Hello Bruce Paine,

Thank you for reaching out to our technical support forum. I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’re experiencing. Rest assured, I will look into this issue for you and work to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Please take a full site backup with Akeeba Backup in ZIP format and share here. Follow this tutorial. I will check it on my localhost.

Best regards

Hello Ofi Khan,

Thank you for your reply and offer to assist.

I have shared an Akeeba Backup exported zip via WeTransfer.

Please let me know if there are any problems accessing the zip.

Some further details:

1. You will notice a persistent error message "[Joomlashack Extension Support] Joomlashack Framework not found". This relates to "Smartslider 3". Despite the message, everything appears to be working. I do not believe it is related to the problem with EasyStore menu items.

2. The products appear with very large thumbnail images. It is not ideal and I suppose it will require some adjustment using Custom CSS.

I welcome your opinion regarding those points.

Kind regards,

Bruce

Hello Ofi Khan,

While preparing for cleanup, I discovered that the Akeeba backup I shared via WeTransfer contains a file (media/com_finder/js/oib_flush.php) flagged as a backdoor by myHost malware scans. The file was part of an older Joomla installation and is no longer present in the live or local copies.

I just wanted to let you know in case the backup is still on your system. No action is needed on your part beyond ensuring it isn’t restored to a live server.

Kind regards, Bruce

Thanks for your reply. Is your issue solved?

Hi Ofi Khan

I was awaiting your response. However, I have reexamined the situation and resolved the Joomlashack Extension error. It required installation of an OSMap extension.

I have managed to make the EasyStore 'Single Collection' menu item work by creating new menu items.

I need to check the Brands menu items. I will come back to you with the outcome.

Thanks,

Bruce

The latest test:

1. The Brands menu item displays a list of the brands correctly.
2. The brand icon and label - Haflinger - correctly shows that there are 5 products.
3. When the brand is selected (clicked) the products do not appear.

I have deleted and recreated the Brands menu item.
I have tried specifying the "All Brands" option. Also a single brand.

But the problem persists.

Just to recap, I have Joomla 5 with SP Page Builder Pro, a fresh install of EasyStore, and the Helix Ultimate template.

The EasyStore Brand menu items were working perfectly initially — products were listed correctly when brands were selected. However, after experimenting with SPPB Collections and Category settings, brand pages stopped displaying products.

I have carried out detailed debugging on my local development site and here is what I have established:

1. The brand product listing SQL correctly selects the 5 products for the brand from the EasyStore Brands menu.

2. default.php in components/com_easystore/tmpl/products is being executed (confirmed via echo 'hello world').

3. Testing the SPPB-related if/else in the template shows the else branch runs, the if branch never runs.

4. $this->items in default.php is an empty array.

This tells me:

• The template works correctly — it displays whatever $this->items contains.
• $this->items is empty despite the database containing products for the brand.
• Therefore, EasyStore is not loading products into $this->items for brand menu items.

I suspect:

• After introducing SPPB Collections / Category overrides, EasyStore’s brand queries may be overridden or filtered incorrectly.
• There may be a conflict in the SPPB integration folder (components/com_easystore/sp_pagebuilder) that prevents $this->items from populating for brand menu items.

Steps I have already tried:

• Clearing Joomla and SPPB caches.
• Testing echo and print_r($this->items) in the template.
• Verifying the raw SQL query returns products (5 rows).
• Removing or simplifying the template’s if/else logic — no effect.

Request:

Could you please investigate why EasyStore brand menu items are not populating $this->items when SPPB Collections or Categories are enabled? The products exist in the database, and brand menu items were working prior to introducing SPPB overrides. I need brand menu items to display the correct products again.

Additionally, I would appreciate clarification on whether the brands menu item functionality is fully tested for standard customer use. From my experience, this issue seems to go beyond what would normally be expected of a paying customer, and it has raised some concerns about other areas, such as e-commerce and payments functionality, which need to be robust and foolproof.

Here is the latest Akeeba backup.

Please note the Malware has been removed and the site has passed a recent scan.

Hi Ofi Khan,

How are things going? Have you made any progress investigating this issue?

While waiting for a response, I have tried a few things.

After importing 275 real products, I have tried creating a new Main Menu item to list brands. But still, the products will not show for selected brands.

I have also tried to find a work-around solution, for example an 'SP Page Builder' site module using the "product list" element. But that only works for selected Categories, so is not helpful.

For now it seems the Brands feature does not work in combination with SP Page Builder.

Kind regards, Bruce

Hello again,

I believe I have solved this riddle.

The Brands are directly linked to the 'Storefront' layout which must be defined within SP Page Builder.

Once I added my 'Storefront' layout, the brands product listings were restored.

It now seems obvious but...

This is not made clear in the documentation. There should be some mention of the importance of the Storefront.

In my case, just after installing EasyStore, the brands menu item product listings were working, then suddenly stopped working. This made me think there was a fault rather than a configuration issue.

Kind regards,

Bruce

Thank you.

You are welcome 😊

The documentation has been updated.

EasyStore Brands