System Requirements

Installing the Virtuemart VM Search Component is very easy and takes just a few steps. In the following, you lean how to install and implement the Yagendoo Virtuemart Search Component after downloading it.

1. - Installing the Yagendoo VM Meta Component

a) Unzip the package (yagendoo_vmmeta.zip) you have downloaded via the download link after the purchase to a local folder on your pc. It contains the package with the components and several files with information.

b) Navigate into your Joomla! backend to the Joomla! installer and select the package with the components you have previously downloaded to your PC and which is now on your pc. Install it using Joomla! installer. If the installation was successful, you will see the message that the module was successfully installed.

Note: As some servers are not 100% Joomla! compatible, please check the chmod rights of the files and folders. All folders have to be set at a chmod of 755 and all files at a chmod of 644.

2. Overview on the Yagendoo VM Meta Component

In your Joomla backend, navigate to the menu item "Components" and open the item "yag VM Meta". You will find the main menu on the left side. Within the menu, you can navigate by using the tabs above the content screen.

a) Start: On the start page, you will find an overview on the meta data you have entered so far, e.g. a displaying of missing, duplicate, too short or too long meta fields of the products and categories.

b) Categories: Here, you can enter all meta data for the categories. A help feature assists you in this, showing when the length of the meta field is optimal. You also have several filtering options.

c) Products: Here, you can enter the meta data for the products of your Virtuemart Shop. The help feature for optimizing the length and for filtering the data is also available here.

d) Import: Here, you can find the import of the meta data from Virtuemart, other components, or from csv or xml. This is also where you will find the export of your Virtuemart products and categories in csv or xml.

e) Configuration: allows you to enter the shop meta data and to configure export and import.

f) Credits: Here, you can find further information and links to assist you in operating the module. The changelog is also available here.

3. The Start Page

On the left side, you will find an overview on the meta data of your Virtuemart products. On the right side, you will find the data for the categories. A possible extract of this can be found in the screenshot below this point.

3. Entering Meta Data by using the component

After this, navigate to the menu item "Components" in your backend and open the item "yag VM Meta Manager". You are then able to choose between two interfaces: the one for entering the meta data for the Virtuemart categories and the one for the products. The interface is the same for both procedures. You have the following options:

Meta Title: enter the meta title that is to be relevant for search engines. The small icon next to the entry field shows you when the title has reached the perfect length; it should have a length of between 40-65 characters. If you have reached the recommended length, the icon will become a star. If you have entered too many characters, the field will show an icon with an arrow pointing downwards. Click the respective disc icon to save your settings.

Meta Keywords: enter the meta keywords that are to be relevant for search engines. The small icon next to the entry field shows you when the total length of the keyword has reached the perfect length; keywords should have a length of between 170-200 characters. If you have reached the recommended length, the icon will become a star. If you have entered too many characters, the field will show an icon with an arrow pointing downwards. Click the respective disc icon to save your settings.

Meta Description: enter the meta description that is to be relevant for search engines. The small icon next to the entry field shows you when the description has reached the perfect length; it should have a length of between 140-150 characters. If you have reached the recommended length, the icon will become a star. If you have entered too many characters, the field will show an icon with an arrow pointing downwards. Click the respective disc icon to save your settings.

4. Import / Export of Meta Data

Virtuemart: The first tab contains the import from Virtuemart. The topmost section addresses the import of meta titles. You can add a prefix or a suffix for all titles imported from Virtuemart as meta titles. The prefix is recommendable, for example, when you want to place your shop's name in front of all articles or all categories. In addition, you can set whether the title is to be imported by checking or un-checking the "Import Title" box.

The next step addresses the meta keywords. Since Virtuemart does not offer a comparable feature, you can select here whether you would like to use any specific field as keywords. You can choose between the title, the short or long description, or else select that the keywords are not to be imported from any of these fields. In the feature above, you can set which keywords are to be used at default, and below, whether the keywords are to be imported at all.

Hint: If you do not want to import keywords from any of the Virtuemart fields but you want certain keywords to appear in all categories or products, select "None" from the dropdown menu, enter the keywords you choose in the field for the keywords that are to appear at default, and check the "Import Keywords" box.

When importing the meta description, the description is always used for the categories; for the products, you can choose between the short and the long description. You again have the choice to set whether the meta description is to be imported as well.

The next check box sets whether or not already existing meta data will be overwritten. The last option allows you to choose between product import and category import.

Components: Besides the component, you also find two plug-ins for importing data from the common Joomla components sh404Sef (version 1.x) and JoomSef (3.x) in the download area on yagendoo.com. As usual, install the plug-in of your choice by using the Joomla Backend and then navigate back to the Meta Manager Component. The second tab now shows the import from these plug-ins.

Once the plug-in is installed AND activated, you will find an estimate for the possible imports from these components here. By clicking the Import button, these data will be imported and existing meta data will be overwritten. If you need to import from another component, please contact our support.

Files: The third tab allows you to import the meta data from csv or xml. Upload a respective file to the server. The file will then appear with the respective icon, an example of which you can see on the right side.

Hint: As a first step, use the export feature to create a file with meta data you have already entered. This way, you evade errors during import.

If you need to import from or export into another format, please contact our support.

Export: As a final feature, you have the option to export the meta data entered from your Virtuemart Shop. In this process, you can enter the name of the new file, its format and whether or not the products or categories of your Virtuemart Component are to be exported.

The settings for exporting and importing data from or into data can be changed in the configuration.

5. Configuration

Shop: The first tab in the configuration allows you to enter the meta data of your shop. They will be used whenever the user is visiting pages as, for example, the shopping cart, the shop's start page or the profile page.

CSV Configuration: The value separator sets the separating values for the values; in most cases, a semicolon is used for this. The next entry is the value-enclosing sign for the values. The following sign is often used for this: ". To prevent errors, we recommend you to not leave this field empty. (As an example, an error may occur when the description for an article contains a semicolon and is used as a value separator)

You can now select the reference to be used for the products. For this purpose, you can choose between the SKU (item number) and the ID. Categories always use the ID. In the next step, the description for the columns is set. If the first column of your csv file is a non-descriptive column, you should enter the number of columns containing the respective meta data here.

XML Configuration: The topmost element is the root tag. You can set its name right here. In the next step, you can set the enclosing element for each element. After this, the names of the elements for the ID, the SKU, the title, the keywords and the description are set.

6. Entering Meta Data By Use of Virtuemart

In Virtuemart, the meta data can be entered in the respective category or product. By installing the VM Meta Manager, the fields for entering the meta data will be automatically created and displayed in Virtuemart. The entering of data is the same as for the component. Please read more under point 3.

6. Working With Joomfish

In order to support multilingual pages, the VM Meta Manager allows you to translate all entered data by using Joomfish. If Joomfish is already installed when installing the VM Meta Manager, the Joomfish Content element will be automatically copied to the right folder. If you install Joomfish at a later stage, you will have to copy the content element to the folder manually. As with all other components, the data will be translated by selecting the element and entering the data in the Joomfish backend.