Joomla 1.7 with Virtuemart 2.0 – How do I change template for a homepage and other subpages

Question

I am a newbie to Joomla 1.7 & Virtuemart. I have used many CMS so far and in Joomla I need to do very common task. I need to have different layout for homepage, for product list and product details and so on. Every single page is generated from index.php which is in *joomla root/templates/my_own_template/* folder.

And one more question. Is there any Virtuemart 2.0 or Joomla 1.7 documentation? Because what I could see is that the versions are really different from old ones for which most documentation are written.

Thank you in advance for answers.

Answer 1

You're probably not going to find much documentation yet since that is usually the last thing that a developer does once the code is out and tested.

As for changing templates, you don't necessarily need to change templates to have different layouts. First, VM has several different theme files (theme is a VM template) that render the various pages. There are already different layouts you control in the admin. You can also change a particular page by adding or removing the various modules from pages. You can associate a module with all pages in the site, a selection of pages, an exclusion of pages, and no pages at all. Components like Advanced Module Manager give you even more control over where and when a module displays. A properly coded template will have collapsible module positions. So a page with no modules in the left column will not have a left column.

Lastly, Joomla 1.7 also allows the use of template styles. When you install a template, it creates a default style. You can duplicate and edit that style, then assign it to various menu items to achieve very different looks from one page to another. http://docs.joomla.org/Help16:Extensions_Template_Manager_Styles_Edit

Answer 2

Brent's answer is good – he's right that the look of a page can be determined by which modules are assigned, which VM layout is used, and by assigning different Joomla Templates/Styles to different menu items.

One issue that arises a lot with complex components like VirtueMart is that it can be awkward to assign different templates (or modules) to different menu items. This can mess up your menu structure, and there are times when VM will decide on a different menu item to display something rather than what you thought it should. So that messes up the modules and templates/styles. This is part of the down-side of having a menu-item-driven assignment system.

AMM is good for assigning modules to different pages independent of menu item - as is MetaMod (which has explicit VM support).

For assigning templates/styles to different pages in VM I would suggest Chameleon. Chameleon has form controls for selecting lots of different factors about VM (e.g. all the sub-page types, category of the item, cart contents and more) and you can use any of those factors to trigger a certain template/style. It can also trigger other actions like adding CSS/JS to the page, removing arbitrary menu items, switching the home page, etc.

So ultimately, using Brent's techniques and with Chameleon, MetaMod and/or AMM, you have a huge amount of control about how individual pages in VM look.