vmdTabs - Virtuemart Description Tabs

vmdTabs - Virtuemart Description Tabs - is a Joomla plugin which is demonstrated on this product page and provides stylish tabs for Virtuemart products and Joomla content. The plugin has the following primary features:

• Works in the regular product description area of Virtuemart.
• Works with regular Joomla content as well as Virtuemart. This is the only tabs system your site will need.
• 100% CSS controlled. Plugin uses the JQuery UI ThemeRoller system for styling.
• Plugin comes with 23 color options. You can also roll your own theme, or manually adjust the CSS yourself.
• Displays standard VM Field Data using the command  followed by a field ID. This loads standard Virtuemart fields like weight, packaging, price, etc. This is the only customizable tab system for VM that can automatically load standard VM fields in tabs.
• Show the Add to Cart, Add Product Reviews form, and and Product Reviews in tabs in all releases of Joomla and Virtuemart using simple commands. In Joomla 1.5 only, also show theRelated Products* in tabs.
• Simple command for setting up tabs - { TAB=Tab Name} . No need to close the tabs, the plugin automatically begins the next tab when the next command is encountered, or use a simple TABS wrapper command (shown below) to allow text to be displayed after the Tabs area. vmdTabs lets you create products with unique tabs and optionally set up default tabs that will show standard Virtuemart information in each of your products! The image below shows the plugin parameters for vmdTabs allowing for default tabs that will show on all products.

Plugin Parameters with Optional Default Tabs Defined. Default Tabs Show for All Products. Default Tabs Option Available for Joomla 2.5 version only.

Product Description with Custom Tab. Custom Tabs Can Appear Before or After Optional Default Tabs.

The optional default structure can give you the best of both worlds. Include standard VM information on standard tabs for all of your products, but add custom tabs to any product that has unique features! Or, skip using the default tabs and build each product its own unique layout.

• Unlimited number of tabs. Tabs automatically start additional rows if needed.
• Tabs can contain custom information, videos or images.
• Works with most Virtuemart Theme and Joomla Template combinations. (Note: Be careful when trying to use vmdTabs with Virtuemart Themes which have built-in tabs! This may not always work.)
• Uses JQuery library for advanced styling.
• Options to set the Width and the Minimum Height.

Note: Product Review forms and Related Products not available in Joomla 2.5.

vmdTabs was created by CorFun to meet some important needs in our own Joomla and Virtuemart Development. Prior to developing vmdTabs, for projects that were not suitable for our DynaTabs or FlyTabs Virtuemart Themes, we used other tabs options but were never happy with the results. Here is a summary of the advantages that vmdTabs was designed to have over other tabs systems:

1. Stability - Other tabs system were very delicate when rendering in the Virtuemart space. To protect the tabs from being cutoff at the bottom or squished on the side, we found ourselves having to embed the tabs in tables. That added extra coding for us, and made it more difficult for us to train the store's team on how to add new products. We designed vmdTabs to have its own height and width parameters that match up to the product layouts. This fact, and the jQuery library used, makes the tabs stable for use in Virtuemart without coding tables or divs to surround the tabs. It just works. Everytime. Easily.
2. CSS - Tabs systems are usually lacking in display themes, and are hard to customize. For vmdTabs, we used the jQuery Themeroller system and included 23 themes that will match most Websites. You can also roll your own custom theme and easily add it to the options. In short, the design flexibility is second-to-none.You can easily get tabs to match your site design, and not have to worry with complex customization or using tabs that just don't match.
3. Standard Virtuemart Fields - Sometimes you want the Add-to-Cart fields in a tab. Sometimes you want the Related Items in a Tab, the Related Products, the shipping weight, etc. also in tabs. vmdTabs gives you that ability. Other tabs systems cannot use simple commands to optionally embed standard VM fields into tabs, vmdTabs was designed to do exactly that and using a simple command syntax that anyone can master. The commands also allow the use of the image files in tabs, allowing you to create a design in which all of the product information is inside tabs!
4. Automatically Starts Additional Lines - When the number of tabs fills up a line, vmdTabs automatically starts an additional line. An unlimited number of lines are possible. Other tabs systems attempt to do this, but the results are not always pretty. vmdTabs, because of its jQuery-based stability, gets good tab lines every time.
5. Use Default Tabs for a Common Structure - Define default tabs to show standard VM data in tabs to provide a common layout for all products. Or not, as this is purely optional. (2.5 version only)
6. Use Custom Tabs Where Desired - Define custom tabs on products as desired to add additional information for unique products. Or make every product unique by using only custom tabs.

These are just a few of the major advantages to vmdTabs that make it well worth the purchase price.

The configuration options are shown below. The option to include the JQuery script can used to prevent conflicts in case your template or another plugin is already loading JQuery. The Width setting sets the width of the tab area. If the tab area is too small to accomodate all tabs, the system automatically puts the extra tabs on additional rows. The Minimum Height is the smallest height that the Tabs area can have. If a tab needs more height, it will automatically expand.

You can also select the Tabs Theme. vmdTabs using JQuery UI Theme Roller to provide the color scheme for the tabs.vmdTabs comes with 23 color options. You can select one of them, or roll your own by visiting the JQuery UI Themeroller page.

Note also the ability to create default tabs and populate them with standard Virtuemart information in the Joomla 2.5 version.

These screen captures show the color options included with vmdTabs. You can use one of these options, or "roll your own" using jQuery's Themeroller.

This is a list of the Virtuemart Standard Fields which can be displayed in Tabs. On the next tab, the fields are actually displayed as they show in products tabs.

In addition, you can show the Add to Cart, Product Reviews, Product Review Form, and Related Products in tabs using the commands below.

You can also show the images in tabs using the commands as shown below: