hello Stephanie,

it's not possible to sell music directly with our component. You would need some custom coding work for that if you were interested. you can contact us at joomlamusicsolutions@gmail.com if you want to discuss this further with us!

best,
Germi

germi wrote:

it's not possible to sell music directly with our component. You would need some custom coding work for that if you were interested. you can contact us at joomlamusicsolutions@gmail.com if you want to discuss this further with us!

Hi Germi,

I have a similar question. I already have a web developer contracted and am in the process of creating a site that will include the purchase of albums and tracks. Music Collection looks like a perfect solution if it can be integrated with a shopping cart. So my questions are:

1. Shopping cart integration.

You mention custom programming in order to add such functions as an "add to cart" button and, I would imagine the same applies for an option to purchase the complete album. Does this mean hacking core code? Or is MC extensible to allow this type of integration?

For example, I found this site under your "Success cases" tab:

http://jamsspace.com/music/d/doug-means-project/d-m-p-1-0

Each track has an iTunes buy button. While I will not be using iTunes, was this button a part of MC, or was it some part of a customization? It does seem to demonstrate some kind of ability to customize/extend the play-track widget if this was not some kind of internal hack or modification.

And, if MC is extensible *without* core hacking (I would rather not break future ability to update), is this something that a web developer can do (since we have one that we have worked with before and really like), or does it take undocumented and internal knowledge of MC to pull off?

2. Responsive layouts.

The site being developed is using responsive templates. Does MC use fixed sizing or percentages for its layouts? I'm hoping it would be possible to wrap MC elements with divs to give it flexible, responsive layout sizing for various devices. The framework we are using does most of this work as long as the elements being wrapped are not using fixed height/width sizing.

Thanks!

Dave

hello Dave,

1. well.. a little of both. since Music Collection is not currently prepared to "sell songs", some "code core hacking" would be necessary, although probably not much because a big part of this could be achieved using Music Collection's plusin system (it provides somes triggers). but, again, some code hacking WOULD be necessary.

the iTunes button is part of MC. I mean, we provide a "buy link" field in every song/album, so you can place here any link you want. in this case, that customer used it for iTunes links, and all he did was changing our download button png file for the iTunes one. that's all. I won't even call this hacking

well, as I say, probably some core haking Would be necessary. now, I don't know how your developer will handle this. I mean, I don't know what would be his "way of adding a cart". in any case, if the developer is good at Joomla he probably will know what to do because MC is programmer user Joomla standard's, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find the things he needs in the code, because he will know where to look. obviously, a deep knowledge of MC code always helps!

2. fixed. that's something we want to improve (mainly, for the ALBUM page), where the "right column" could fall beneath the left one if the layout is narrower than x pixels. but for now it's NOT responsive so that work will need to be done by your developer in our layout files. and again, if he's good at responsive layouts.. well basically all he will need to do is to write the appropiate CSS classes (overriding ours) and then change a couple or three tables that we use for divs.

best,
Germi

Thanks, Germi, this is all very helpful feedback.

If I understand you correctly, it sounds like most of the work can be done using MC's plugin triggers, but yet some core hacking would still be needed. Would future updating of MC still be possible without too much fuss?

the iTunes button is part of MC. I mean, we provide a "buy link" field in every song/album, so you can place here any link you want. in this case, that customer used it for iTunes links, and all he did was changing our download button png file for the iTunes one. that's all. I won't even call this hacking

Yeah, that just sounds... clever. But if you provide a "buy link" field in every song/album that can be used, then really the only other thing needed would be some kind of additional box on the album page for album purchase information (such as your Data field box, maybe even purchase button in there). But... maybe this is too a simplistic understanding of the issues on my part.

well, as I say, probably some core haking Would be necessary. now, I don't know how your developer will handle this. I mean, I don't know what would be his "way of adding a cart". in any case, if the developer is good at Joomla he probably will know what to do because MC is programmer user Joomla standard's, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find the things he needs in the code, because he will know where to look. obviously, a deep knowledge of MC code always helps!

Which he will not, of course, have. He's an experienced PHP/web developer in other frameworks but does not have a lot of Joomla experience. I'm not a Joomla developer either, per se, but have been programming some specific Joomla components and modules for the site (this site is a personal venture of mine). So if I cannot find a better solution for the albums/tracks aspect of the site, I may look into contracting MC to do the (hopefully) minimal hacks and he can take it from there.

