OpenCart Community

I'm trying to decide what's better to go with. Joomla! extension called VirtueMart or this (OpenCart). I like the interface of this better... it seems easier to use. Anybody have experience with both?

waseem managed to get them working together.

Opencart is better in my opinion by a long shot.

Cleaner, Simpler, and you don't have to run Joomla *shudders*

Thanks for the comment bigbird. I couldn’t agree more. A little helpful information never hurt anybody!
simulationcredit

The current VirtueMart release is a huge clusterfuck imo, i used to like earlier versions though. VM 1.1.3 is buggy as hell. Just take a look at the forum and the unsolved issues.

you can see the intergration here:

http://shop.bulletprooftemplates.com/

Daniel wrote:you can see the intergration here:

http://shop.bulletprooftemplates.com/

Is that integration of Opencart into Joomla? I'm looking for this possibility, where can I find more info?

I'm wondering the same thing...
Obviously You won't find in opencart forum people saying "virtuemart is better than Opencart" isn'it?

But I'm trying to compare features..
this are Virtuemart features (I changed font color for those I don't find in opencart features)
* capable of using Secure Sockets Layer (https) Encryption (128-bit)
* flexible Tax Models
o Model 1: ShipTo Address-based Tax Calculation
o Model 2: Store Address-based Tax Calculation
o Model 3: EU Mode (Store Owner based Tax Calculation when Customer comes from an EU Country)
* Shoppers can manage their User Accounts (registration required)
* Shipping Address Management (Customers can enter their own Shipping Addresses)
* Order History: Shopper can view all their previous Orders (and Order Details)
* Order Confirmation Mail (customizable!) is sent to Shopper and Store Owner
* Multiple Currencies (you can allow Customers to change the Currency and buy using an alternative Currency)
* Multiple Languages (using the Joomla! Component Joom!Fish or Nooku).
* Powerful Web-Administration Interface (Javascript-powered)
* Manages an unlimited Number of Products and Categories
* Can be used as a Shop or just as an Online-Catalog (you can even turn off Price Display)
* quick Search for Products, Categories and Manufacturers; filter by features or discounted Products
* Product Ratings & Testimonials (moderated or auto-published)
* feature specific Products by setting them "on special"
* Product Availability: show how fast a Customer can expect delivery
* Handles downloadable Products (virtual Goods)
* "Product is back in Stock"-Notification for subscribed Customers

* multiple Images and Files (like Spec Sheets and Flyers) per Product
* Product Attributes (like Size or Color) can be added to Product
* Product Types for Classification (like "Car", "Motorbike" or "Music Album")
* Shopper Groups for Customers (allows different Price Levels and Payment Options),
* multiple Prices per Product (Quantity-based and/or Shopper Group-based Prices)
* flexible Price Display (number & currency formatting; including or excluding tax)
* On-the-Fly Price Conversion between different Currencies using Live Rates from the ECB or other banks
* Shop Statistics / Control Panel with a Summary of new Customers, new Orders....
* Stock Level Control for Products and Item
* Order Management with Order History, Customer Notification and Order Edit Functionality
* basic Reporting Feature: sold Items, monthly/yearly Revenue
* Order Status Management
* manage different Currencies, Countries & States
* capable of live Credit Card Processing
* pre-defined Payment Gateways like authorize.net®, PayPal, 2Checkout, eWay, Worldpay, PayMate and NoChex
* extend your Shop with other Payment Modules using the Payment Module API!
* flexible Shipping Carriers and Rates Configuration
* Live-Shipping Rates using Shipping Modules (e.g. InterShipper, UPS, USPS, FedEx or Canada Post; Modules can use the Shipping Rate API).
* extend your Shop with other Shipping Modules using the Shipping Module API!

adecer wrote:I'm wondering the same thing...
Obviously You won't find in opencart forum people saying "virtuemart is better than Opencart" isn'it?

But I'm trying to compare features..

