Joomla Tutorial: How to Install and Use Joomla Component VirtueMart

1. First you will need to download the Virtuemart component package from their site at www.virtuemart.net (there is also more documentation/instruction there).

2. Log in to your administration area at www.yoursitename.com/administrator

3. In the top row of menus, go to installers and choose component.

4. Use the browse button to choose the virtuemart component on your hard drive.

5. Click upload.

To edit items already in the store:

1. Log in at www.bgsales.net/retail/administrator . When the new page loads after login,

2. Look at the row of menu items across the top of the page.

3. Choose the menu item "components". A menu will drop down.

4. Choose "virtuemart" from the components menu.

5. A new page will load with your store.

6. Notice the store has a row of menus across the top such as "store, shopper, products, etc"

7. Put your mouse over the item titled "Products"

8. In the new menu that drops down, choose "List Products".

9. This gives you a list of products currently in the store.As a security measure, it will prompt you to log in again. Log in again and repeat the steps above

From here, you have a couple of options.

If you want to temporarily remove an item from the store, Look over to the right of the item name at the icon under the column marked "published". There is an icon that is a green checkmark. Click that Icon. The page will reload and it will now have a Red "x" as the icon. This means the item will not show up in your store.

To restore it, simply click the red x. It will become a green checkmark again.

Now, to edit an item in the store, such as pictures or text, follow the directions below.

1. Click the title of the item in the list that you want to edit.

2. The first page that loads has the item title, sku number, description, the price, the category chooser, etc. You'll probably want to leave these alone.

3. To change pictures, click the tab at the top of the product information area that says product images.

4. Use the "browse" button to choose the picture from your computer that you want to upload.

5. Click the circle next to "auto create thumbnail".

6. At the top of the page there is a box with a disk icon on it that says "save". Click that button.

7. If it is successful, it will give you a preview of the item. Scroll to the bottom of the preview to see the image that is attached to the store item.To add items to the store:

1. Log in as instructed above. When the new page loads after login,

2. Look at the row of menu items across the top of the page.

3. Choose the menu item "components". A menu will drop down.

4. Choose "virtuemart" from the components menu.

5. A new page will load with your store.

6. Notice the store has a row of menus across the top such as "store, shopper, products, etc"

7. Put your mouse over the item titled "Products"

8. In the drop down menu, choose "Add Product".

9. In the field marked title on the left, Type in the title of your item.

10. In the field marked "SKU", type in a sku number - I have used 1000, 1001, etc .Make sure to use one that has not been used previously.

11. In the Category field, choose the category you want to put the item in

12. In the net product price area, type the amount

13. Next, click on the tab at the top of the product info area titled "product status"

14. In the "In Stock" area, type in 999999999, or the amount of items you have in stock

15. next, click the tab at the top that says "product images"

16. Use the "browse" key to choose the file from your computer

17. click the circle next to "auto create thumbnail"

18. Click "save" at the top.To add variations in color, smell, etc:

Click on the tab in the product edit area that says "product status".

In the attritube list field, type in Size, Color, or Smell and then continue

For example..if you want to make a drop down menu where they choose a certain inscense smell

Type in:

Smell, DragonsBlood, Patchouli, Floral

For different color:

Color, blue, red, yellow

For different size:

Size, L, M, Sm, XL,

and so on and so on.....

To alter price for different types of product, use + to add money to the price and - to take away money from the price

Example

Smell, Dragonsblood [+$2.00], Patchouli [+$2.00], Floral [-$2.00]

To Edit the tax information/options to choose from:

In the virtumart control area, go to tax in the menus across the top.

Go to "add tax rate"

Enter the information. This new tax rate will now show up as an option in your product edit area.

To add categories:

In the virtuemart control area, go to "products" and go to "add categories"

Fill in the information and click the disk icon to save.

To choose your payment handler, you will need to go to the row of menus for virtue-mart and click "edit store". Then you can choose which payment processors to publish. Click the name of the payment processor to enter your account information for that processor.