Plus, we have not finalized a decision on the commerce cart system to use (redSHOP is top of the list at the moment), so if you have successfully done this type of integration with other cart systems for others, it would be helpful to know which ones as they may be good options for our use also and make this integration even easier on your end.

For the responsive question, yes, CSS overrides sound doable and he can do that, so that sounds good.

Thanks, again, Germi!

Dave

Risingfire wrote:

Thanks, Germi, this is all very helpful feedback.

If I understand you correctly, it sounds like most of the work can be done using MC's plugin triggers, but yet some core hacking would still be needed. Would future updating of MC still be possible without too much fuss?

yes... but.. "at your own risk". I mean: be sure to write down which files you modify and where, so in any case you can restore your work afterwards!

the iTunes button is part of MC. I mean, we provide a "buy link" field in every song/album, so you can place here any link you want. in this case, that customer used it for iTunes links, and all he did was changing our download button png file for the iTunes one. that's all. I won't even call this hacking

Yeah, that just sounds... clever. But if you provide a "buy link" field in every song/album that can be used, then really the only other thing needed would be some kind of additional box on the album page for album purchase information (such as your Data field box, maybe even purchase button in there). But... maybe this is too a simplistic understanding of the issues on my part.

I think it is because you need more things! you need a "cart" option. you need "payments" options (paypal, whatever). and most important: you need to know if/when a user has or not purchased the song, so you can give him access to download it! the current field is really just a link... nothing more! an external link to buy the song "somewhere else"

well, as I say, probably some core haking Would be necessary. now, I don't know how your developer will handle this. I mean, I don't know what would be his "way of adding a cart". in any case, if the developer is good at Joomla he probably will know what to do because MC is programmer user Joomla standard's, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find the things he needs in the code, because he will know where to look. obviously, a deep knowledge of MC code always helps!

Which he will not, of course, have. He's an experienced PHP/web developer in other frameworks but does not have a lot of Joomla experience. I'm not a Joomla developer either, per se, but have been programming some specific Joomla components and modules for the site (this site is a personal venture of mine). So if I cannot find a better solution for the albums/tracks aspect of the site, I may look into contracting MC to do the (hopefully) minimal hacks and he can take it from there.

maybe.. but believe me, the hacks are not that minimal (and even if they where, the "plugin" that needs to be build to handle the new selling process is not that simple either! Honestly, to my point of view, it is really more difficult than what you may think... that's y opinion anyway!

Plus, we have not finalized a decision on the commerce cart system to use (redSHOP is top of the list at the moment), so if you have successfully done this type of integration with other cart systems for others, it would be helpful to know which ones as they may be good options for our use also and make this integration even easier on your end.

I haven't done this, but if I had to do it, I will choose a Joomla ecommerce compoentn of course (is redSHOP a joomla component? never heard of it). and, by default.. I would probably go with VirtueMart because it's the one I've used more times so I'm more used to it... but that's just my personal view. others could be used I guess.

For the responsive question, yes, CSS overrides sound doable and he can do that, so that sounds good.

great, but again, probably a bit of HTML changes wil lbe necessary too

Thanks, again, Germi!

Dave

yes... but.. "at your own risk". I mean: be sure to write down which files you modify and where, so in any case you can restore your work afterwards!

yes, understood.

I think it is because you need more things! you need a "cart" option. you need "payments" options (paypal, whatever). and most important: you need to know if/when a user has or not purchased the song, so you can give him access to download it! the current field is really just a link... nothing more! an external link to buy the song "somewhere else"

I guess I was thinking all that would be handled by the commerce component -- not MC. MC would just be a front-end to essentially display and organize album/tracks. All the purchases, downloadable options, etc., would be managed by the commerce component. I figured this would mean that I would need to set up track products in the commerce component and then also albums in MC, and then the buy-link would reference back into the commerce system. MC wouldn't be responsible to handle the actual user's account, buy history, manage downloadable content, etc. That would all be handled by the commerce component.

For example, some of the commerce components I've researched use curly brace tags to hook into their cart system -- they are interpreted and expanded by later plugins in Joomla's plugin chain. So that link in the buy-field you mentioned could be commerce specific tags that are interpreted by the commerce module.

