There's a link to add a product on the product forums overview page (/productforums.php) which will be activated when a user is able to add products (it's both a usergroup setting and overall option).

You can add this link to other forums / navigation areas as you see fit.

You've got two issues here: the structure and the size. Since the structure is different you can't use the import script in it's current format and will need to adjust it to map to the file you've been given, or import the file into something like access and export with the right field names. It's a close fit, no red flags on the data.

More importantly however you can't process a 408 mb XML file through the browser and will need to have the import script turned into a server-side routine to run via shell command against the file uploaded through FTP.

I'm confused, I set the "New Product Forum ID" and the link is http://www.talkjesus.com/product-reviews/

How come its not redirecting me to that php page? Even the navbit breadcrumbin the mod itself is taking me to http://www.talkjesus.com/product-reviews/

Also, I left a review and all I got was this page with no content?
http://www.talkjesus.com/productforu...es&productid=2

Product page still says not yet rated when I left it a 5 star rating. It also put my post in moderation first?

Thanks for your help

You've got all sorts of different things going on here...

1 - Using a url modifier script will change how mods work. This script is /productforums.php but you may have to exclude that, filter it, edit some ruleset for it to work. vBSEO and the like will not recognize this mod just because you install it.

2 - If the product says no reviews you've set admin moderation in the mod settings.

3 - If the post is in moderation check your forum settings. The mod overrides basic controls but can't stop a full blown locked forum from locking

4 - Blank pages spell errors. Check your server log for a hint of what happened -- if there's no review in the backend {admin} then you know why it won't show up in the frontend {user side}.

Ted,

Do you think if I renamed the fields from that file to match your format (after reducing it to about 50MB worth of products) it will work?

50mb of text is still thousands of products, likely tens of thousands. You can try it but you'll likely time the browser out on the upload alone.

Hi Ted,

Fantastic mod! I only have two issues at the moment, and I'm sure they are both from something I am doing wrong. It's basically a vanilla installation with the only change I made being changing the name of "productforums.php" to a different name.

1. The product list page isn't showing the price. It is on the product pages in the admin, however.

2. The detail page that loads (when you click to view more info) doesn't have any of the product details; it's just a post with a title.

Thanks for your help!

Are you talking about productforums.php or a product thread page? Does the value show as blank or just no price line at all?

Did you enable the mod in the forum you are adding products too?

Hi Ted,

I did forget to enable the mod on the forum I had setup for it, which solved the 2nd question. In regards to the price on productforums.php - it doesn't display anything. If I inspect the element there's nothing in it at all.

Please post up a link.

Thanks again!

Looking at your pages I see a second $ in the price. Did you try just numbers or something like $599.99?

It's just numbers right now (on the motherboard anyway). I entered one product manually and used the provided xml template for the two iPhone entries to compare.

I fixed the issue by making a slight change to "product_forums.xml".

Changing this line:

to this:

I've tried it,,

but this seems not to work in vBulletin 4.2

can anyone help?

Be more specific.

Some of my prices are not showing up even though i've entered the correct info. I'm using 4.2.

Where are they not showing? Do they ever show in this place [ie for other products]?

Sorry, not the price but the clickable link when I enter the URL is not showing.

Ok, but the same question still applies... Where are they not showing? Do they ever show in this place [ie for other products]?

Hello,

we installed your AddOn since 4 Weeks in our development Environment. In my mind we could create Products in the Front End, so we could allow our visitors to create Products. But now, i would test this function, there is no mask for this. Is this right, or where we could look to see if we do a mistake, at our customizing?

Thank you

I'm not sure what you're asking... No mask? What's the issue with creating products?

We have just installed a new load of vB 4.2.0 with the full publishing suite and your product only partially functions. I have followed the instructions to the best of the printed words and made the modification to the forumdisplay.php. I have set up one forum for Products and one forum for Reviews. I have given the ability for the Registered Users group to add products.

http://diydronesafety.com (open to public)

The productforums.php file looks ok - http://diydronesafety.com/productforums.php

1. There is no price listed
2. Clicking anything takes you to a blank post that looks nothing like the screen shots.
3. There is no information/instructions on how users are supposed to create products or leave reviews.

Please assist. Any plans to support 4.2.0?

[Edit] Previous answer ignored some key facts, revising in a few...

I did get an email notification of your previous response, and I see your edit above - I'd like to clarify a few things so that we're both on the same page.

I've been using vB since v2.x and I am pretty familiar with it's functionality. I will say that your plugin, with it's ~20 options, does not compare to the hundreds of options vB has so it doesn't put me off or confuse me.

Your instructions appear to be incomplete, they state very broadly in about 5 steps what to do but do not go into any further detail. I installed per the instructions, I re-read the instructions numerous times, a scoured the web looking for better/more complete instructions, I compared and scrutinized all your screenshots (some links are broken btw), and I spent a good two hours digging through your code and vB trying to figure out why it wasn't working prior to posting here for help from the developer.

