I notice the reviews are in reverse alphabetical order - I cant see any settings to amend that so any clues how to change it?

The ordering is coded into productforums.php

ASC is in order (a-z, 1-9)
DESC is reverse (z-a, 9-1)

Ug I just updated this and it wiped all my style edits... :(

Is there anything in the future to make the style match the theme automatically or a least give the choice??

That stinks.

The templates in this addon work in the same way all vBulletin addon templates work... There is no "skip logical upgrade" option for developers that we checked. No "force override and piss people off" box either. :D

In theory the system [i.e. vBulletin core] tracks changed done through the template editor and prompts a revision when needed but in practice that tool is far from perfect. It certainly should never change a template that is not updated in our core and few have been in the last year.

Not sure what Cozmic meant, but I've been working on setting this mod up myself an have an issue I think he meant. This mod has it's own css stylesheet for the productforum.php an doesn't use the default forums layout. For example your tables are squared with a black border, an I see even the forum overall width changes. On mine the search box is bunching up at a fixed 1024px forum so they must not be percentage based with nowrap. I broke the add product button some how so turned off user add products , but on the listing page the links still visible, although it does link to a feature disabled error. So if he had to fix those issues an updated an it reset them I can see what he meant. Basically I'll have to rewrite the templates for that page to use the forums default tables an not your custom ones. I see alot of mods doing that an sucks having to fix them all. I guess you can say the mod authors are reinventing the wheel with their layouts.

A couple more quick updates needed is on your own screenshot of the threaded reviews the forum header still has "Replies/ Views" shown, simple edit I'm sure. An the little green subscribe icon is pushed to the bottom of the table. I ended up deleting that stuff from my template, but you should consider fixing that or option to disable them.

I think your mod has great potential, however it was a pia getting it set up and learning to add products. The having to manually add the thumbnail pictures sucks, I have to open my ftp program an look for the images created last to guess which ones to use, was no id to know which images go to what product. Maybe have it use a product id number to atleast.

Thanks for the comments Action-N... lengthy reply below (sorry).

Pretty much although it's rarely for the sake of doing so versus just being efficient. It's simply easier to build new than try and figure out what vB element would apply, much less explain to people how to customize it without changing the entire forum when the questions come in.

We make mods to bring functionality to sites and try to apply some best practices to go along with it [like being able to edit our mod's style without breaking your entire forum as we've seen others do]. While we keep to vB's squares and tables the layout their anything but modern nor is there a container to handle product type elements so you're dead on, we broke the box.

Certainly we could have made it all stock elements but we made a conscious decision on where to spend our time. If that results in a deal breaker that's great feedback but not likely to change.

Thanks, we'll take a look for sure. Obviously fixing quirks and making logical decisions to the design is high on goal list but really we want to encourage sites to customize beyond the box especially where it's not possible for us to make a change without a code hack (like the column header for a forum).

It doesn't sound like this applies to you but most forums get sucked in to sticking to how things run by default and then wonder why their conversion rate, retention, revenue, or other KPIs are so bad. The web has too many options, too many great sites to be cookie-cutter.

We added an image uploader and bulk importer almost a year ago. Both autocreate thumbnails as long as have [to your first point] the template calls to get them.

Not sure what the problem is here but all for feedback?

I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing, what I was afraid of. I mean the point of style sheets on a website is so user wants to change his category color he edits one variable an it changes all his pages to new color. What addon authors do is make their own style sheets so if I want to change my category color I do it for vbulletin then sort through my addons an change thier css variables. Just would make sense to me if mod makers shared the default vb's css variables. An for your addon you have your css as a file still (productforums.css)? Since I've already had to edit my vbtube mod I have the code saved, looks simpler to me:

the pfblock and pftext would be your mods personal css variables. I understand your set in not using the stock elements, but it's your personal taste your hardcoding in the style. What I said I broke was the add product button doesn't show up anymore.


Yeah the sticky icon was easier to delete the code than figure out why it was on the bottom of the table. An I figured it being a special review only forum I didn't need the clutter.

Yes about cookie cutter websites, that's why the more variable you give them to turn on or off the better chance for them to be different. I don't want to spend hours customizing templates, checkboxs are much faster.