Ugh... this *is* starting to sound pretty complicated.

maybe.. but believe me, the hacks are not that minimal (and even if they where, the "plugin" that needs to be build to handle the new selling process is not that simple either! Honestly, to my point of view, it is really more difficult than what you may think... that's y opinion anyway!

Which I appreciate!

I haven't done this, but if I had to do it, I will choose a Joomla ecommerce compoentn of course (is redSHOP a joomla component? never heard of it).

Heh... that's not a good sign. ;-) Yes, redSHOP is a native commerce component and they have the curly brace-tag substitution feature I mentioned:

http://redcomponent.com/redshop

I am attracted to it because it looks pretty extensible, which, I guess I need. And I really didn't think that my needs were going to be so unique! It seemed pretty straightforward -- just needing a Joomla component that would organize and manage the sales of downloadable digital content -- album/tracks in this case. It just didn't seem like Rocket Science or anything. I looked at MyMuse and Maian, but they seem to be non-supported and only partially implemented, although they did, at least, fit the description of what I needed.

and, by default.. I would probably go with VirtueMart because it's the one I've used more times so I'm more used to it... but that's just my personal view. others could be used I guess.

I looked at VirtueMart, too, but it had such mixed reviews that I just wasn't sure. And I didn't dig deep enough into it to see how easily it would be to use for my purposes. So, yes, that may still be an option, too.

Dave

Risingfire wrote:

yes... but.. "at your own risk". I mean: be sure to write down which files you modify and where, so in any case you can restore your work afterwards!

yes, understood.

I think it is because you need more things! you need a "cart" option. you need "payments" options (paypal, whatever). and most important: you need to know if/when a user has or not purchased the song, so you can give him access to download it! the current field is really just a link... nothing more! an external link to buy the song "somewhere else"

I guess I was thinking all that would be handled by the commerce component -- not MC. MC would just be a front-end to essentially display and organize album/tracks. All the purchases, downloadable options, etc., would be managed by the commerce component. I figured this would mean that I would need to set up track products in the commerce component and then also albums in MC, and then the buy-link would reference back into the commerce system. MC wouldn't be responsible to handle the actual user's account, buy history, manage downloadable content, etc. That would all be handled by the commerce component.

For example, some of the commerce components I've researched use curly brace tags to hook into their cart system -- they are interpreted and expanded by later plugins in Joomla's plugin chain. So that link in the buy-field you mentioned could be commerce specific tags that are interpreted by the commerce module.

Ugh... this *is* starting to sound pretty complicated.

well, that could work but woudl mean a lot of work on your end. my idea was that all this (the "ecommerce sellable products" were created automaticaly by MC. so, MC would be the frontend, yes, but it will handle all the creation/deletion/managing. so you won't have to enter things twice. and also remember you need the "feedback" from the ecommerce system so MC knows if the user can donwload or not...

maybe.. but believe me, the hacks are not that minimal (and even if they where, the "plugin" that needs to be build to handle the new selling process is not that simple either! Honestly, to my point of view, it is really more difficult than what you may think... that's y opinion anyway!

Which I appreciate!

I haven't done this, but if I had to do it, I will choose a Joomla ecommerce compoentn of course (is redSHOP a joomla component? never heard of it).

Heh... that's not a good sign. ;-) Yes, redSHOP is a native commerce component and they have the curly brace-tag substitution feature I mentioned:

http://redcomponent.com/redshop

I am attracted to it because it looks pretty extensible, which, I guess I need. And I really didn't think that my needs were going to be so unique! It seemed pretty straightforward -- just needing a Joomla component that would organize and manage the sales of downloadable digital content -- album/tracks in this case. It just didn't seem like Rocket Science or anything. I looked at MyMuse and Maian, but they seem to be non-supported and only partially implemented, although they did, at least, fit the description of what I needed.

makes sense.. sorry we don't have this funcitonality right now...

and, by default.. I would probably go with VirtueMart because it's the one I've used more times so I'm more used to it... but that's just my personal view. others could be used I guess.

I looked at VirtueMart, too, but it had such mixed reviews that I just wasn't sure. And I didn't dig deep enough into it to see how easily it would be to use for my purposes. So, yes, that may still be an option, too.

well, VM is not perfect, I can tell you. but it works good if it's correctly configured. the idea is that you would need only to set up the configuration parameters (you know, payment method, currency, etc..) and it would be pretty much invisiable to you or the client until the "payment" part because you wouldn't be entering the items through VM but through MC, and "adding to cart" from MC as well.