Good post!

Hmm, lets start by saying that I've "shoppend" arround with various carts except Virtuemart as I don't like Joomla.
If I compare OC to others Like osCommerce, PrestaShop and Magento OpenCart wins it for me, hands down.

The features you are missing will probable added in a future release.
Talking about future releases and features: in the next release of OC there will be an Order Edit and a Manual Order Entry function.
This is something that others ar missing in their default core.

Maybe Daniel or anyone else can reply on the features you say that are missing compared to Virtuemart

I've used Joomla with VM a few weeks and it freaked me out because i just needed a shop and not a cms. So i've looked for a simple system with the shop-features I need and found OpenCart. It's much easier and if I need to adjust some things I can change it mostly with my little php-knowledge.

adecer wrote:I'm wondering the same thing...
Obviously You won't find in opencart forum people saying "virtuemart is better than Opencart" isn'it?

But I'm trying to compare features..
this are Virtuemart features (I changed font color for those I don't find in opencart features)
* capable of using Secure Sockets Layer (https) Encryption (128-bit)
* flexible Tax Models
o Model 1: ShipTo Address-based Tax Calculation
o Model 2: Store Address-based Tax Calculation
o Model 3: EU Mode (Store Owner based Tax Calculation when Customer comes from an EU Country)
* Shoppers can manage their User Accounts (registration required)
* Shipping Address Management (Customers can enter their own Shipping Addresses)
* Order History: Shopper can view all their previous Orders (and Order Details)
* Order Confirmation Mail (customizable!) is sent to Shopper and Store Owner
* Multiple Currencies (you can allow Customers to change the Currency and buy using an alternative Currency)
* Multiple Languages (using the Joomla! Component Joom!Fish or Nooku).
* Powerful Web-Administration Interface (Javascript-powered)
* Manages an unlimited Number of Products and Categories
* Can be used as a Shop or just as an Online-Catalog (you can even turn off Price Display)
* quick Search for Products, Categories and Manufacturers; filter by features or discounted Products
* Product Ratings & Testimonials (moderated or auto-published)
* feature specific Products by setting them "on special"
* Product Availability: show how fast a Customer can expect delivery
* Handles downloadable Products (virtual Goods)
* "Product is back in Stock"-Notification for subscribed Customers

* multiple Images and Files (like Spec Sheets and Flyers) per Product
* Product Attributes (like Size or Color) can be added to Product
* Product Types for Classification (like "Car", "Motorbike" or "Music Album")
* Shopper Groups for Customers (allows different Price Levels and Payment Options),
* multiple Prices per Product (Quantity-based and/or Shopper Group-based Prices)
* flexible Price Display (number & currency formatting; including or excluding tax)
* On-the-Fly Price Conversion between different Currencies using Live Rates from the ECB or other banks
* Shop Statistics / Control Panel with a Summary of new Customers, new Orders....
* Stock Level Control for Products and Item
* Order Management with Order History, Customer Notification and Order Edit Functionality
* basic Reporting Feature: sold Items, monthly/yearly Revenue
* Order Status Management
* manage different Currencies, Countries & States
* capable of live Credit Card Processing
* pre-defined Payment Gateways like authorize.net®, PayPal, 2Checkout, eWay, Worldpay, PayMate and NoChex
* extend your Shop with other Payment Modules using the Payment Module API!
* flexible Shipping Carriers and Rates Configuration
* Live-Shipping Rates using Shipping Modules (e.g. InterShipper, UPS, USPS, FedEx or Canada Post; Modules can use the Shipping Rate API).
* extend your Shop with other Shipping Modules using the Shipping Module API!

This colorizing is very wrong.
OpenCart absolutely supports HTTPS
It does support attributes like size and color
but it doesn't support Product Type Classification

Product Availability you say means "Shows how fast customer can expect their order" but tthat is not what Product Availability means. It means in-stock or out of stock, and opencart does support that.
Everything else in red, it does have.

