I probably won’t be telling something new when I say that Virtuemart has it’s share of problems. So does the Virtuemart eCommerce bundle you can download from their site. I’m not going to discuss the fact that it’s not up to date with Joomla! yet – it’s one update behind schedule – but I’d like to point out a problem with the “standard template.”
If you use the eCommerce bundle, and install the sample template, it comes with a free “Virtuemart Template”, called JA Larix. It might look like a nice starter template at first. But when you’re new to Virtuemart or Joomla! I kindly suggest you to avoid using this template at all. Instead, find yourself a nice free / affordable Virtuemart template on one of the many sites offering Joomla! Templates.
The reason I’m saying this, is because of Internet Explorer related issues. If you’re new to Joomla! and you just want to set up your own webshop, these are the sort of problems you don’t want to waste your time on.
The problems are specific for Internet Explorer 8. Interesting enough, neither Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 9 have these problems. Neither does any of the other browsers.
I’ve added two screenshots below. One is a screenshot of the sample template as seen in Internet Explorer 8. The other one is the same template as seen in Firefox or Chrome.
Great introduction above to a problem that cripples a simple Shopping Cart install! The fix for the problem listed here is fairly quick – it has worked for a site I need to get going fast and cheaply!!
Make a new file called ie8cc.css and paste in the following lines:
/* CSS Document */
body#bd {
text-align: center;
}
#ja-headerwrap {
width: 100%;
}
#ja-mainnav {
width:100%;
}
.vmCartModule {
text-align:left;
}
#ja-pathwaywrap {
width:100%;
text-align:left;
}
#ja-container {
text-align:left;
}
/* CSS Document – Don’t paste this line or beyond */
FTP this file to /public_html/templates/ja_larix/css
Finally – the index.php file in /public_html/templates/ja_larix need this line added in the – I made it line 33.
<link rel="stylesheet" href="templateurl();?>/css/editor.css” type=”text/css” />