I saw a few posts here that indicated there may be some issues on 4.2.x but I wasn't about to read through 58 pages of posts to locate in lieu of just posting myself for a more direct response.

Our install of vB 4.2.0 is out of the box with very few modifications and the forums are not even active yet. We have posted a few blogs and articles, setup the forums a little, and that's about it.

My point is that there shouldn't be any major conflicts. My issue is that even following your instructions to the letter my installation only resembles one of your screenshots. (the productforums.php page)

Ok, I deleted the product, cleared the db, made sure there were no traces of it at all. Reinstalled, set it up again, re-modified the forumdisplay.php file, and this time I see an option on the forum manager that wasn't there previously. It would probably help to provide a more verbose instruction set as vB has sooooo many options unless you know exactly what you're looking for it can be difficult to find. Also some better explanation as to what the specific options do, where they are needed etc.

I'm not trying to be overly critical, just helpful. The included install.html has broken links/images and does not explain much other than what can be figured out by having the experience of installing any other plugin.

So at this point I have a product listing forum with the modification of "ratings/reviews", I have a product review forum with a review, and I have the search and comparison "link" which points to the productforums.php file.

With regards to the product description block when adding a new product - what code can be used there? I tried bbcode and that didn't work, will it accept html? css?

It also seems to load the product images VERY slowly - I suspect this is due to the site they are linked from. As a possible feature enhancement why not just grab and cache those locally when setting up the product? It also appears that the "sharing" links load pretty slowly - are those being referenced off-site as well?

Other than a little more clarification it appears to be working as intended at this point, so thank you for a great plugin as it will be very beneficial for this forum/customer.

Ok, the price still isn't showing...
http://diydronesafety.com/productforums.php

I'm not sure HTML works either, although it did lay it out differently than the bbcode which didn't work at all. Perhaps the board is stripping away the <ul> info I added.

Regarding your first post, now you see why I removed my response.

After 12 years in vB I really hate it when people attribute a mod not working on their site to a mod not working at all... It's not so much the implication to me as the impact to everyone else. People see "doesn't work in 4.2" and despite many people running it in 4.2 they run screaming...

But you didn't just install the mod and scream. And I'm so use to people who do that I glanced right past your intro until I made that post that I didn't do justice understanding your investment into things. So let's get this rocking because if there's one thing I really like it's good feedback...

Welcome to the world of vBulletin mods. It baffles us all but sometimes despite adding the bit and rebuilding, it just doesn't "stick"... Usually after another install [forced upgrade] or a refresh things show up.... It's complex addon system that tries to offer a lot of range without a lot of modification to the core.

You know that's a good point and I appreciate it. Sadly for 90% of the people who use this and my other mod [which also requires forum-level activation] the issue isn't the instructions sucking it's that they never open them to even see the big bold section about this.

To the prior point, we all decide where to draw our line... I've put mine more on the side of features than documents but it's an evolving point. And I can take the hint :D


Full HTML should be allowed...

In 1.3.0 this will change to light HTML for users [strong/b/em/i/ul/ol/li/br/] and most HTML for admins [no script or embeds]. Need to verify that vBulletin isn't parsing this out however.... the post generator overrides a lot of the rules I try to set.

This is something I'd love thoughts on. The problem with uploads is that no two sites are alike and while vB has a new uploader, the process still stinks...

At this point I'm literally considering telling sites to sign up for Rackspace's CDN and pushing files too it. That's a little extreme but it would work and it's dirt cheap (like $0.10 / gb].

On the otherhand scraping or resizing a photo is slow just one off. And when importing a product list that's a huge problem... You can't do it live, it's not ideal to resize a bunch of images once and then force them to look smaller in the browser [big file size]... I'm just not sure what the solve is.

In the template productforums_listed_bit replace {vb:phrase prodforums_price,{vb:raw price}} with just {vb:raw price} and let me know what happens.

Probably the board killing it.. Hope to solve this for 1.3.0 or I'll move it over to BBCode

I did that and it seems to work fine. It still doesn't show the currency symbol. Are there any plans to support multiple currencies? Maybe a dropdown in the add product with all the known currency symbols? (most used on top)

That would probably be sufficient for most general formatting. css support (in addition to others perhaps) would be boss.

I use a plugin that works (I think) the way the built-in vB "retreive file and store locally" bit feature is supposed to. If any image is linked to in a post it will cache it locally and re-reference the image. This way if a link goes dead/bad the data retains its integrity. We also use one that watermarks the images too. It may take a second to load up the product but who cares? If they're importing an xml (list) then they just get a progress bar.


On a side note:
How do normal users create products? It doesn't say in the instructions or screenshots. I have given the ability for Registered Users group to create products.

It's just a data field so you can type in whatever you want... The phrase element puts the dollar sign in for you [and is corrected for the next release].

