The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™

First I'd like to say that this extension does exactly what it is supposed to. I've used Joomla since 2006 and Mambo before that. I've developed extensions and understand what is involved.

This product combo (component and plugin) will find any external link on your Joomla site and convert it into an internal link. The internal link prompts your visitor that he is about to leave your site and provides a link for them to click on to continue.

I wasn't able to find a setting that would allow me to bypass the redirect page ("you are about to leave...") so I modified the plugin code to achieve the desired effect.

The "user manual" is three lines long and simply explain what the extension does and that the plugin and component both need to be installed to work. Since the extension only does the one task and does it well, I guess elaborate documentation isn't necessary. A brief explanation of the single component parameter might be nice just in case the default data is deleted on accident.

I'm really only interested in using this extension to mask external links on my site. I'll likely use this extension in concert with an ad rotation script to feed more links to my site. I'm sneaky like that!

I would really like to see the next version of this have an option to skip the redirect page. I suppose I could simply add a parameter to the plugin that would switch between original code and the new code I modified.

After looking at the ratings and considering this is an editor's pick, I figured it was a stable product waiting to be used. Another reviewer stated it best, "more bugs than a rain forest"! Really been a problem since I installed this for a client and the cost that they have incurred because of the time it has taken me to track down and fix the endless supply of bugs has been high. The support forum is disorganized and not very helpful. Many of the problems I encountered simply couldn't be fixed. My client is looking to use a stand alone cart or a commercial extension.
Just a few issues:
- Thumbnails and images don't upload correctly.
- The user sessions don't work well with the rest of Joomla.
- Various error and warning message may be encountered prior to patching both Joomla and VirtueMart core files.
- Very limited options for shipping

PHP and MySQL version seem to be a factor on some servers. Not sure how there is such a high rating for this component or positive reviews. Perhaps some users didn't fully configure and execute VM prior to rating the product.

If you weren't running a complex or large shopping cart, then this might work for you but I doubt it.

I had used TFSforMambo before and it really did the trick but this release is even better. You absolutely can't be a serious site administrator without this component. Once you learn how to read them, the stats tell you exactly what you need to do to your website to generate more traffic/revenue. There are a few things that would be nice to see in future releases like detailed reports or item reports like all of the hits to a page for an entire month, or total hits from a referer. Number of page views by the bot for the day would be helpful too. All in all, this tool is excellent at what it does but I wish it did more.