can submit the ratings for products.

Order status Review/Rating

These order statuses will determine how "Shoppers who bought the product" will be identified in the above settings.

{tab Templates}

configuration templates

The tab is split into a number of sections. Information is grouped together for ease of maintenance

Shopfront Settings

The following items are the default settings for your store pages they can be overriden at a VirtueMart Category or Joomla VM-Category menu level.

Show Store Description

Show the store description as defined in your shop settings

Show category description

Show the store category description when a category is displayed

Show search

Show a VirtueMart search option

The following options are displayed in groups on the Shopfront/Category pages

Each element has optional settings: 

  • Show - enable this element
  • Items per row - number items to display in a row
  • Rows - Number of rows - TBC
  • Omit - dont display products more than once - e.g. Show featured - Omit = No - If a product is shown in category page, dont also show in featured items display.

Show Children Category

Show any child Categories for a Category and/or Product

Show products of the selected category

Show products within a category.

Show Manufacturers

Show manufacturers.

Show featured

Show products set as featured.

Show discontinued

Show items marked as discontinued.

Show Top ten products

Show top ten selling products.

Show recent

Show the recent products added to your store based on, Shopfront > "Latest Products - Number of days to display".

Show latest products

Show the latest products added to your store based on, Shopfront > "Latest Products - Number of days to display".

Templates and layouts

Layout Bootstrap version

This feature is not implemented.

Select the default template for your Shop

VirtueMart uses the Joomla template by default. You can change this here if you wish your store to use a different template to the default Joomla website.

Category Template

VirtueMart uses the Joomla template by default. You can change this here if you wish your store to use a different template to the default Category views.

Cart layout

VirtueMart uses the Joomla template by default. you can adjust this using a template if required.

Category Layout

The default layout for browsing categories in your store, you can change here if required.  This option is overridable at category level.

Sublayouts for products in category

The default layout for displaying products in category views in your store, you can change here if required.  This option is overridable at category level.

Product layout

The default layout for displaying product detail views in your store, you can change here if required.  This option is overridable at category level.

Core Css Styles & Javascripts

The settings in this section are configured for the correct operation of you base VirtueMart store.

Adjusting these settings should be performed by those with enough technical knowledge to understand the implications.

Shopfront settings for deprecated views/layouts

This option can be ignored. Used for old sites that have not updated to new shopfront settings and templates

Media Files Settings

Open additional images in the main position

Additional product images will open in a popup box or in the main poistion.

Enable Dynamic Thumbnail Resizing

Images can be auto resized for category browse display - this will save time when administering new products.

Fullimage width / height

Specify the height and or the width for the auto main image - page load times will be reduced for smaller optimised images.

Thumbnail Image Width / Height

Specify the height and or the width for the auto resized image. - page load times will be reduced for smaller optimised images.

'no image' image

Image to display when the element has not had an image uploaded.

'no image found' image

Image to display when the element has had an image uploaded but the image cannot be found.

Safe path

Path for downloadable goods for sale and the store invoices.

Note - enter an absolute path. Best practice is to have this outside of your main publicy accessible path e.g. below the public_html  directory.

Media paths

The location of the VirtueMart media and assets for your store - do not change unless you understand the implications of the changes you are making.

Set the pagination sequence for the List Box

Max items listed displaying media

For administrator lists - the maximum items in a list where a thumbnail will be displaye

Backend default items per list view

For administrator lists - maximum items before pagination takes place.

Backend pagination sequence

Leave empty, to use the generic pagination.

Set a list of numbers separated by commas that will be used in the list box on the backend.
Example: 15,50,100,150 Note - default is already the products per row multiplied by 5,10,20,50

Frontend default items per list view

Maximum frontend items before pagination takes place.

For views with X item per row

Leave empty, to use the generic pagination.

Set a list of numbers separated by commas that will be used in the list box on the backend.
Example: 15,50,100,150 Note - default is already the products per row multiplied by 5,10,20,50

{tab Pricing}

configuration pricing

The tab is split into a number of sections. Information is grouped together for ease of maintenance

Price configuration

Fine-tune the elements of product pricing that are displayed in your shop.

Shoppergroups override (shoppergroup configuration)

The price display can be overriden by shoppergroup settings if required. This is done in the shoppergroup configuration views.  The values shown below are relevant to those setting as well.

Show Tax in Cart

Show the tax amount in your cart.

Show tax message with product price

Allows a descriptor to be used below te product price to describe the price being shown. This is useful if only one price is shown to your customers and you want VirtueMart to describe if it is tax inclusive or exclusive.

VirtueMart uses the language variables COM_VM_TAX_INCLUSIVE or COM_VM_TAX_EXCLUSIVE for this purpose and displays these below the product price. You can adjust these variables with Joomla Language Overrides.

Show delivery message with product price

Some stores wish to show a generic delivery message - this option shows the language variable COM_VM_PRICES_INFO_DELIVERY below the product price. You can adjust this variable in Joomla to directly link to your page with delivery information.

Show call for price, when the price is empty

If you do not specify a price in the product information page, the prompt "Call for Price" will display instead of $0.00.

Show call for price, when the price is empty

Use the Rappenrundung for Swiss CHF

For Swiss stores, rounds only the display always to 0.00 or 0.05.

Round only display

We advise you use this option - only the display of pricing is rounded - but the core prices are based on the decimal places set - this gives a more accurate calculation when mulitple items are ordered.

Display variant prices with tax

Order of multiple prices

Within some stores with multiple shoppergroups and pricing configurations it is easily possible for a product to have more than one possible price for a customer.

When this happens you can specify which price the customer gets.

