Virtumart FAQ

Q. What is a Category?

A.  A Category is the most top level of organization for your products. For instance, If your store only sold fruit, and had 20 different kinds of apples, and 20 different kinds of bananas, two possible Categories would be Apples and Bananas - as the only item above them is Fruit, but your store doesn't sell anything else.

Q. What is a Sub Category?

A. A Sub Category is the secondary level of organization for your products. For instance, If your store only sold fruit, and had 20 different kinds of apples and 20 different kinds of bananas, two possible Categories would be Apples and Bananas. Now, say that inside the Apples Category, there are three different types of MACINTOSH Apples. MACINTOSH Apples would be a Sub Category.

Q.What is a Product?

A. A Product is the final level of organization. Its is the Atom of the molecule. It can only be broken down further by options such as color, size, plating option, etc. For instance, If your store only sold fruit, and had 20 different kinds of apples and 20 different kinds of bananas, two possible Categories would be Apples and Bananas. Now, say that inside the Apples Category, there are three different types of MACINTOSH Apples. MACINTOSH Apples would be a Sub Category. Inside of the MACINTOSH Apple Sub Category, you have three different types of MACINTOSH Apples. Each Apple is a Product. Perhaps you have Japanese MACINTOSH apples, Washington Japanese MACINTOSH apples, and Bulgarian Japanese MACINTOSH apples.

Q. Why only 30 Initial Products?

A. Not every store has numerous items for sale. Some online stores only have 1! 30 initial products is the result of averaging the needs of past clients while keeping initial start up cost in mind. As Virtumart is easily edit-able by non programmers, many clients don't wish to pay for more than 30 products and they choose to save money by adding products themselves. Of course, FPS will add as many products to your site as you wish, but additional charges will apply.

Q. What does "adding a product mean"?

A. Virtuemart has several options available for each of your products. In general, adding a product means adding client provided information to your online store. Some available input items are:

Product Name, Product SKU, Price, Tax, Short Description, Long Description, Stock Quantity, Size, Weight, Available Date, On Special, Options (sizes, colors), and Images

Q. What Do I Need to Provide FPS?

A. Everything for each product! Unless your contract states otherwise, you need to supply any data, images, etc. you wish to use to represent you product . The very least amount of data you need to supply per product is:

Product Name, Product SKU, Price, and Stock

Q. How Do I make up Product Codes?

A. This is a matter of personal taste. However, FP has found a few simple rules make the process easy and understandable. Going back to the MACINTOSH example, one Category is Apple, so you could start with apl. Add an underscore and you have apl_. Next, take the Sub Category of your product, MACINTOSH, and we get apl_mac_. Now, move on to the specific type of Apple, say (Japanese). This gives us apl_mac_jpn. Lastly, add a final underscore and a number (in case of unique versions). A very usable Product Code (or SKU) for a Japanese, MACINTOSH, Apple could be apl_mac_jpn_01.

Q. Whats the difference between a Long and Short Description?

A. A Short Description is a very cursory description of a given Product. A Long Description is an in depth (as much as you wish) description about a given Product. Short descriptions are generally shown in Category views, and Long Descriptions shown on Product Specifics pages.