There is an integration between opencart and joomla.
You can see the details about Joomla Opencart bridge from the following link:
http://soft-php.com/joomla-component-fo ... t&Itemid=4

Now JooCart released for opencart 1.4.7 and joomla 1.5+
It is easy to upgrade from previous versions with single click.
*You can upgrade your existing opencart site without loosing your data.
*Integrated with joomla front end user login(single login)
*Separate Joomla Modules(Categories,Shopping Cart,Information etc)
*Joomla Admin Panel
*Combined with Joomla template's CSS
http://www.soft-php.com/joomla-shopping-cart.html

I think it is very difficult to compare a shopping cart solution with a Joomla component. I did try out some solutions to migrate from oscommerce to xxx.. OpenCart was my favorite solution until I did find virtuemart. It integrates into Joomla, so I have both: a good cms and a ecommerce component without a bridge or something like that. From my point of view OpenCart has the better database tables and operates much faster. Virtuemart has a lot of payment modules, some well integrated live shipping quote modules (like UPS). I did not want to operate two different solutions, as it would be with Joomla and a bridged OpenCart. And the bridge needs IonCube, because it is partially encrypted.

OpenCart would be very interesting together with Joomla if it would be a Joomla ecommerce component but not as a bridged shopping cart with IonCube.

i've used virtue mart extensively, and thought i'd drop some experience in here.
If you've got a site, thats a mix of content, and commerce then virtue mart is better.
If you want to just sell, then stick with open cart.
The new virtuemart due out soon should be even better, and there is already lots of modules available, and a huge following. If you want to be able to heavily customize, and don't mind getting your hands dirty with some php programming to get the features that might not be working, working, then again virtuemart is good.
If your sole focus is on a simple site, and all you have is products to sell, then go open cart. I wouldn't touch that joomla-open cart with a barge pole. Like buying a car from someone who swapped the engine for another type of cars engine.
I would say, you should do what i do, which is run multiple carts, and that way you can get a good feel for what is all their strong and poor points, and with each store you build after that, you will know EXACTLY what will fit best.

mhoq wrote:Now JooCart released for opencart 1.4.7 and joomla 1.5+
It is easy to upgrade from previous versions with single click.
*You can upgrade your existing opencart site without loosing your data.
*Integrated with joomla front end user login(single login)
*Separate Joomla Modules(Categories,Shopping Cart,Information etc)
*Joomla Admin Panel
*Combined with Joomla template's CSS
http://www.soft-php.com/joomla-shopping-cart.html

The question with Joocart is, it a per site license and a bridge is required for each new install, or will one license run on many sites?

joomler wrote:

mhoq wrote:Now JooCart released for opencart 1.4.7 and joomla 1.5+
It is easy to upgrade from previous versions with single click.
*You can upgrade your existing opencart site without loosing your data.
*Integrated with joomla front end user login(single login)
*Separate Joomla Modules(Categories,Shopping Cart,Information etc)
*Joomla Admin Panel
*Combined with Joomla template's CSS
http://www.soft-php.com/joomla-shopping-cart.html

The question with Joocart is, it a per site license and a bridge is required for each new install, or will one license run on many sites?

As far as i know JooCart can be installed as many as u want within same server but need different license for different server because of its lower price.

That doesn't make sense. Maybe a language barrier. Server license vs site license are two different things. So, it is a server license for all sites on that server (i.e. server could have 500 sites) or is the license tied to a URL on a single site?

@joomler ... good point - license per site vs. url are very different indeed .... hopefully, its neither and you can use the license for unlimited sites regardless of their location, but if i had to choose between the 2 - per site, off course, is my preference ...lol. Anyone has experience using it?

For Joomla and Open Cart integration check out www.jhshop.info, very promising. This is a Joomla component (not a bridge) with no encryption. Unlimited usage once subscribed, three subscription options available.