I get a blank page when accessing Delete-Any-Order

A blank page most likely indicates a PHP Fatal Error. Check your Apache Errorlogs for more information. This could be related to a PHP memory limit, so check if your system specifications meet up with the official Magento system requirements.

Invalid UTF-8 sequence in argument

If you receive a PHP Warning in your Apache ErrorLog mentioning something like "Invalid UTF-8 sequence" your VirtueMart installation is probably not encoded with the right characterset. Make sure all characters of product-titles, category-descriptions and so on, are displayed in the right way within VirtueMart, before migrating things with Vm2Mage. In most cases this can be solved by exporting and re-importing the MySQL database with the right encoding-settings.

This issue is not related to Vm2Mage, but to a corrupt VirtueMart installation.

Is Dynamic404 compatible with third party SEF?

With Joomla!, you can replace the core SEF functionality using third party SEF solutions like ACE SEF, sh404SEF and Artio JoomSEF. This is fine and does not conflict with Dynamic404: However, most of these extensions also replace the Joomla! core 404-mechanism with their own. This makes these extensions incompatible with Dynamic404.

Sometimes, strange hacks can be made to get things working anyway - but please note, that we can't officially support this: One of our customers however has reported a trick to get things working. By configuring a proper 404 Article within sh404SEF, sh404SEF will use that article for 404-pages. But if you unpublish that article, sh404SEF will itself encounter a 404 which will be directed to Joomla! instead. This again makes Dynamic404 function again.

build 0.5.42 [Jan 26th 2010]

• FIX: Styling of AJAX progressbar
• FIX: Detection of wrong API paths
• FIX: Increased performance and stability

Enable flat catalogs for smaller webshops

MeMeMe Cosmetics

Can I get a development license?

Please check our licensing scheme, because it probably already answers your question: For every MageBridge license, we provide the licensing of 6 domains: 2 for production, 2 for testing, 2 for licensing.

[Joomla! config] JFTP and file uploads

build 2800 [February 25 2011]

• NEW: Jump to major 1.6
• FIX: Autocomplete Menu-Item title when selecting Magento product/category 
• FIX: Extra styling for Joomla! 1.6 elements 
• FIX: Remove PHP Notices 
• NEW: Replace XML-RPC with JSON-RPC API for usage in Joomla! 1.6 
• FIX: Syncing from Joomla! address to Magento address did not work properly 
• NEW: Joomla! 1.6 Profile Connector 
• FIX: Magento upgrade through patch-file instead of PEAR-package (Magento 1.5 compatibility) 
• NEW: Joomla! 1.6 Multilingual Store Connector 
• NEW: Product Connector for MkPostman 
• NEW: Product Connector for Communicator 
• FIX: User-model did not set GID properly (wrong default usertype) 
• FIX: PHP Notice in app/code/community/Jira/MageBridge/Helper/Data.php 
• FIX: Encryption-error when dealing with passwords during in user-synchronization

Nooku

Just after installation, I get a blank page

There are a few reasons why you get a blank page after the installation of MageBridge. If you have installed the MageBridge Installer for Joomla! or for Magento and the screen turns white, most likely your hosting environment does not live up to the standards of MageBridge. Most likely you will also not be able to run Magento. Check your webservers error-log (Apache ErrorLog) for more information.

If you have already upgraded the MageBridge Installer within Joomla!, make sure you have also upgraded the MageBridge Installer within Magento. MageBridge requires both sides to run the full version.

How does the versioning work?

Every SimpleLists release will be given a version number. This version can for instance be 1.5.0.6. Because the component only works under Joomla! 1.5 it includes a prefix "1.5". Once Joomla! 1.6 will appear (together with ACL support) SimpleLists will be upgraded to a prefix "1.6".

So the "0.6" part is the real version indication. The "0" is the so-called major versionnumber, while the "6" is a minor versionnumber. A minor version can be patched without problems and may offer new features or bugfixes. A major version includes some heavy changes (like ACL or database changes) so be careful when upgrading.

Toggle or hover doesn't work

About "Read More Class" and "Link Class"

In the parameters you can see two options to define CSS-classes: The "Read More Class" and the "Link Class". What's the difference between these two?

It's a bit confusing, but here's the explanation: The "Read More Class" refers to the "Read More Link" which is an extra link put below the Item Text. This link is accompanied by the CSS-class "readon" (also the default of Joomla! articles itself), but you can add your own CSS-class to it.

Each item has its own link. But the "Read More Link" is not the only way to add the link: You can also make the image clickable and the title ("linked title"). The second setting "Link Class" refers to the CSS-class which can be added to the anchor-tag in these cases.

What about custom fields in the Magento user profile?

Actually this is not related to MageBridge, but Magento. Unfortunately there is no easy way to add custom fields to the profile of a customer in Magento. However, if you manage to add fields (through core hacks or any other way) you will find that MageBridge replicates these fields automatically to the Joomla! side.

