You’re absolutely right to avoid editing the PHP files directly. Any changes made inside core or template files will be overwritten during updates, which makes it an unreliable solution long term. Since you’re using VirtueMart, the correct and recommended way to change texts like “added” or “cart” is through Joomla’s language override system. This allows you to replace specific language constants without touching the core code, so your changes remain safe after updates.
If some texts are truly hardcoded and not using language constants, then it’s likely a template-level issue. In that case, the proper fix would be to adjust the template to use language strings instead of plain English text, or request the template developer to implement multilingual support correctly. Using language overrides is always the best practice for maintaining a multilingual site while keeping your installation update-safe.
You’re absolutely right to avoid editing the PHP files directly. Any changes made inside core or template files will be overwritten during updates, which makes it an unreliable solution long term. Since you’re using VirtueMart, the correct and recommended way to change texts like “added” or “cart” is through Joomla’s language override system. This allows you to replace specific language constants without touching the core code, so your changes remain safe after updates.
If some texts are truly hardcoded and not using language constants, then it’s likely a template-level issue. In that case, the proper fix would be to adjust the template to use language strings instead of plain English text, or request the template developer to implement multilingual support correctly. Using language overrides is always the best practice for maintaining a multilingual site while keeping your installation update-safe.