Product Review Forums ? Research, Review & Compare Items
 

Version 1.4.0 has been released to remove the giftery / list it integration of the addon now that service has been discontinued. No upgrade is needed though there have been a few other bug changes since 1.3.5.

Finding Feedback Can be Like a Needle in a Haystack

The more your forum grows, the more of a challenge it becomes to sort through the history and get the full story.

Product Review Forums Brings Structure to the Chaos

As a full-featured product management addon, PRF sits on top of your forum allowing you to create defined products which, unlike individual posts, stay relevant over time. Each comment, review and even product updates filter back into this one spot allowing for a quick and comprehensive overview while the individual discussions rage on as always.

Here's just a few of the many features you'll find in PRF:

• Bring structure to products with established pages & reviews
• Reduce the number of repetitive posts from members looking up the same info
• Increase your traffic with content-rich, seo friendly, product listings
• Drive revenue by adding your own affiliate links to product listings
• Increase the activity stream's value with review integration
  
• Engage visitors with integrated wishlists from Giftery.me

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Installation is not upload & go... individualized settings are required. Read the install file.

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QUICK TIPS:
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Enabling Product Forums: To show product details and ratings, each product-forum must be enabled in the forum manager.

Adding Products: You may upload products one at a time through the admin [includes an image uploader using GD] or you can bulk import through XML. You can also enable users to add moderated products through a global and usergroup option.

Product Review Index: To access your forum's product overview go to www.yoursite.com/productforums.php - You may want to add a link to this to your navbar or as a tab.

Customization: This addon is made to be customized. To change the color schema see clientscript/vbulletin_css or dive right on in to the templates and phrases.

Powered by Giftery.me: This mod is maintained includes two integrations you should know about. Both can be controlled through the mod options.

More answers on getting started and customizing PRF can be found in the Install Guide

How does this mod work?
Rather than waiting for a user to open up a new thread talking about a product or service, you create a single “master” thread through your Admin Panel. This automatically creates a product record which shows up in a formatted, easy to follow section above the newly created thread containing an image, title, price and all sorts of other details.

Users looking for information can then turn to this single thread to get an overview snapshot, post a follow up question, and of course click over to write their own review or browse the existing ones.

How do reviews work?
Each time a user reviews a product, the main thread is updated both to include the review into the summary and with a post of the detailed comments. If you chose to do so, a separate thread can also be created in a different forum to increase conversation on the review.

Will this help me get more traffic / search engine rankings?
When users [or search engines] go looking for information what they want is clear, relevant and recent information. By moving conversation into a single thread this is provided in a digestible way that users are more likely to click on, search engines find easier to pick out over thousands of similar posts. Plus reviews are prime for sharing, discussing and passing around. So yes, this should increase traffic.

Can I have non-product threads in the same forum?
You can allow other threads in the same forums however this is likely to confuse your users as they will not see the product header bar and is not recommended.

Can I use this mod for displaying more than just standard products?
Sure. Anything that has consistent information and can be reviewed will work… whether your forum covers cruises, day spas or home repair services, this mod will fit the bill.

What fields can I fill out on each product?
1. Product Title
2. MSRP Price
3. Affiliate Shop URL & Title
4. Short & Long Description
5. Product Image [now uploadable]
6. UPC / ISBN / SKU for easy searching

How do I get the customized forums like in your images?
The install guide explains this in detail but sufficient to say it requires a quick code change to your forumdisplay script. We wish this wasn't the case but for now that's the only way to completely override the thread listings.

How does the activity stream get impacted?
Products and reviews are regular posts... sort of. To avoid odd looking updates we hide all of the activity from PRF in your activity system and instead create our own records written to reflect what's really happening each time an item is reviewed. Simple, and if we can say so... pretty slick.

Held for Variables & Customization

This post contains a list of suggested / planned features.

Planned Changes [Week of 1/16]
- Link to reviews in each user's profile [optional]
- Tab with a list of user's recent reviews [optional]
- Alternative star image colors
- WYSIWYG editor for writing a review

Planned For the Next Major Release [TBD]
- Image Uploading & Resizing

Other Suggestions I'm Aware Of
- Multiple update "types" [reviews, news, fact, question] w/ inline comments and sorting of posts
- Custom fields to add to reviews
- Additional images
- Additional videos
- Custom rating groups [service, reliability, appearance, etc]
- Product thumbnails on search listing page
- Sidebar widget with most recent reviews
- Sidebar widget with top products from the past X hours

Been waiting for this, downloading now ;).

Tried to install and got this:

Database error in vBulletin 4.1.4:

Invalid SQL:
ALTER TABLE user ADD productreviews INT UNSIGNED NULL;

MySQL Error : Table 'crna_vbulletin.user' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146
Request Date : Tuesday, September 6th 2011 @ 09:38:07 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, September 6th 2011 @ 09:38:08 PM
Script : http://www.nurse-anesthesia.org/admi...=productimport
Referrer : http://www.nurse-anesthesia.org/admi...?do=productadd
IP Address : 68.98.69.63
Username : ADMIN
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.1.39-log

Will test this out this weekend!
Looking forward to this!

Looks like I'm missing the prefix check. Pesky prefixes...

