Freeway is very promising shopping cart. I wanted to use it's ability to sdll seminars. It would have everything I want:
-Event management (event can have multiple, selectable, dates)
-Good booking system
and it has much more to offer.

But:
In my experience it's just an very unstable developer version this time. I spent several hours to customize it for my needs.
Finally I gave up, because the bugs are lot, and some are very basic. I just added some content, disabled some boxes and the whole site disappeared (no frontend, sometimes the backend ist avaible).

Hello,
First, Damain is a true visionary for coming up with this open source application.
Thanks and praise to him for developing such a useful and ground breaking software.

I must warn everyone though. It is far from complete. And is still very buggy.
I primarily have one major bug: Event attendance reports don't work, at all.
You all may really wish to consider how useful an events reservation system is without the ability to check past attendance, at all. While openfreeway.org claims to support this functionality, the software does not.
Want to see for yourself? Just check out the demo admin and attempt to generate an events report of any kind.
We have tried every revision from 1.4.3.210 to 1.5. No luck. Still waiting for the production release of 1.5 for four months now. We have the feeling this big bug will not be fixed even with the production release of Freeway 1.5.

We certainly don't wish to put down this amazing project... Thank You again Damian...
We just wish to inform anyone wishing to use this before you end up blowing 40+ hours trying to get it to work.

Let's give Freeway event reports bug fix a bump...

I was dreading trying to get this to work, since I was unable to get SEF URLs to work in Freeway, and noticed that this was one on the steps for the integration process.

I Installed the latest Joomla (1.5.9) and Latest Freeway (1.3.4_210) inside the root directory and checked both worked. Freeway didn't work properly with SEF URLs, but I left this feature activated but not working (it still doesn't)

I followed the instructions for the bridge, and hey presto, the front end of Joomla shows up every product and service, beautifully formatted (sorry, but nicer than the default template in Freeway in my view). Since SEF works in Joomla, it actually doesn't mater that it doesn't work (for me) in Freeway as I shan't be using that interface.

Everything (so far) has worked perfectly, and I want to thank Zacware for an amazing piece of Open Source software that fits our needs precisely.

I have done a fair bit of searching and no other package out there (including all of the OS shopping carts) offers both support for Products and Booking of services (plus all the other component).

I managed to install the Freeway solution which is not a Joomla software. I managed to get it to work except for the problem of SEO . If I enable SEO I could not get the menu to work despite setting the htaccess according to the installation instruction. There is also an error "
Fatal error: Call to undefined function tep_session_is_registered() in /home/openfree/www_ext/demo/admindemo/includes/modules/sms/redcoal.php on line 29 " which is also seen in www.openfreeway.org admin demo site when I tried to test the clickatell sms function. I wish the developer make themselve more easily available . The functions and features looks fantastically promising and enticing and I would like to pay for the hefty subscription of $500 to $2500 per year if only I can be convinced that it works as promised. So far SEO and Clickatell don't work and I am worried that the help may not be forth coming after you pay up.

Pros: Number of services offered and level of customisation at the shop level.

Issues: Numerous security issues, especially thanks to the 1.5 core security issues and the way integration is handled. Lack of a 1.0 integration as the 1.0 bridge has been permanently stalled by Zacware in preference for 1.5 integration.

Proper 1.0 integration would allow this product to travel outside of Joomla as Mambo and the various other forks from Mambo would benefit from such a feature rich product. So Zacware is vendor-locking and feature-locking it to 1.5.

In this Internet age of mashups, clouds and data portability, a truly portable commerce solution is better than something vendor locked to 1.5.

After finaly realising that Freeway was it's own entity and must be installed first before adding the extentions to Joomla, everthing seemed to go okay.

BUT, the program is riddled with "Update Freeway" links, suggesting that this current version is out of date, which could also mean a possible security risk.

Updating leads to a request to spend thousands of dollars for a subscription with Zac - I don't mind paying for software, but I don't like seeing it as a "hidden" option.

If I knew upfront that there were would be a charge for this program in the end, I probably would have considered it further before installing it onto my site for testing. I've spent nearly $500 so far on Joomla software extentions; so I have no problem on paying for worthy products - I just don't like being essentially tricked into doing so.

In any rate, I've been getting mySql errors that would probably be fixed if I purchase the subscription.

As well, it takes two or three tries (each of which take a good twenty minutes to write), before any updated information sticks.

For example, I've uploaded an image for my Service, that sometimes shows a red X - and sometimes doesn't - this is not exactly showing a stable program.

There is also a location to upload a logo for the program; so I tried doing so, but the Freeway logo can't be overwritten as suggested.