Plan is full HTML to use what manufacturers provide. BBCode is the fallback.

Heh, much easier said than done. Just building a progressive processing system is many hours of work for a single setup... Remember, what works for the user doesn't exist in the admin at all either.

Try to make it work across every possible install type [remember, most forums are on some crummy virtual host with no permissions to write too] and it gets really crazy. The vB uploader uses the database to get around this but it's not ideal either.

Enable the option, enable the usergroup [like actually hit save so the bitfield gets updated] and a link appears on productforums.php

In 1.3.0 this will also add a link in the product forum.

Alright gang, getting some great feedback here and while it's long overdue we've got a new release coming that tweaks a number of thing, cleans up an awful lot in configuration and brings in a few new features.

So I'm taking a last call on feedback. Something you want? Speak up now and it may just happen in 1.3.0.

Is there any way to stipulate a separate forum for member added products awaiting moderation to be held until they are accepted in the admin panel. Would it be possible for the thread to be automatically duplicated or moved to the normal products forum once accepted by admin?

Brilliant mod by the way. :)

Not sure why you'd need to hold it in another forum but I'll take a look at moderation and we can be sure it's truly "hidden" and then "activated".

Could you just look at the plugin that does it and maybe tie into it if it's installed? Or at least check their method? It seems to work well as-is. This is it.

It wasn't adding in any sign until I manually put it in the productforums_listed_bit template. What I mean by multiple currency support is on a per product basis. Some products are manufactured in other countries and are small scale enough to only be purchasable through the manufacturer - in these cases the product is listed in, say, british pounds, or japanese yen - not us dollars. So when we add a single product, or import a large amount of products, the all have to have the same currency currently. The request would be to allow each product to have its own currency, and whatever is selected there will be displayed on the product page. So in essence we could have products in our "catalog" that are from several difference currencies. I would think a db field for the product and a dropdown box for the currency would be sufficient?

So when is 1.3.0 coming out because I'm still having formatting issues. :) I haven't tried CSS yet, but I have tried all manner of html and bbcode, it all seems to get stripped. It also ignores all <br> style code and carriage returns. Your screenshot here shows at least bullets, but there is no text above to demonstrate if it will successfully process spacing and/or indentation. Is this possible in the current version? If so, how is it done?

Also, in the config it may be handy to, say, put a checkbox next to the fields you want displayed on the "add product" form. As is our case we want the Registered Users group to be able to add products but we have no use for some of those fields. I just edited the template to remove them but that will get lost with any upgrades v.s. you storing what fields we want in the db.

Having an option to enable/disable the forumdisplay.php modification instead of having to edit the templates manually.

Hope that's enough to make the cutoff, I'll post more if I can think of em. :)

Interesting approach for snagging the images... It's not a caching script [no expire headers that I see] but it's smart.

We found a middle-ground that I like and will let people upload an image through the individual product adder, resize that into a 400x400, 100x100 and 40x40 to use or, for those using the bulk import, they can specify each of these paths and resize how they see fit.

Actually they don't... The $ is simply a phrase that you can remove leaving the price as whatever you type. You can enter that as $199 199 CAD, € 199, etc. As long as it's UTF-8 it will save and show.

As I'll note below there's a difference between putting things into the DB because you can and because most people will use it if you do. Adding a field for product-by-product currency is not likely to be used much, making it possible through the field type, same result.

I've had no issues with breaks or lists but it seems like vBulletin css is overriding a lot of tags thus you get no bold with <strong>, etc. I hate saying it's not our fault but it's not... Your css, your forum settings, not ours to control :(

BBCode is safer even if it's more limited... So that's that.

Good suggestion but again it's time versus return. Everything we make a database option has to be built on the backend and sorted out on the front. So if for example purchase links were dynamic you'd need to have that field accessible and a way to mark fields as urls. How about price + currency? Headline vs substringing the main details? Think that through a bit and the next release would be 6 months out.

We'll be adding some dynamic fields to 1.3 taking in more data but this will be in the form of sub-rankings and either 1-5 or yes/no. Two flavors that we can easily predict and handle to extend no matter how many are enabled.

Basically it's finding that happy medium between what would be nice and what's used by most forums. Mods are a starting place and if you're not customizing them, you're not doing it right :D

As noted in the install file, vBulletin doesn't provide a hook to replace the contents of that template so scream, post, beg, ask, that's _unfortunately_ what it's going to take to make the change.

blerg. noted. :)

It is not necessary now, I am using Lynn's two column forum layout and it made the forums look awful with a single forum to the left and an empty space to the right of the category I has created for this mod's thread to be held. I added a request forum to the products category for retailers to use to submit their proposals to be used in the link to Purchases and it's fine now.

Thank you for considering it all the same. :)

Show me a screenshot and I'm sure I can have the team find a workaround for you...

Cool, this would be a good start:
Thanks for the continuous development Ted, will try the product again on the new release.