How to reset your Joomla Admin password

I forget my admin password and can't login into my Joomla website! That's one probable problem we may encounter when managing a Joomla-based website. Don't panic and delete your installation in a hurry. You can try this to reset the admin password of your Joomla-based website:

1. Log into your database installation using PHPMyAdmin.
2. Find the table "jos_users" (the "jos_" prefix could be different depending on your installation option).Click on the table name, and then click the "browse" tab on the right pane of the screen.
3. Locate for your Administrator user record.
   
   
   
   
4. Mark the record and click on the "edit" (the pen icon)
5. You will see the record details (fields), locate for the "password" field.
6. Next to the "Field type" column, you will find the "Function" column.
   
   
   
7. Click on the dropdown list on the "Function" column, and choose the "MD5" option.
8. Next, enter your new password in the "Value" column next to the "Function" column.
9. Confirm your action by clicking "Go", make sure the option in the dropdown list is "Save".
   
   
   

I can't login into my Joomla Admin Backend

If you ever have problem with your Joomla Administration backend login and can't login into your Joomla site, where you have the correct password entered but the site doesn't give any message, you probably have turned off one of Joomla plugin: User-Joomla! plugin



To make sure, do the following to correct your Joomla Admin login problem:

1. Login into your joomla database installation. You can use Phpmyadmin, or other tools like Sqlyog or MySQLquerybrowser.
2. Locate the table named "jos_plugins" (note: the prefix "jos_" could be different depending on your option during installation).
3. Browse the table "jos_plugins", and locate for the record with "Name"="User - Joomla!"
4. Next check if the field "Published" is set to the correct option (1=Published 0=Unpublished)
   
5. Make the necessary change that is change the "published" field value to '1' (without the quotes)
6. Try login from the Admin Backend of your Joomla site
   

How to convert oscommerce product catalog into Joomla Virtuemart

I recently had to convert an existing oscommerce based product catalog website into Joomla Virtuemart. The following steps describe how I approach the task.

1. Prerequisites.
In order to successfully convert an oscommerce product catalog into Joomla Virtuemart we need the following applications ready:
- Oscommerce addons : Easy Populate. This is required to download all existing product records into text files. If you don’t have it, you can download Easy Populate first. For instructions on installing Easy Populate, please check the corresponding forums.
- Microsoft Excel and Open Office. If you currently don’t have Open Office installed on your computer , you can download Open Office first.
- Joomla Virtuemart component
- Joomla CSV Improve component: you can download CSV Improved first and then install it into your Joomla based website.

2. Exporting your oscommerce catalog.
After your oscommerce installation is equipped with Easy Populate, go to the admin section of your website and export all your existing product records using Easy Populate. Choose “Create then Download Files”, option “Download complete txt file to edit”.

3. Importing your oscommerce catalog into Excel.
Open Microsoft Excel, create a blank sheet, then import the file that was created by Easy Populate in the previous step. The file is usually begin with “EP” followed by creation date and time.
Import this text file into Excel.

4. On the Joomla installation, make sure you have installed CSV Improved. Access your administration section, go to CSV Improved component of your website.


5. Setting up your Virtuemart and exporting your catalog structure.
Before you convert your data into Virtuemart, I would recommend you to add one or two of your actual products manually to the Virtuemart product catalog. This way you can make sure that the conversion will proceed as expected. After that:
a. in your CSV Improved component menu, access the “Templates”,
b. choose “CSVI Product Export”,
c. click “Edit” on the upper right hand of the screen,

General Settings
- click “General Settings”
- default value in the “Field Delimiter” is [ ^], when importing with Excel this usually won’t be a problem, except when exporting with Excel (that’s why we need Open Office). I have used this default value when converting and I have not found any trouble so far.
- default value in the “Text Delimiter” is [~],I would recommend changing this value to [ “]
- leave the default value in the “File Location” as is.
- click “Save” on the upper right hand of your screen.

System Limits
- Click “System Limits”
- Generally you don’t need to change the default values, except when you are experiencing problem during the import process

Export Options
- Click Export and set the following values
Options Type = Product Export
Export Type = CSV
Include Column Header = [v] is marked
Shopper group name = all
- Click “Save” on the upper right hand of your screen.


d. Go back to CSV Improved main screen,
e. Click “Export”
- Choose your template “CSVI Product Export”,
- Mark the “Download File” option
When you choose a template, its settings are reflected on the lower part of the screen. Make sure your settings are correct before proceeding.
f Next click “Export” on the upper right corner of the screen. The resulting file name will usually be “CSVI_Export_CSVIProductExport_mm-dd-yyyy_tttt”


6. Mapping your oscommerce catalog to virtuemart catalog structure.
a. Open Excel and import the “CSVI_Export_CSVIProductExport_mm-dd-yyyy_tttt” into Excel.
b. Open your previously imported oscommerce catalog “EP” in separate window.
c. Map the field one on one by copying the corresponding column from oscommerce “EP” file to your “CSVI” file, by looking at the columns in the sheets you should get a good grasp where to put the corresponding data.
Here are some common fields mapping:
V_products_model => product_sku
V_categories_name => category_path
V_manufacturers_name => manufacturer_name
V_product_name => product_name
V_products_price =>product_price

Note:
you need to explicitly include product currency in the product_currency field (e.g USD,EUR)
it would be a good practice to set the field “product_publish” to “N” so that you can review the imported records before publishing your products.

d. Make sure your fields are mapped correctly before proceeding.
e. Next, you need to copy your existing data from Excel to Open Office.

f. In Open Office save your file as text CSV, make sure to mark the option “Edit filter settings”

g. Next you will find the filter setting. Make sure the “Field Delimiter” is set to [^] and the Text Delimiter is set to [“]
h. Clik OK to save your file

7. Setting up your import templates.
Go to CSV Improved in the Admin section of your Joomla installation.
a. Click Templates and choose “CSVI Product Import”.
b. Repeat the process in step 5 to make sure your CSVI Product Import template setting match those of the CSVI Product Export template

8. Importing data into Virtuemart
a. Click "Import" from CSV Improved component.
b. Choose your template “CSVI Product Import”,
c. Make sure your settings are correct before proceeding (these settings are reflected on the lower part of the screen)
d. Click the field “Import a CSV File” to locate your csv file
e. Next click “Import” on the upper right corner of the screen, it will result in the screen similar to the following snapshot. Make sure the corresponding fields are mapped correctly before proceeding.


e. Next click “Import” once again.
f. Wait for the process to complete That’s it. Experiment with your data until your are confident to convert your live production site.