As well, while trying to edit a service form; first I would edit section A, then B - but the information I've entered in section B would then automatically refresh section A to a blank page, but with new options to select depending on what's written in B.
(If this sounds confusing, it's because it is. It's also frustrating when you've spent nearly half an hour editing section A, only for it to all disappear without warning.)

This program sounded exactly as what I was looking for - if them program has some serious updates (without hiding the fact that you will have to pay for the program through subscriptions in the end), I might reconsider it; but right now, I'm uninstalling because it's too much of a waste of time to handle right now.

I am a novice "wanna-be" techy that is now using Freeway's shopping to deliver weekly Pilates Mat classes to a new audience. Successfully, I might add!

Yes, the system is complex, it is thorough, does have a bit of learning curve and yes, took some abstract thinking beyond that of Joomla, but it is a very comprehensive system with far more power and functionality than meets the eye.

Thanks to Damian and Freeway staff for quick and comprehensive support and answers to all my "newbie" questions.

Well done!

its not as complicated as the previous people say its is. if you know how to install joomla! you should also be able to install freeway. and its the only shopping cart that offers services, events and a bunch of others stuff aside from products and downloadables.

I had no issues installing the Joomla! component and modules. And it worked as expected. For those that can't seem to get this to work... read read read.

All the information you need is there.

I look forward to watching this mature.

Just installed the newest Freeway. So far works like a charm. Installation was a little confusing but very easy once I calmed down and read ALL the help guides. Kudos!! Now we'll see how conforming it to look like my shop goes, but I think this will be doable. Thanks for all the hard work Freeway Team!!!!!!

The Freeway project, an enhanced modification of osCommerce, is suffering from some children's diseases but it has the potential to become a real monster freeware application during the next months.

Via "Freeway Integration" Freeway can be implemented into the joomla frontend for realizing applications like shops, event bookings, services bookings, newsletters etc.

The joomla bridge is still in some kind of embryonic state and does not work with every server configuration so far. Unfortunatly I wasn´t able to merge these powerfull applications so far but I´m sure that the ambitious and helpful developer team will solve these problems very soon.

So I´ll give a rate of 2 for the moment but I´m sure I´ll switch it to a 5 very soon.

I have been trying for almost a week to get it to work without success. Very complicated and never worked for me. I dont know if it was me or the software itself. I dont think that its integrated into Joomla completely. Lots of work needs to be done to this component. I give up for now and I will check up in the future. Sorry guys.

Freeway appears to be a very full function and rich eCommerce solution as a STAND ALONE system. When access their site from the links available here, you are taken to just a small piece of a much bigger picture, and you can expect to spend hours sorting everything out.

First, I must say that Freeway does show a lot of promise. In about 6-12 months, I expect I'll change my vote to "Excellent", but it just isn't ready yet.

1) You must first install and configure the Freeway software before starting with the Joomla "extension" piece. Good luck finding the link to this software.

2) Before you do #1, you must first, manually create a new, separate database for the Freeway system. (well, it can share the same MySQL database, but it appears everyone is keeping these separate for now).

3) If you have Joomla SEO turned on, then you MUST turn it off. They claim this will be fixed by around May 7-10, but we all know that this could take longer.

4) The Freeway administrative interface, for defining products, services, etc, is so completely separate from Joomla you must login separately. Once in, there is no way to access any Joomla admin functionality, unless you have this open in a differnt browser window.

5) The Freeway forums lack any means of searching, so expect to spend hours manually searching for the one tid-bit of info you need when you get stuck.

6) The documentation to understand how to configure the system, what settings to set, etc. is vaporware at this time. Yes, they have a table of contents, but there's nothing else at this time.

I have posted several questions to their forums, and have wasted hours of my time trying to locate information. I am now giving up, but do expect to check back on their progress.

This is THE cart.

granted its a bit complicated... but you'll get there if you follow the installation document.

what the person who reviewed before me seems to not realise is that Freeway is actually an independent system... but this component bridges it with Joomla... so it is essential to install freeway first then to create the link - which is explained in the installation document.

I've been wrecking my brain trying to figure out how to install this component, with no avail. The features sound terrific and I was really excited about the potential use. However if your a novice like me as it pertains to development and don't want to waste your time reading tons of documentation, perusing forum after forum you may save yourself a ton of hours and just purchase a "real" out of the box payment system. I searched the forum further and found out that you can get support for this tool but your going to have to pay at least $500 dollar for standard support platinum was like $4000. I'm not trying to bash these guys - because the tool seems like it can really kick butt. However if your not a developer or experienced or an experienced server admin the installation and configuration of the tool is just too complicated. I would recommend - creating videos that walk users through the process visually - or creating better technical documentation that clearly explains the installation process in terms of steps, actions, and requirements.