Dave

well, that could work but woudl mean a lot of work on your end. my idea was that all this (the "ecommerce sellable products" were created automaticaly by MC. so, MC would be the frontend, yes, but it will handle all the creation/deletion/managing. so you won't have to enter things twice. and also remember you need the "feedback" from the ecommerce system so MC knows if the user can donwload or not...

Yes, that would be a huge amount of change to MC... I see what you were thinking now. I don't think I would mind the duplication of effort to list album/products in both systems because I'm not taking about 100's of albums. Maybe over time as things grow as they should, but in the beginning just a hand full.

makes sense.. sorry we don't have this funcitonality right now...

Yeah, me too because MC looks amazing! And I'll probably still purchase it just to mess around and see how bad is bad in terms of integration. I guess I'm ever hopeful. (And haven't found anything else close to suitable!)

well, VM is not perfect, I can tell you. but it works good if it's correctly configured. the idea is that you would need only to set up the configuration parameters (you know, payment method, currency, etc..) and it would be pretty much invisiable to you or the client until the "payment" part because you wouldn't be entering the items through VM but through MC, and "adding to cart" from MC as well.

Yeah, that's basically it -- configure and forget about it. Okay; lots to think about here and how much I would want MC to do and how much the commerce component.

Germi, thank your for your helpful direction.

Dave

no worries. you know how to reach me if you have any further questions.

have a good one,

Germi

Buy button appears only when I get the information from discogs. when I add it myself - it's not. Why???
where to fix it in code?
thnx

hello @JurgenZoller

what's your Music Collection order ID?

thanks!

sorry, I didn't buy it - just testing...

seriously..? you're asking for support for a product you haven't bought...!
can't help you mate.

I ask this question in "Pre-buy questions"))
I can't buy something if it does not fulfill the most important function.
As you can't buy a car that does not go))

Lets be clear... I undertand you're using a pirate version... Arent you? I dont know if that version has been hacked somehow and that's why it does not work!
You won't steal a car and then go to the car store and complain because it doesnt work! im not calling u a thief, just trying to make a point

i really understand you))
MC is great thing)) but it does not have the required functions I need, so I correct code for a month))

about the question - I found a problem:
line 88 in default.php (components/com_muscol/views/album/tmpl/)
...php if(count( $this->songs ))...
if you have no songs - you have no buy_button))
so thank you very much!!!

I don't understand.. so you're not going to buy it anyway?
you will keep using your pirate copy?

why not?))
do nice widgetkit and I'll be first!!!

I Know this is an old thread, And I hope you get this question =/

99% of my question for the (buy now button) was answered here. The lingering 1% of my question is this.

Do JomSocial users have access to add the buy now link when adding albums and songs on the front end, through their JS profile App?
I have a Joobi store front on my site (kind of like VirtueMart), and I would like to know if my users can add their store front links to direct users to their store on site from the front end.

Looking forward to purchasing "Music Collections" full version before the end of the month. =)
I'm using Joomla 2.5 right now. But I am debating on upgrade to Joomla 3.x in the near future. Decisions decisions.. lol

-Nathaniel EveryWishEveryStar

Ok very cool! No I understood it was just a link out to iTunes, Bandcamp, or any other downloadable storefront. I just needed to know if it was available to all registered users if we got the full community package. I will just have to let my users know, that if they include a URL to purchase, to 'NOT' also include the availability to download it on my site through the music app, or they would be giving it away for free on my site.

Thank you very much for the very quick answer Germinal Camps. I look forward to getting this! =)

-Nathaniel

Hi Germinal

can you please advise how much a virtue mart plugin would cost? or if there is one available somewhere? I have a client that wants me to replace her website (4000+ tracks) and I'd like to use MC for the library (knowing its great from my other project using it) - and YES i will be buying another license for this project if we can do what is needed

basically we need to be able to select multiple tracks to a cart, then let the store handle the checkout (and probably downloads and quantity discount)

Im looking at getting the MC/IM/ET/CS package for this

any help would be gratefully received

Ive added a reference link so you can see what we want to replace by using MC