The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™

Honestly, it can be a bit of a pain to get setup properly at the start, depending on how well you understand spreadsheets, but once you configure CSVI properly for your needs, it works like a friggin' dream.

So save yourself the startup headaches and just get the Pro version, and the awesome support that comes with it. It's worth every penny.

I'll never even think about building another Virtuemart store without CSVI Pro. An absolutely MUST HAVE extension for any serious Virtuemart user.

This component is great. I would gladly pay for the component as long as it came with a little better support. That's the only thing it lacks. It works, it's stable, and it's so easy to use that chances are you won't need support, but if you do, prepare yourself for some frustration. After searching the support forum, I came across several instances of people asking variations of this issue question, but none of them were answered. Here goes:

I have successfully migrated the AdsManager component to a new Joomla 1.5 installation. All the data is there and working, except the ad photos. Does anyone know how to migrate the photos? I have a site with 3,700 ads (sportsillustratedissues.com), and it'll take months to re-upload all the pics. I simply moved the photos to the same location within the new Joomla site, but AdsManager doesn't seem to know it. It seems to think that no pictures have ever been uploaded at all. Not broken links or anything, they're simply nowhere to be found in the AdsManager admin backend.

Again, I don't want to denigrate a great product, but the support is simply awful. And, for free, I don't expect it to be any better.

To the creators: Please, please, please release a paid version of this component, so that we can help fund a real support crew to deal with some of these little annoying user issues. The component is worth at least $50. At least. Who's with me? Lets start a petition to give the creators some incentive to take this amazing component to the next level.

This component is great, don't get me wrong. It does everything it claims to do, and it does it very well. But if your template requires modifying Phoca's CSS file, put on a hat right away, because you'll be pulling your hair out in no time.

I've created dozens and dozens of Joomla sites with templates from all over the place. I have never seen more complicated CSS in my life. If you need to so the simplest thing, like change the color of the text in the front end component, you'll have to manually add the CSS yourself. Some of the images are called from the CSS file, others from php files that are so buried in the package, you'll need a flashlight to find them.

Actually, no amount of words can do justice to the amount of frustration you're going to experience trying to customize the CSS. Just go ahead and try. You'll see what I mean.

Again, just to be clear, the component seems to be rock solid and extremely useful. Definitely worth more than the price (free). But the CSS? My goodness, it should be an example of exactly how NOT to style a site.