I am pretty familiar with Joomla, and created quite a few sites. I am now creating a product catalog. From what I understand about K2, it is a good vehicle for this project. I have loaded the K2 component in a test site and I cannot seem to get started. I can see how to use the ACL and create catagories - but how does this get applied to a catalog?can someone outline the steps needed to create a catalog, or even explain why K2 is better for catalogs than regular Joomla? I must be missing something...Thanks in advance!

hi mike, i am currently working on a catalog using k2, and am willing to give some help :)

why k2 natively better for a catalog?
K2 allows unlimited subcategories...
k2 allows tags... (which in a catalog means cross category filtering capability)
k2 allows unlimited extra fields as your product specifications...
k2 allows frontend adding / editing / pulishing items...
k2 allows template overriding...
k2 allows user groups with different permissions...
k2 also allows social sharing, comment...

how to start:
well this question is complicated, but basically you start with a new category + extra fields group associated, then put some products (items) in this category, but i belive the most important part is templating. Eventually you want to achieve a nice and neat visual effect, so you must do template overriding, CSS work, especially when you want to disable / remove some functions.

I have been working on my catalog for over 2 weeks with k2, and not yet finished. But if you think I could help you anyway, feel free to post here :)

Thanks for the reply! I don't get using fields as product specifications. What is the benefit of that over just text? I dont mind doing templating, I have read two different articles describing where to put the templates so that K2 finds them as options.

I have been under the impression that K2 gives more layout options than does regular Joomla. Apart from creating new templates for my layouts, I am completely missing this. I had thought (perhaps incorrectly) that K2 provides layout features including easy inclusion of modules into the articles (items).

I get your response. The problem may be that I was under the impression that K2 was more flexible than it is.

scyllar said:hi mike, i am currently working on a catalog using k2, and am willing to give some help :)
why k2 natively better for a catalog?
K2 allows unlimited subcategories...
k2 allows tags... (which in a catalog means cross category filtering capability)
k2 allows unlimited extra fields as your product specifications...
k2 allows frontend adding / editing / pulishing items...
k2 allows template overriding...
k2 allows user groups with different permissions...
k2 also allows social sharing, comment...

how to start:
well this question is complicated, but basically you start with a new category + extra fields group associated, then put some products (items) in this category, but i belive the most important part is templating. Eventually you want to achieve a nice and neat visual effect, so you must do template overriding, CSS work, especially when you want to disable / remove some functions.

I have been working on my catalog for over 2 weeks with k2, and not yet finished. But if you think I could help you anyway, feel free to post here :)

Re:I don't get using fields as product specifications.
suppose you have a product book
and you need these extra fields: ISBN, Price, Number of Pages, etc.

I get that there are fields which could be applicable to a product type. What I don't get is what the fields do for me that text doesn't do. For instance I could structure my text so that I have a bulleted list which specifies Price, ISBN, Pages, Author, etc.

In K2 you can create fields - but to what end? Are fields more easily searchable? Are they better for SEO? Do they offer formatting advantages? Are they just formatting shortcuts which predefine certain text to be included with a specific category? I must be missing a fundamental element somehow, but I have searched the web, and not found anything that explains what a field is used for, just how to create fields and field groups, then attach to a category.

I do see the advantage to having unique templates available - a nice touch. I don't mind altering existing template, or creating new, but I am afraid that I would be creating templates which are based on my ignorance of K2s inherent formatting capabilities. For a product page, I might want to have a slideshow with selectable thumbnails, a description, user reviews of the item, a bullet list of key features, and available options.

I could layout a template and make the page exactly as I want, and then save it in a folder in /templates/mytemplate/html/com_k2/. That would certainly work, and I like that the sub templates are then available for my use.

But, at this point, I suspect that I would be laying out templates which simply do what K2 was capable of doing without a template. I do not find any guides to formatting items, but the discussions/reviews that I have read leads to believe that K2 does indeed greatly expand the formatting capabilities as compared to articles. If templating, is the answer, it is still much better than regular Joomla, I just have this nagging feeling that there is a whole range of available formatting options that I have not discovered on my own....

mike said:In K2 you can create fields - but to what end? Are fields more easily searchable? Are they better for SEO? Do they offer formatting advantages? Are they just formatting shortcuts which predefine certain text to be included with a specific category? I must be missing a fundamental element somehow, but I have searched the web, and not found anything that explains what a field is used for, just how to create fields and field groups, then attach to a category.


You are right. K2 can be visually customized to your liking, but not capable of the functions you mentioned. I think if you want to use k2 as a catalog template for a presentation purpose (like my case) then it is good, but if you want make it go any further, it has not gone to that stage yet. Better check out other CCK like jSeblod / sobi2.