I need help with building custom frontend templates in VirtueMart. My client wants a specific way to display product details on their site, and I’m not sure how VirtueMart loads and processes frontend page templates.
I’m looking for:
- Step by step guide on creating custom VirtueMart frontend pages
- Understanding how the template system works in VirtueMart
- Best practices for displaying product information
- Any tutorials or documentation that explains the frontend template structure
Has anyone worked with VirtueMart template customization before? What approach did you take to create custom product display pages that meet specific client needs?
Any help or resources would be great!
what display features does ur client need? custom layouts, special fields, interactiv stuff? also, what joomla and virtuemart versions are u running? that’ll change how we tackle this.
To create custom VirtueMart frontend templates, it’s essential to understand the override system. This prevents issues when updates occur since changes made to core files can lead to complications. Start by exploring the existing templates located in /components/com_virtuemart/views/, as they provide insight into the structure. For your custom templates, use the directory /html/com_virtuemart/ within your theme, ensuring they remain untouched by updates. The product view controller manages display, focusing primarily on productdetails/default.php and its associated sublayouts. The key variable to access product data is $this->product. To facilitate your development, establish a staging site with VirtueMart debugging enabled, as the official documentation may lack detail, requiring you to analyze the existing code for clarity.
been there! virtuemart templating’s tricky at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. start by duplicating an existing template and modify it step by step. don’t forget to check the sublayouts folder - that’s where most of the product display magic happens.