Install VirtueMart in English as a Joomla-Shop for the Indian market

VirtueMart offers you a shop system with many possibilties when it comes to content and extended CMS functionalities, because it builds upon the flexible content management system Joomla.

Joomla and VirtueMart - Installation in English

The Joomla installation is decribed in detail in many places on the web. We just cover the most important steps.

Recommendation: Download Joomla via Joomla.org. Don't use any quick installers that templates sometimes offer. And don't use some web hosters Joomla install either. Many of them are old or altered.

We install Joomla as follows. Keep a MySQLi database ready.

Step 1 - Tab Configuration

You can choose the language for the installation process in the first step. Since you read this english tutorial you might want to keep the language to english.

Step 2 - Tab Database

Insert the credentials for your database.

Step 3 - Tab Overview

Choose installation without sample data.

Step 4 - Tab Congratulations

A message should congratulate you for successfully installing Joomla.
Delete the folder "installation" to be able to access the Joomla administration.

Step 5 - VirtueMart Installation

Install VirtueMart via the Extension Manager: Joomla Menu -> Extensions - Install.

Download VirtueMart only from the official source: VirtueMart Download - Use the archive with Core, AIO and TCPDF, that ends with "_extract_first.zip".
Extract the archive and install the three ZIP-archives in the following order:

1. com_virtuemart.x.y.zip
2. com_virtuemart.x.y.ext_aio.zip
3. com_tcpdf.x.y.zip

Step 6 - VirtueMart Configuration

Via Joomla menu you can access VirtueMart. Choose the last item in the list: Configuration.
You will see an message that your safe path is missing. There is a link to set your safe path via a wizard. Or you can enter it in the tab "templates" yourself. You should choose a path outside of your joomla folder, preferably on the same level like the joomla installation folder. The suggested name for the safe path is vmfiles/, that's fine.

After saving the configuration again, the error message should have disappeared.

Step 7 - Vendor Configuration

Choose from the VirtueMart menu: Shop -> Shop.

Here you have to fill in the details for your vendor. Fill everything in, choose your currency. Please be aware that you have to fill in the vendor address in tab 3, otherwise the configuration will not be saved. The settings for e-mail/invoice in tab 2 can be done later.

Step 8 - Payment and Shipping

Next you should set up your payment and shipping plugins. You find it in the VirtueMart Menu too. For the first steps it is advisable to just use one "standard payment plugin" and the standard shipping plugin "weight countries". You should not set too many restrictions in the settings. If you keep settings empty in VirtueMart it mostly means "all". So if you want to deliver to all postal codes, keep min and max empty, e.g.

Step 9 - Taxes

If you have to charge tax, set a tax under VM Menu -> Taxes and Calculation Rules. Use VAT tax for VAT, not product tax. We can talk about different calculation rules later.

Step 10 - Categories and Products

A well thought category structure is good to have at hands. If you don't have that right now, you can always start with the category test and start with one product.

Find categories in the VM Menu and click on the New button on top. Add your first category.

Find products in the VM Menu and click on the New button on top. Add your first product, make sure you add the category you created before.

Step 11 - Joomla Menu Item

There is still no way to access VirtueMart in the frontend. Find your Home Menu and Add a menu item for the VirtueMart Category Layout and choose Top Level Category to start.

Congratulations - Your store is ready to use

All the main steps are done. Yes, there is a lot more work coming. But now you have set a solid base configuration for VirtueMart.