MageBridge has the responsibility to synchronize user profiles between Joomla! and Magento. While the core Joomla! fields (name, username, email and password) are ofcourse synced, by adding extra profile connectors in Joomla! you can also add support for Community Builder or JomSocial profiles.

If the Magento customer profile contains a field with the same name as the profile on the Joomla! side (Joomla!, Anahita, CB, Jomsocial) it will automatically be synced.

Does MageBridge support multi-site setups?

Yes, it does. Per Joomla site you can use only one single Magento Website (as defined by the GWS-terms of Magento), and using MageBridge Store Connectors you can load different Stores or Store Views under certain circumstances (language configuration, special promotions). You can even create your own store connectors.

Also, one Magento instance might be used for multiple Websites, and can therefor serve multiple Joomla! sites. If this is unclear, please see the Magento site for more information on their multi-site mechanism. MageBridge in this is not doing much special, it's just implementing things according to the Magento guidelines.

API

API is an abbreviation which stands for Application Programming Interface and it's used with MageBridge in two ways:

First, there is the API of either the Joomla! Framework or the Magento core-classes, which allow extensions to be built. Any extension uses this "class API".

Second, there is a remote API which makes use of either the protocol SOAP or XML-RPC. This API allows Joomla! to contact Magento over the Internet, and vice versa. So this is the main functionality on which MageBridge relies. Without a good API in both Joomla! as Magento, a bridge could not have been built properly.

Jason Silva

MvTools

How much is Vm2Mage worth?

While Vm2Mage is available for only 20 Euro, it doesn't mean that it is not worth anything. We have put over 200 hours of development into this tool. This does not include the time to actually migrate data from VirtueMart to Magento, but the time to write the actual code, the time to test things under various circumstances and the time to create an user interface that you can understand.

How this time effort translates to financial value, depends on too many things to make sense. But it's fair to say that the price we ask for the commercial services are peanuts compared to the amount of work put into the software.

Unknown API-response: 'No data received from server.'

build 0.5.46 [Feb 14th 2010]

• NEW: Make sure Store is used when migrating categories, products
• NEW: Migration of customer reviews (beta)
• NEW: Remove entries from Vm2Mage-tables once a category has been removed
• NEW: Separation of billing and/or shipping addresses

W3C compliance

Is the source-code encrypted?

No, it is not. As a policy, all our Yireo software is unencrypted - we do not make use technologies like ionCube or ZendOptimizer. All PHP-code is open source, but for commercial extensions the code is only given to paying customers.

Mage::app() failed

If Magento crashes with a message like Mage::app() failed, this means you probably made a mistake in your store management within Magento. Go to System > Manage Stores and check that either the Website, Store Group or Store View you're using is correctly setup and enabled.

Check the MageBridge Troubleshooting Guide for more tips on how to restore your settings.

Birth International

What kind of tax do you charge?

The tax that is charged for our Yireo extensions is dependent on the address details you enter during checkout. People from outside the EU are not charged any tax at all, but this is only apparent during the checkout.

For people within the EU, the situation is a bit complicated: We charge you tax, even though there is a EU regulation that excludes businesses from paying tax. Because tax should still be paid in European business-to-consumer transactions, the EU has setup very strict rules regarding the checking of tax-numbers and book-keeping.

Unfortunately we have concluded it is nearly impossible to implement these strict rules. Therefor we will charge tax - regardless whether it's a B2B or B2C transaction: Correctly said, we do not reckognize B2B transactions within the EU, we all treat them as B2C transactions because we are unable to confirm that it's a B2B transaction. We do not make exceptions in this. However, you can deduct the paid tax through your local tax agency. See the European Commission site for more information, or contact your local tax agency for instructions.

What kind of tax do you charge?

The tax that is charged for our Yireo extensions is dependent on the address details you enter during checkout. People from outside the EU are not charged any tax at all, but this is only apparent during the checkout.

For people within the EU, the situation is a bit complicated: We charge you tax, even though there is a EU regulation that excludes businesses from paying tax. Because tax should still be paid in European business-to-consumer transactions, the EU has setup very strict rules regarding the checking of tax-numbers and book-keeping.

Unfortunately we have concluded it is nearly impossible to implement these strict rules. Therefor we will charge tax - regardless whether it's a B2B or B2C transaction: Correctly said, we do not reckognize B2B transactions within the EU, we all treat them as B2C transactions because we are unable to confirm that it's a B2B transaction. We do not make exceptions in this. However, you can deduct the paid tax through your local tax agency. See the European Commission site for more information, or contact your local tax agency for instructions.

What kind of tax do you charge?

The tax that is charged for our Yireo extensions is dependent on the address details you enter during checkout. People from outside the EU are not charged any tax at all, but this is only apparent during the checkout.

