The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™

It's easy to get dizzy when trying to consider all of the choices of this new breed of super component (better name really than CCK because many of them have bells and whistles beyond adding fields to your content).

I know I was, and it took building multiple sites with several of them to get a better grasp. Unfortunately, I can't just say that there is a "best" CCK although I think I've narrowed it down to a few circumstances (for me at least). Here are a few tips that might help you decide if Jseblod is the right one for you:

If you have simple needs and getting up and running quick is the biggest priority, you might really be better served with Flexicontent. Flexicontent is elegant and intuitive, but not as featured or as integrated w/Joomla as Jseblod. Flexicontent is unique in that it's easily rigged to be an intranet or publishing workflow (has versioning, workflow and powerful ACL available).

If you have a site with a lot of traffic, K2 is reputed to provide good performance. It's major drawback for me is that it bypasses most of Joomla's content management, thereby creating incompatibilities with many 3rd party extensions. Some will work... but many won't, including certain modules that come with templates. Not a problem I guess if the ones you use are the ones that work... but the don't work list is too big for me. With Jseblod, you can choose whatever comments, tagging, seo, content modules, etc. you like without any hassle, including with SEO/SEF.

Zoo having it's own content manager separate from Joomla is in a similar class as K2, as is Joomsuite (Mighty Extensions) Resources.

But if you're you're like me and think spending a little extra time to learn the tool with the most horsepower is the way to go, then go with Jseblod. No question, it passes all the others I've tried both when it comes to capability and the level of Joomla integration.

Drawbacks: At first it was hard for me to get used to the fact that it stores its custom fields all together in the intro/full text of each article (seamless to the user though). Not sure how that will scale on a large site, but the Jsblod site and other showcase sites don't seem to be a problem. Documentation is currently not so good, but forum support is great.

Basically I'd say that if you just have one site that needs a custom field or two, Jseblod might be overkill... but if you either a) have more advanced needs or b) build multiple sites and want to have a great swiss army knife at your disposal, Jseblod is hard to beat. Last but not least, the team seems highly dedicated and have been realeasing updates almost monthly.

When it works, this thing works. It shaved almost 100k off of the site I installed it on, and significantly lowered http requests. What a difference!

I did run into problems when I enabled optimize CSS files. It choked on an IE conditional comment with a link to an external css. It also still seems to be having problems with dynamic css, as my font switcher defaulted to the large size (ugly text).

I would have contacted the author, but couldn't find a contact link on the site. All in all, it'll work for most people fine, and it still makes a difference for me even with css turned off. When the bugs are worked out, I think this will be a must have for every site.

In the hands of someone who takes some time to learn this tool, the design of your store will be limited only by your imagination. If you’re a serious programmer needing an advanced e-commerce framework to make major customizations, VM is an older code base and I would imagine there are better choices. It isn't going to give you Amazon.com exactly. However, for the average store and especially if you need it to integrate with Joomla, Virtuemart is very good. If you’re in doubt of this, go to their forum and check out some of the sites made with it.

I’m amazed at some of the negativity I’ve seen about Virtuemart. Some of it is based on their forum support. Let’s remember that this is a very small team of VOLUNTEERS trying to help a huge number of users. Yet if you ask something in the right place that hasn’t already been answered (and aren’t a pushy _ _ _), someone will help you. Before you get upset, keep in mind that a lot of bugs you may come across are actually a problem with your own server or browser setup.

Let’s face it, e-commerce is not for the faint of heart…even in 2008. Virtuemart makes it about as easy as it comes for a beginner, but you very well may have to sort through a few bugs and challenges. Don’t give up. Once you get through a site or two, I think you’ll find this an amazing tool!

A few things it has:

* An easy to use theming system which gives you full control of layout and style
* A strong integration with Joomla. There are 13 optional modules plus plugins to integrate with the normal Joomla search and allow for inserting products into Joomla articles. Users are synchronized, and products or categories can be linked to from Joomla menus
* Good CSV import/export with an addon called CSV extended
* Most of the features you’ll find in other open source shopping carts
* Hacks are available for adding certain features (although some haven't been updated)

Some things it doesn’t have:

* Joomla native SEF. However, there are 3rd party SEF extensions that work with it
* Events, Subscriptions, wish list
* Comprehensive reporting
* Backend is clunky for making multiple edits or additions (although csv extended can solve this if you’re technically saavy)
* Poor, untemplatable custom fields implementation (product types)
* Dynamic front end product attributes
* A sexy front end out of the box (as Magento)