What I'm referring to is with adding product images I think from the forum I added one image link, then did the sync external images an that is where it makes them but didn't add the new images to the products for me. Haven't tried uploading from my computer yet. If it does yay, but fyi sync didn't.

I spent a few hours this morning trying to learn the addon an get products added an setup correctly. The product title can't handle quotes so it kept cutting my title short. So anyone wanting to review something described with inches has to spell out "inch".

Not trying to bust on your addon, like I said this is nice one to have, just trying to give feedback good and bad. Can I assume you being active on here that you are still working on the mod? Thanks for the effort with this, I wanted to make something an I couldn't even figure out how to start an addon.

One more thing, what's the deal with having to disable template comments? I want to edit the templates in this mod an need them to know what 's what?

We're talking about the same thing.

Fair enough although a checkbox is not the customization level I was implying... Ideally I think sites should really reach in beyond the options others determine they should have. Options are always limited by the ideas of their creator and more of them just adds to the load on the server.

Sync and upload work in the exact same way through the same process which first resizes a photo and then posts it to the product. If it's not sticking odds are the product didn't get a match and a new one, with the photo, was created.

Easy enough. Is it removing quotes or stopping the title entirely when they're entered?

Of course. Our primary interest right now is monitoring and responding to any problems that may arise, including things like the icon you mentioned.

As for new features it's entirely demand driven. We combine community feedback with our own sense of what will help move the needle to push forward if there is interest for more. This mod has been pretty slow for the past few months so no plans for anything major yet.

It's a quirk [or a bug depending on how you see it] in how vBulletin makes posts. When we fake a thread for a review it runs through the default vB post manager which brings in everything in the post template. For some reason this does not filter out comments and they will appear if the feature is not disabled.

Since it's a load constraint most sites we've worked with already have it off except during debugging.

Awesome mod! I just have one little issue, same as the user I quoted below. When you click to read a review it is using showthread.php which takes you to the top of the product thread. Is there anyway you can get it to use showpost.php to take you to the actual review post?

I have the "Create New Thread on Review" option turned off, so the reviews are posts all in one single thread.

Thanks so much if you can help me!

Q: What will happen to the threads if I uninstall it?

+

I try to uninstall the mod but I got this error

Database error in vBulletin 4.1.12:

Invalid SQL:
DELETE FROM activitystreamtype WHERE section = 'product' AND type = 'review';

MySQL Error : Table 'dbname_testforum2.activitystreamtype' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146
Request Date : Tuesday, March 12th 2013 @ 02:25:48 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, March 12th 2013 @ 02:25:48 PM
Script : http://www.domain.com/vbtest/admincp...do=productkill
Referrer : http://www.domain.com/vbtest/admincp...duct_forums&s=
IP Address :
Username : sadiq6210
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.1.68-cll

_________________________________________

In 4.1.12 there is no activity stream

I will use it soon but I want to test it first and have all information about it.
Thank you for the great mod

Does the url loaded show a #xxx bit at the end as if it is trying to load a post?

The perils of using a significantly outdated version of vB with mods...

We'll be sure to code in db error suppression to avoid this bug but in the meantime you can comment out the lines in the .xml file, update and then uninstall.

As for threads, they'd be a bit weird. The first post which has no content and is hidden would return and the product data which is stored in tables unique to this mod would be removed. In short you'd either want to add it back to those threads or remove the section.

I see. Are you planing to update this mod to VB5 (in future**)?
** I am not planing to upgrade to VB5 this year.

I am sorry to ask a lot of questions but I will install it in a busy forum (~1 million posts) so I must think about the future to avoid any data lost after upgrading.

Thanks for support :)

It really depends on how vB5 goes. Updating mods to the new platform require a serious amount of work beyond what was required from 3 to 4.

Hi

I'm getting this error when trying to proceed with image sync:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function imagecreatefromjpeg() in /home/myuser/public_html/myboard.com/forum/includes/prodforums_uploader.php on line 36

Any tip?

Ty in advance

Sounds like your server does not have the GD image library installed. It's pretty common so check with your host about getting it added.

There is no #xxx in the URL, only the thread like this:

Thanks.

Are you using the create review thread option by chance?