For people within the EU, the situation is a bit complicated: We charge you tax, even though there is a EU regulation that excludes businesses from paying tax. Because tax should still be paid in European business-to-consumer transactions, the EU has setup very strict rules regarding the checking of tax-numbers and book-keeping.

Unfortunately we have concluded it is nearly impossible to implement these strict rules. Therefor we will charge tax - regardless whether it's a B2B or B2C transaction: Correctly said, we do not reckognize B2B transactions within the EU, we all treat them as B2C transactions because we are unable to confirm that it's a B2B transaction. We do not make exceptions in this. However, you can deduct the paid tax through your local tax agency. See the European Commission site for more information, or contact your local tax agency for instructions.

What kind of tax do you charge?

The tax that is charged for our Yireo extensions is dependent on the address details you enter during checkout. People from outside the EU are not charged any tax at all, but this is only apparent during the checkout.

For people within the EU, the situation is a bit complicated: We charge you tax, even though there is a EU regulation that excludes businesses from paying tax. Because tax should still be paid in European business-to-consumer transactions, the EU has setup very strict rules regarding the checking of tax-numbers and book-keeping.

Unfortunately we have concluded it is nearly impossible to implement these strict rules. Therefor we will charge tax - regardless whether it's a B2B or B2C transaction: Correctly said, we do not reckognize B2B transactions within the EU, we all treat them as B2C transactions because we are unable to confirm that it's a B2B transaction. We do not make exceptions in this. However, you can deduct the paid tax through your local tax agency. See the European Commission site for more information, or contact your local tax agency for instructions.

What kind of tax do you charge?

The tax that is charged for our Yireo extensions is dependent on the address details you enter during checkout. People from outside the EU are not charged any tax at all, but this is only apparent during the checkout.

For people within the EU, the situation is a bit complicated: We charge you tax, even though there is a EU regulation that excludes businesses from paying tax. Because tax should still be paid in European business-to-consumer transactions, the EU has setup very strict rules regarding the checking of tax-numbers and book-keeping.

Unfortunately we have concluded it is nearly impossible to implement these strict rules. Therefor we will charge tax - regardless whether it's a B2B or B2C transaction: Correctly said, we do not reckognize B2B transactions within the EU, we all treat them as B2C transactions because we are unable to confirm that it's a B2B transaction. We do not make exceptions in this. However, you can deduct the paid tax through your local tax agency. See the European Commission site for more information, or contact your local tax agency for instructions.

[Magento config] Compiler

The Magento Compiler module copies class-files to a separate include-folder which gives a performance boost. However, the compiling process does not work together with the Magento Downloader, so there for the MageBridge updater fails if the Magento Compiler is enabled. To bypass this problem, disable the Magento Compiler temporarily when you want to update MageBridge in Magento. As soon as the update is completed, you can safely enable the Magento Compiler again. Rerun the compilation process.

build 2840 [March 08 2011]

• FIX: User-model did not set GID properly
• FIX: PHP Notice in app/code/community/Jira/MageBridge/Helper/Data.php
• FIX: Encryption-error when dealing with passwords during in user-synchronization
• FIX: Fatal Error in MageBridgeModuleHelper
• FIX: Make sure Magento redirect after logout does not prevent Joomla! logout
• NEW: Add product-count to categories of Category Menu Module
• NEW: Option for authentication from within Magento to Joomla! Authentication Plugins
• FIX: Allow for Magento JS merge, but don't include files that should not be included
• NEW: Product Connector for jDownloads
• FIX: Include all Magento requests in debugging bar
• FIX: Remove block-gzipping for extra performance
• NEW: New functions getProductId and getCategoryId in template-helper
• FIX: Errors in Joomla! User Group Product Connector
• FIX: Refresh user session after running Product Connectors
• FIX: CURL Expect-header when downloading Downloadable Products
• FIX: Better support for Magento CSS-merging in combination with Google API or Protoaculous

Magento login works fine, just not on page X

One issue that we encountered various times, was that the Magento login-form was actually sharing the same DOM ID with a Joomla! module: For instance the ID login-form was used to identify both forms. Because of this, submitting the Magento login-form actually submitted the Joomla! module-form. To solve this, create a template-override of the Joomla! mod_login module and change the ID login-form to mod_login-form.

Why do I need an extra Magento theme?

Theming with Magento can be daunting - it takes a lot of effort to understand the structure of XML, PHP and XHTML. Wouldn't it be great to just use Magento inside Joomla! without the need of theming on the Magento-site? Why is a Magento theme even needed?

The reason for this is simple: MageBridge allows you to bring a shopping cart to Joomla!, but Joomla! doesn't know anything of this. If you still need to style the HTML-elements involved in this cart (which you do), you'll need theming apart from your Joomla! template. Now MageBridge could introduce its own theming engine, but this requires you to learn that theming engine as well. It's a lot smarter to just use the Magento theme.