Set - Ascending to use the lowest price available.

Set - Decending to use the highest price available.

Show following prices

Show Prices

UN-check this box if you do not want customers to see prices. They will need to call you or contact you for pricing information.

Price elements

The are many prices that VirtueMart can show.  The best way to understand the options is to test in a non-live store.

  • Show price - shows the calculated value for the price element.
  • Show label - shows the name label for the price element.
  • Rounding - Value of -1 will use the default store rounding for price display based on the currency "decimals" setting of the displayed currency.
    (If round only display is unchecked this will also be the rounding decimals for calculations.}

Not all elements are described below.

Base Price Modificator

If you use product variations that cost more or less (example: diamond add $100; ruby subtract $50), display the base price.

New Base Price Modificated by chosen product variant

If you use product variations that cost more or less, display the base price INCLUDING the total of the variations.

Discounted Price Without Tax and Sales Price Without Tax

If you offer discounts, for example product groups like Wholesalers, display the discounted product price without tax. Otherwise, display the sales price without adding the tax.

Tax Amount and Base Price with Tax, but without discounts

Display the tax on the item separately. OR display the base price including the tax but before any discounts.

Final Salesprice

The actual price the customer has to pay. RECOMMENDED!

Sales Price with discount, but without override

You can over-ride any discounts on the product information page. This displays the price with discounts but without the individual over-rides.

Discount Amount

A separate line that tells the customer exactly how much discount they get on this item.

{tab Checkout}

configuration checkout

These options enable you to customize some aspects of the buying and checkout process.

Display modal popup upon 'Add to cart'

The adding to cart function creates a modal popup detailing the item that is being added to cart.  The customer remains on the page where the clicked "add to cart".

If this is unchecked, when add to cart is clicked the checkout page is displayed.

Show related products in the popup

If this item has related products, show these in the add to cart popup.

One Page Checkout enabled/Ajax for OPC

Unless you have another cart module and associated plugins - leave these checked for the correct functionality of the cart.

Show checkout steps

Legacy setting can be left as unchecked.

Enable Automatic Selected Shipment/Payment

Default is none - Shoppers will be shown the available method(s) and have to positively choose, even when there is only one method available.

No preference: if only one method is valid ( displayed ) then it will be selected automatically.

The other methods: You can choose one of the available methods to be your preferential pre-selected method (if valid). If this method is not valid ( displayed ) then the lowest shipping method ID will be pre-selected.

Simplified VAT for shipping

The VAT rate for Shipping will be the same as the VAT rate of the items with the highest total net value in the cart.

Must agree to Terms of Service on EVERY ORDER

Customer must check a box to show they have read and agreed to your Terms of Service before they can complete the checkout process and move to payment each time they place an order (or re-order for registered shoppers).

Show product images

Show thumbnails of ordered items in the cart view.

Allow Administrators to change the current Shopper

Depending on your business, you may allow registered shoppers to make orders over the phone/email etc. 

By ticking this box - if the admin (with the correct permissions) is signed on in the front end, they can visit the cart page and see a selection list of registered shoppers and search box (along with other associated features) relating to this "remote ordering" process.

The admin can choose a registered shopper and "become the shopper". Cart and store pricing, payment and shipment options will be for the chosen shopper.

Default delivery date

The default date to use in invoices, otherwise it can be based on one of the statuses in the dropdown.  This is not a "Delivery date" functionality.

On checkout, ask for registration

Customers will be checked out as guests by default - if you want to offer registration as an option check this box.

Registered shoppers can access their order history and account details on future visits.

Only registered users can checkout

Most stores do not want to slow the checkout process by forcing customer registration and this can be left unchecked.

If you want to force customers to register, BOTH this and "On checkout, ask for registration" must be checked.

Order tracking mode

Determine which customers can access order information saved in your store.

{tab Product Order Settings}

configuration product order settings

Choose the items customers can sort or search by.

Default Product/Category Sort Order

Choose the default ordering of product on category pages and categories when a customer first visits a page.

Ascending or descending sequence.

Available Sort-by fields

Allow customers to click a heading to sort. Put a check in the box next to each item you want to be sortable.

Note:customers will be shown these in the category browse pages so consider what really matters before selecting too many.

Available Search Fields

Allow customers to search on these fields by putting a check in the box.

{tab Feeds}

configuration feeds

This tab allows you to provide information within "feeds" enabling feed options will allow shoppers to subscribe to these feeds.

 

{tab SEO}

 configuration seo

VirtueMart automatically assigns the SEO URLs to your products and pages based on the rules you set here.

SEO disabled

Search friendly URL's look nicer in search engine listings.

Check this box if you prefer no SEO friendly urls from VirtueMart to be used.

NOTE: Changing this option in a live store that has been indexed by search engines is not recommended unless you really know how to do page redirects

Use product link suffix

Add the "seo suffix" to product urls - can be useful for very large stores. default is not to use this/

Example: https://yourstorename.com/index.php/handtools/nice-saw-product.

SEO Suffix

Suffice to use e.g. product.

Translate Strings

If your store uses multiple languages, check this box to also translate your URLs. Otherwise it uses the default language.

Use Product and Category IDs

Inserts the product and category ID into the URL for additional search engine information.

Use full category tree for product links

Uses the category(ies) as a prefix to the product url.

Example:

Checked - https:/yourstorename.com/outdoor-hats/cap-baseball-product

Unchecked - https:/yourstorename.com/cap-baseball-product

Note: the product suffix -product has also been added

Strict mode

TBC

Sef for cart links

Checking this allows things such as module placement to be controlled in cart links.

{/tabs}