1.0.1 beta coming in a few minutes.

Very minor update released to address table prefix issues with the installer.

This only impacts those using prefixes.

This looks very promising!
At our forum we have many vendors selling multiple products. Each vendor has it's own subforum. Does this mean I can have this mod implemented in each of their subforums?

Demo?

Working superb for us on 4.1.3
thank you!
Anyway we can change the list price from $ to the £ sign?

Very interesting, will checking it out in some minutes.

If I click at "be the first to write a review" get following db error:
Also the tools menu is below the product listing and the manufacturer is not visible.
The above error is only if I have in the acp "Create New Thread on Review" set to no.
If it is set to yes I get the message "This feature is not configured yet. Please check back soon." if trying to write a review.
And if I add a forum ID in the acp setting "Review Thread Forum ID" get above db error again.
There are also db errors when clicking at "Manage" in "Manage Product Reviews Forums" (value 0)

Where do we create the products?

acp

Thanks It was right in front of me...lol :)

Template code showing up in the review post?

Installed - looks promising but I'm wondering how I could adapt this for restaurant reviews?
I'm also get a code error when posting a review but failed to capture an image in time. I'll post it soon if I can grab it quickly enough.

thank you for this, needed this for affiliate products...appreciate it.

Yes!

If you elect to have reviews create new threads they will all be placed in one forum but you can have as many product forums [with reviews showing up as post replies to each product] as you like.

Is there another screenshot you would like to see?

Via your Admin Control Panel. Once installed you will see an area "Product Review Forums" with a manager and add product feature.

No problem.

Are you using a feed for your affiliates? Perhaps we can build a bulk importer in

The code is from this mod but the comments are not. Do you have something installed that comments each mod's code?

Error codes there generally mean a fault with the new thread so please let me know.

And yes, you can use this for any type of review... there's really no limit. We'll be changing the price field to a string so you can simply put in a price range of $, $$, $$$ type indicators on cost.

Sure.

The $ sign is managed by a phrase... prodforums_priced

You can edit it in your phrase manager.

nice mod!

[high]* Brandon Sheley tags[/high]

hmm.. the /me tag doesn't work now? :(

All of your errors are related to table prefixes... A pesky but sometimes necessary option.

Complete review of all queries and update coming shortly.

Thank you Ted :up:

Sorry, you can edit this with the phrase manager... Just change prodforums_priced

Released update 1.0.2 beta

- Fixes issues with table prefixes [hopefully all of them :D]
- Changes price field to a string. You can use prices (x.yy), uk prices (x,yy), ranges (xx-yy) or buckets ($,$$,$$$,$$$$).

This is a minor release. XML, /upload/productforums.php and /upload/admincp/productforums.php have all been updated.

Thanks for the quick upgrade Ted.
Manage Products gives still the error:
And if I write a review it creates a duplicate in forum ID 2.
The rating image doesn't show, leads to /images/pf/stars-green-4.png
Why do I have to add a Nickname?

[quote=Ramsesx;2243138]Manage Products gives still the error:
Sorry about that. Prefixes aren't something I use on my test boards so while I know you don't want to hear it, it takes a few runs to fix.

Try the attached version of upload/admincp/productforums.php

As duplicate as in a second copy or a duplicate as in it makes a new thread? If the later, this is an option you can disable.

Good catch. 1.0.3 will fix this by moving stars into the rating folder. You can manually change this on line 134 of the xml file or by editing prodforums_product_details

This is a feature I'm toying with... There's reasons why a user may not want to post under their username. This will be an option in 1.0.3

Cheers Ted worked a treat!

I'm putting together a few small feature additions for tonight's update which also fixes compatibility with forums using sub-folders and prefixes.

If there's anything apparent that is missing please chime in and I'll see what I can do to include it.

1.0.3 minor update has been released

- option to show nickname field for anonymous reviews
- option to allow users to post multiple reviews per product
- moved star rating images to images/rating/pf to allow for sub-folder installed forums
- bug fix to address prefix bug in admin panel

Please upload all files again.

With this update you can delete /images/pf/ as it has been moved to /images/rating/pf/.

Please also note, while this mod is in beta I will release updates frequently. As it stabilizes [we're already seeing forums using it in the "real world" but there may be a few typos / quirks] releases will slow down to be less burdensome & more comprehensive.

If any update comes out that is critical a notification is sent but usually the changes at this phase are small features / site-specific bugs.

Hello Ted S

Nothing installed that comments each mod code? I have never seen or heard of anything that would comment code and don't know why anyone would want to?

Also the review is going to the review forum but for some reason the rating is going to the first forum on the page and I do not have it set up to do it?
Also on the rating post when I click on
View all reviews on xxxxxx it goes to my 404 page? I guess something is missing?

I just updated from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2 did not change. I see 1.0.3 now...willl update after the movie tonight. :)

No idea. All I can tell you is that the mod doesn't write comments so something is. Perhaps view the source of your page and see if other mod generated templates have a similar result?

Be sure "Create New Thread on Review" is disabled. If it is on a thread is created in whatever forum you pick or forum id 1.

I see the problem. Easy fix in the next release... or just update prodforums_review_postcontent to change showthread to showthread.php