Catproduct - Installation and Configuration

Installation:

Install plugin with Extension Manager in Joomla and enable it in Plug-in Manager.

Basic custom field settings:

Go to VirtueMart and configure plugin in Custom Fields page. Choose New and then at Custom Field Type choose Plug-ins. Type Title and at Select a plug-in choose VM - Custo - Catproduct. Here you can also config which field you want to show. You can choose to always use default configuration. Click Save.

There are two more fields to pay attention for: Use attached as an Array and Enable custom configuration inputs.

First one is only for compatibility with older version, so enable it. With this you'll have option to add more attached products groups with own titles.

Second field is for custom developers. It adds 5 more input fields for custom uses, so you can add your own parameters to Catproduct. For example to use it ass additional columns in a table, or to add some text etc. But by default those fields does nothing

Adding custom field to product and set it:

Adding to product

Go to parent (or main) product and go to Custom Fields tab. At Custom Fields Type choose plug-in which you created.

Basic settings

You'll see lots of Catproduct settings. In first fieldset there are basic settings:

• Choose sorting - Here you can choose sorting of the products. You can set it by different fields, always ascending. Default sorts products with order that is set manually with inputs. This only sorts child products, not attached.
• Choose layout - Here you can choose layout for Catproduct. Layouts are in root/plugins/vmcustom/catproduct/catproduct/tmpl/ . If you make new layout and copy it here, you must choose it with this field.
• Hide original addtocart button - With this field you can hide original addtocart button. There are two ways, with css or with JavaScript. Sometimes there are issues with css or with JS so try which one fits better for you.
• Original addtocart area class - Here you must input addtocart area class. Most templates uses .addtocart-area, but some uses diferent, so you need to change it if you want that hiding would work.
• Update prices dynamically - This is if you want that prices will change after quantity changes. Or if you use additional customfields like drop downs or checkboxes with additional price. This function uses ajax so on slow servers it might works slow.
• Use max and min quantity - If you set max and min quantity, this will not allow to set quantity lower or higher from settings.
• Use units in box - This will allow only quantity of multiple value of the one you set
• Add parent to table - This will add parent on first place into products table, so you won't need two buttons if you would want that parent is ordable too.
• Don't show child products in table - This is if you want to add children with attached fields. So if you would like to add some titles for children or make groups, you can use this function.
• Add customfield support - Check this, if you want to show other customfields attached to products (like dropdowns, checkboxes, downloadable files etc.). This function may slow down adding to cart if you have lots of product = more then 20 for example. Try it and you'll see.

Table fields to display

If you didn't choose "Always use default" you can set visible fields here. There are 3 fieldsets of fields, first for products values, second for rows sums and last one for total values.

One thing about displaying images - Catproduct supports multi images. If child (or attached) product has several images, only first is displayed but other can be seen in modal window. But for this, you need to have fancybox enabled in your VM -> Configuration -> Template.

Attached products

One great thing is that with Catproduct you can also add additional products to children or main product. Or you can make page only with group of attached products. You can add ass many products ass you want.

• Enable attached products - This enable attached products in this fieldset
• Enable title for attached products - This shows title of group of products
• Search attached by - Here you can choose how to search for attached products, by ID or by SKU
• IDs of attached products - Here you input IDs or SKUs of attached products to show
• Add new "Attached products" field - This button adds new group of attached products
• Remove - This removes attached products group

Custom configuration inputs

If you enabled this in basic settings, you will see additional fieldset of 5 input fields. You can use it to add your own parameters to Catproduct. For example to use it ass additional columns in a table, or to add some text etc. But by default those fields does nothing, so you'll need to add your own code to use it.

Finish it

And finally - Click SAVE! and you're done