VirtueMart

Zen Cart: E-commerce Application Development: A step-by-step developer's guide
$49.99
I've set up Zen Cart for the first time, using this book as a primer.

In the course of getting everything configured and working, I've had many questions. None of my questions was answered by this book.

I've found answers in the documentation that comes with Zen Cart, I've found answers by searching online, I've gotten help in the Zen Cart forums, and I've figured out some things by trial and error... but not once has this book told me anything that wasn't obvious from looking at the screens.

Joomla! 1.5 & Virtuemart Websites for Small Business!
$20.99
First of all, this is not so bad book. But don't expect to find here PHP or SQL code. This book contains no deep technical details neither about Joomla nor anything else. In fact, the only technical insight I've seen was on p.84 describing file attributes in UNIX. Even there author confused herself stating that 755 file permissions mean group and others can read and rewrite its content. Major disadvantage of the book are zoomed in screen shots which make these unreadable even with magnifying glass. Since given screen shots represent most of the book's content, it gets very annoying.

Editorial team have done not really great job leaving so many typos, e.g. all "too" spelled as "to", all "than" spelled as "then" and even Web site URL address on p.327 is spelled as joomla@netdream.it

But nonetheless I'd like to give a credit to Michelle for the courage of putting together so many different things and features about Joomla. That will help to anyone who decides to join the Joomla fun's community.

Joomla! E-Commerce with VirtueMart
$49.99
I am a novice at Joomla and am a novice at VirtueMart. However, using this book, I was able to set up a site and get it up and running and teach my computer illiterate brother how to manage his own online shop.

I would give this book a 5 star, but there were a few problems that kept me from it. However, none of these problems were show stoppers.

Chapters I offers a clear and easy to read overview of Joomla and VirtueMart. The chapters offer an overview of extensions to both basic Joomla and VirtueMart that increase the flexibility of the two tools. A discussion of alternatives to VirtueMart and their compatibility with Joomla is touched lightly.

Chapter II has an excellent and quick overview of Joomla installation and configuration. It offered some tips that I had not found in other books. The chapter also covered installation and basic configuration of VirtueMart. The one tip that is missing from this process is that when one uses the Joomla extension manager to install/uninstall VirtueMart, one needs to change either the php.ini file or the .htaccess file to increase the file upload size. The basic VirtueMart component is greater than the default. Also, it would have been nice if the author had covered the "manual" install, since for some reason, my change of the php.ini on my Host site does not accept the changes I made to my php.ini file.

Chapters II, IV and V take one step by step through configuration of VirtueMart. Setting up the store, the product catalog and managing orders and payment processes. Very clear.

Chapter V is a very rough overview of VirtueMart look and feel configuration. I understand that this book can't cover everything, but I feel this is the weakest chapter in the book. One of the sites that the author references for a "free sample template" has now converted to "the template is free, but you have to pay me for the privilege of accessing the free template." and the sample template the author refers to on the VirtueMart site is no longer there. These are not faults of the author, but made the experience of setting up a new template a very frustrating experience.

Chapter VII covers promotions on your site. Very Clear.

Chapter VIII covers localization and internationalization of your site. I have not read it yet and cannot comment on it.

The rest of the book talks about extending VirtueMart's functionality and Maintaining the site and what tools are available to do so. These chapters are clear and were very helpful in understanding what will be required to keep the site secure. Again, these areas are not meant to be a detailed look, but guides the reader to other areas of investigation.

Overall, I think this is an excellent book. The writing style is clear and easy to read. There is not a lot of extraneous verbage so many books use to fill up pages and pages. The one think I would like to see (but it is not necessary) is a check list for the process of setting up a VirtueMart site. If one is developing eCommerce sites for others, one will be doing this over and over again. Maybe in a future edition a Check List could be provided.

Thanks to the author for a very good job.

Joomla! 1.5 & VirtueMart: The Power is at your Fingertips!
$18.99
Are you tired of not being able to make changes to your website, because you have to go through someone else? Have you always wanted to build your own site? Have you thought of building a website but the costs were to high from professional web firms? Those problems don't exist any longer. Take control of your website and get into Open Source. Joomla! 1.5 and Virtuemart 1.1 allow you to build your dream site in hours with little investment. Expand your business or create a business - Joomla! 1.5 and Virtuemart make it easy for you. Included in this book is 1 Free Logo design a $150 dollar bonus through CorporationGRAPHIC (www.corporationgraphic.com) and 3 months free webhosting with support through Spiderweby (www.spiderweby.com) for you to test out your new Open Source skills. Also, 5% of all profits will be donated to an Open Source not for profit per month. We at CorporationGuru can't make it any easier for everyone in the world to get hooked on Open Source.