Is this fine to install on 4.2?

I am using the Write Your Own link in the product description. It has a URL like this:

When I write a new review and click the Post Review button the vbulletin message "Your review on xxxxxxxx has been posted!" is linking me to the correct review post with a URL like this:

But when I go back to Read All Reviews and click on one of the reviews it will just take me to the beginning of the thread showing the product description instead of the actual review post.

Sorry I think I miss understood that question. I have the "Create New Thread on Review" option in the Core Setting set to "No".

I'll check it ! Ty u.

Another question...Is there any way to create diferent types of reviews? Example: 1 for products and 1 for services......each one fo the types with diferent types of custom rating fields. ?

Ty !

See the mod description for compatibility.

Not at this time. The groupings apply to all or none...

Thanks. It's a bug and on the list to fix...

Q: Can I put a prefix for each product and put it in title (same VB4 prefix)?

For example

[FOR SALE] thread title 1
[WANTED] thread title 2

And in (productforums.php) page, the user can filter the results as per the prefix

It will be very helpful if we can user the prefix feature

Thanks

You can use prefixes with your review threads which are picked up at the forum level like any other thread but I'm not sure what you're trying to do matches what the modification actually does... PRF is a structured product database meaning that someone must create an item with various fields that is distinct from other products and which can be reviewed or discussed (or both) depending on how you set things up.

Since products remain in the system as fixed items until an admin deletes them it's really not ideal for a barter type system which should allow for quick, user driven removal of filled requests.

Thanks dear but If I click (Add new product), there is no prefix field.
But after I submit it, if I edit it then I can see the prefix field.

Is it possible to put the prefix in (Add new product) page?

___________________________________


About the second point

I mean if you enter (www.domain.com/productforums.php), at the top there is many options to search (Category - Title - Manufacturer - Price (from - to) - Rating)

Can I add the prefix to that options? so I can search like this:
(examples)

Prefix: [For sale]
Category: IT Book
Price: 50 - 60
Search

OR

Prefix: [WANTED]
Category: IT Book
Price: 50 - 60
Search

It should be there... I'll take a look.

The search system is pretty modular so you can certainly build this in yourself.

when I want to add a product, this message appears:

"This feature is currently not in use"

why?

Because you didn't configure the options as the install file explains.

Not sure you understood what i meant fella..

Have a look at this.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2013/03/37.png

Turning off reviews makes a review mod a bit of overkill as that's 92% of what it does but it's not hard. Just remove the review image and text from the product template, turn on replies in the forum's permissions (if you turned them off) and you'll be good to go.

I'm trying to edit this to work as a game library kind of like how you see game pages on IGN.com. I'm having trouble finding how to add new categories and edit the boxes available and add new boxes. Do you have a guide for that somewhere? I can't seem to find anything on the online guide.

Both categories and custom fields are listed as options in your Admin Control area under the Product Review Forums category.

The standard fields can be edited by modifying your templates, they are not dynamic.

Ted,

could you help me with the following litte issue I can't figure out myself where to change this?
I have created a custom yes/no field.
When the review get posted in the forum thread and I look at it it is not properly formatted.
Looks like this:
The "Did you own this product" doesn't show in bold but the code is visible instead.
I am using vB 4.2.3

Thanks for your help as always

Well that's the problem, it only shows me

Product Review Forums - Core Settings
Product Review Forums - General Options
Product Review Forums - Styles & Options

And none of those include anything about the categories or custom fields.

There are numerous additional tools found through the navbar links under the "Product Review Forums" category in your ACP.

Got this error. I am running older 4.1.9 for my sins :/

Database error in vBulletin 4.1.9:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT INTO pokebactivitystreamtype SET packageid = 1, section = 'product', type = 'review', enabled = 1;

MySQL Error : Table 'pokerban_comf.pokebactivitystreamtype' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146

I have tried to comment out the activity stream lines in the .xml but same error occurred. Any advice other han upgrading whole forum ?

There's always a risk to installing mods on older versions of forum software, especially when the version (while close in number) has significant feature differences.

However we can definitely get you around this by properly removing the code from the XML file.

Remove or comment out line 175 - 194 of your xml file and then upload it.