1. Joomla 1.5.x

2. Virtuemart 1.1.x
   

3. PHP 5x
   

4. MySQL 5 +

5. Mootools 1.1, Mootools 1.2
   

Go to:

Extensions -->Install/Uninstall-->Browse to find the file you downloaded

and then press Upload File & Install.

In order to upgrade your version, you don't have to uninstall VM Product Builder.

Just download the latest package and reinstall it, using the joomla installation system and your version will be upgraded automatically.

1) First Create/Edit Bundles.

Bundles are created from PB and represent a set of product groups.

Press New to create your new Bundle.

1) Name: The name of the Product will be displayed later as a header to the PB front-end view of that product

2) Alias: Used for the sef process.

3) Compatibility Check : Enable this setting if you want to use the compatibility check functionality for this bundle

The products of that bundle should have tags assigned, to have a functional Compatibility Check system.

4) Description: The Description could be visible or not in the Front-end. Also could be HTML and contain images.

5) Meta-Keywords: The Meta-Keywords of that Bundle in the front-end.

6) Meta-Description: The Meta-Description of that Bundle in the front-end.

The meta tags are the meta tags of the page that will be created in the fornt-end

2) Then Create/Edit Groups.

A group of product belongs to a bundle. So a Bundle is a set of groups. A Group could be editable (the group's default product could change) or non editable offering a constant option to the user that could not change.

1) Group name: Is the name of a set of products. This name will be displayed in the front-end as group's header or as the 1st choice of the group's "drop-down list".

2) Bundle: Is the Bundle in which the group belongs.

3) Published: Displayed or not.

4) Order: The display  order of that group.

5) Editable: If a group is editable means that the end-user could select products from that group. If is not editable only 1 product is being displayed, as default without the ability to change it.

If a Group is non-editable a default product must be set.

6) Insert Products From: A group could be connected with one or more VM categories. This way will contain the products of that category, following any change (addition or deletιοn) of the products in that category.

Also could be connected with a selection of products. Pressing the button, a form with all the products of your VM eshop appears in a lightbox.

Select the products that consists that group and press the "apply" button.

7) Set Group's Default Product: Set a product to appear as default selection of that group.

If the group is editable only the products connected with that group are being loaded and could become default. If is non-editable every product of your eshop is being loaded and could be default.

8) Display Quantity Box. This setting defines if the quantity box will be dislpayed , in order the user to be able to change the default quantity.

This setting concerns the current group. The Display Quantity param of the menu item concerns all the groups of a bundle. So to have the quantity box displayed both settings should be enabled.

Intoduction

Compatibility is a feature which is not mandatory to use it. If you don't need to use it avoid this step. It is used in order the user to be able to select only products that are compatible between them. VM product builder is using Tags to create compatibility relations between 2 or more products. So the products that have at least 1 same tag between them are considered compatible.

How is working in the front-end

'Compatibility check'  works from the top to the bottom, that means that when a product from the 2nd group is selected pb will check for compatible products in the groups that following that, the 3rd ,the 4th etc groups. Products that are not compatible with a selected product will be disabled (cannot be selected) but will be visible. Lets have an example.

PB gets the tags of the products of the current group and disables the products of the following groups that have those tags assigned, leaving enabled only those that have the same tag as the selected product.

In our example the tags of the group 'Motherboards' are AMD and intel. PB gets those 2 tags, then excludes the tags of the selected product (AMD) ,what left are the tags of the products that should be disabled, in our case the products with the tag intel.

Products with no tags assigned are considered compatible with every selection

To use Compatibility Check, the Compatibility Check option should be enabled in that Bundle's page , in the backend.

You can also let the user decide if he wants to use it, setting the Display Compatibility Option to yes from the pb configuration. Even in this case the Compatibility Check setting of the used bundle should be enabled, to have this functionality working.

How is working in the Backend

If you intent to use compatibility first you have to create your tags. Then go to the compatibility page and set tags to your products.

The best way to assign tags to your products is to use the Groups filter, starting from the 1st group and continuing down the last.

So first select the desired group and then press the edit button positioned at the right of your products. From the popup window , select the tags you want to assign to that product and press update. Thats it! your product now has some tags assigned.

Configuration

Here the component offers a lot of styling options together with styling tools such as color palletes. This eliminates as much as possible the need to edit and write css code.

Creating a menu item you are defining the layout you would like to display in the front-end.
There are 2 types of menu items/layouts for PB.

a) Those that regard the individual bundle display which are:

1. The Default layout displays the group's products. It is offering the option to display the thumbnail image,the short description and the manufacturer of the selected product.
2. The Static Images to the Right. In this layout, the images of all the selected products are being displayed at the right of every group.
3. The Static Images to the Top. In this layout, the images of all the selected products are being displayed at the top of the layout.
4. The Image-Overlay is usefull for products that conist of multiple layers. Each image of the selected products is loaded in the image area above the previous one. This way uisng images with transparent background the user could create a final product represented as multiple layers.
   Use Images with transparent background for your products if you intent to use the Image-Overlay layout.
5. The Minimal layout is simple enough dispaying just drop-down lists of products.
6. The Default Products - Bundle is displaying only the default products of each group in non-editable mode.
   This layout can be used to offer predefined bundles ready for purchase to your visitors.

b) A layout that displays a list of bundles (bundle browse page) with links to each bundle's page.

Configuring the individual bundle layout

The Bundle id is the integer number placed at the right column of the Bundles View and defines which bundle will be displayed in that page.

Plus there are the component parameters. These are general parameters that regard the bundle

Configuring the browse page layout

This layout is used to display a list of the created bundles.

You can set how many bundles to be displayed per row, also which bundles to be displayed if you don't want them all.

You can use the Read More in the bundle's description to display only a part of that, in the bundle browse page.

Another interesting setting is the Tagret Bundle's Layout. This setting defines which will be the layout of the destination bundle page