We have just completed a 15 part series of tutorials on how to build a Joomla powered eCommerce site using an extension called Tienda. Advanced subscribers can login to the site and watch these now.
Tienda is a new extension by Dioscouri. It's officially still in beta but it is stable enough to start using now.
The good
- Tienda is already a sophisticated eCommerce solution and will suit many types of online shops.
- It includes many pricing options such as different price groups (e.g. you could provide a different price for resellers), different price points based on the number ordered (e.g. if you order 1 the price is $20, if you order 2 it becomes $18 each) and different pricing based on dates (useful for promotions).
- Products can include attributes such as different colors, sizes etc.
- There is a lot of flexibility when it comes to creating tax and shipping rules.
- Some template providers have released compatible templates (e.g. joomlabamboo, Joomla Praise and RocketTheme)
The not so good
- It is beta and there are some issues. For example, the product entry pages would not work for us using Google Chrome but switching to Firefox worked. One of the modules refused to work and there are some mistakes in a couple of menu item descriptions. None of these are deal breakers though.
- Documentation is always the last consideration with software and so you could argue that as Tienda is still classed as beta, that it is a bonus to have any help at all. There are some decent installation instructions and other documentation, but this is certainly an area that requires more work. If you have never built an online shop before, you may struggle – but that's where our tutorials come in!
- Support is a difficult subject to tackle with any project. There is a forum on the developer site, but many problems are unanswered. Dioscouri has chosen to provide the community version of Tienda for free which is admirable, but support costs $99.99 for just one month.
Rating
4 out of 5
Conclusion
We like Tienda which is why we chose it for our eCommerce tutorials. It shows good potential and is reasonably safe to use now. We would like to see better support or a cheaper paid option.