We have decided to bridge the two applications, not reinvent the wheel. The Magento theming system is much more powerfull than Joomla! - let's use that, instead of ignoring it. With PHTML-code and XML-layouts you can decide on which page the shop should behave in which manor. If you don't dislike the default behaviour, don't change it - use the default theme instead.

As a half-way solution you can still use the default Magento theme, and override any CSS in your own tmeplate. If this means you don't need a certain Magento stylesheet anymore, you can disable that CSS-file in the bridge.

Here at Yireo we will also release techical articles and video-tutorials, that help you into using Magento, Joomla! and MageBridge. You have choosen for a very powerful combination - it just takes some effort to use that power.

Does this component need the Joomla! Legacy Mode?

I try to edit an item but it's locked

If you're the only one editing the item, you might be running into an old bug: The database-field "checked_out" in the table "#_simplelists" should be of the type "int(11)" and not "tinyint(11)".

Because later versions of the component allow you to uninstall the component without loosing the data within the database-table, it might be that you're stuck with this bug even after upgrading SimpleLists to the latest version.

For now try to edit the database manually for instance with a tool like PhpMyAdmin.

How do I setup MageBridge?

Website

Robert Hall

Magento JavaScript does not work

If the JavaScript code of some Magento extension is not functioning as it should, make sure the JavaScript is not conflicting with other scripts. Use the Firefox Error Console to check for any errors.

If JavaScript is commented out in the HTML-source, make sure that the Magento host as configured in the MageBridge API matches the domainname as configured in the Magento Configuration.

Magento still shows my old XML-RPC settings?

Within the MageBridge settings in Magento, the XML-RPC host is shown in a disabled text-field. These settings can be seen as a default, but this default is under normal briding circumstances never used.

However, it might be cleaner to refresh these settings when you're moving from an old to a new hosting environment. To do this, navigate to "CMS > MageBridge settings" and hit the button "Reset XML-RPC". After this, just access MageBridge from the new Joomla! site once, and the new XML-RPC settings will automatically be included.

Unknown API-response: 'Invalid return payload'

Most likely, some PHP Warning or PHP Error was thrown during migraton, which causes the API-output to be corrupt. Carefully check your Apache logs. If your Apache logs are totally empty, make sure you are actually using these logs. Also, checkout the other FAQ in this section, because they contain helpfull information for requesting support.

Compress output in general

Does Delete-Any-Order make core hacks?

Core hacks should never be used when writing Magento extensions - there are numerous ways to override existing code without modifying it. With that in mind, Delete-Any-Order is plain in its functionality, and does not require core hacks neither does it use class-overrides.

Do I also get updates?

Once you purchase this extension, you also get the right for updates. This includes minor updates and major updates (like when switching from Joomla! 1.5 to Joomla! 1.6).

Willem Simonis

The webdesign of this MageBridge shop is based on the RocketTheme Moxy template. The Magento theme is modified to include the FancyBox effect for product images.

Is Vm2Mage open source?

All our software is open source - including Vm2Mage - and we do not use any kind of encryption (ionCube, Zend Optimizer). The source code of Vm2Mage is spread out over two platforms (Joomla! and Magento) and is therefor licensed under two different licenses: GNU/GPL (for Joomla!) and OSL (for Magento).

Installable packages are only supplied to paying customers.

[Joomla! extension] 3rd party SEF extensions

Joomla! is shipped with support for Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URLs, but there are several third party extensions that add different SEF behaviour to Joomla!. Some of these extensions work together with the Joomla! core SEF behaviour, but others require extra plugins for specific components like MageBridge.

MageBridge does not offer support for SEF extensions that require extra plugins, and are not compatible with the default Joomla! core SEF. The following extensions therefor do NOT work with MageBridge:

• SEF Advance
• sh404SEF
• AceSEF

Third party SEF extensions that maintain compatibility with the core SEF functionality will work without a problem:

• Artio JoomSEF
• RSSEO

build 2866 [March 15 2011]

• FIX: New MageBridge Magento Installer did not support TRIAL-version
• FIX: Add check for OpenSSL support in PHP to System Check pages
• NEW: Allow jdoc-tags in Magento PHTML to be interpreted
• FIX: Set Magento cookie-lifetime to equal Joomla! session-lifetime (in case of wrong defaults)
• FIX: Content Plugin: Load Position is sometimes not run
• NEW: Add module-chromes to MageBridge Root Template demo
• FIX: Spoof Magento JavaScript URL in case different than regular Magento URL
• FIX: Make sure AJAX Lazy Load works on non-MB pages with JS also
• FIX: Category-menu fetches wrong API-data if module parameters are empty