Major Additions - 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.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by jshallo

Hi Ted, Yes the new file fixed the problem. I did have it set to create a new thread for each new review but, now that I see it in action I don't think its what I wanted. So I may have to change this setting. I'll look forward to what you come up with and making it work for my needs. Most review sites don't have very much video, photos so its not a priority but, I think embed options that VB use would be nice possibly.

Thankfully links and embeding are easy so it's more about just letting you define your own fields than worrying about what's in them.

What i'll probably end up with is:

Text Fields
Yes / No fields
Additional Images [url]
Video [url]

On the other side you have user contributions which are a little more tricky to process since users aren't likely to FTP up an image.

[jshallo]

Ok, I'll wait for your next update.

[Ted S]

PRF users -

I will be traveling for the next few days and not on to check this thread. Please chime in with any questions or suggestions you have and I will get back to you later next week.

[PaintballHQ]

Thanks for putting this together Ted!

I have some suggestions that I was thinking of.

Having the products rating based on the average of the following: (maybe customizable options depending on what your site is geared toward)

• Appearance
• Performance
• Reliability
• Value

Customizable fields like you said would be great. I need to have fields for Pros & Cons.

Define what user group(s) can add a new product/service for review & what user group(s) can submit a review.

[Da-Vinci]

Hi Ted, your mod looks really good, but when I install it, the thread the review should show in, just displays the title and below it says.

This is an empty post

Not sure what I could have done wrong, I uploaded everything to the root and installed the product via the product manager.

When I visit http://www.cameraguru.co.uk/productforums.php I just get redirected to the CMS.

Here is how I've got the settings.

[angeljs]

Hi, I'm receiving this error message when trying to add a product:

Something went terribly wrong in creating your review. End of the line.

Not sure why

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by PaintballHQ

Thanks for putting this together Ted!

I have some suggestions that I was thinking of.


Having the products rating based on the average of the following: (maybe customizable options depending on what your site is geared toward)

• Appearance
• Performance
• Reliability
• Value

Customizable fields like you said would be great. I need to have fields for Pros & Cons.

Define what user group(s) can add a new product/service for review & what user group(s) can submit a review.

Expanded ratings with attributes are definitely on the roadmap -- both in terms of stars and also descriptions of "who" is writing the product [for example, a pro may not like the new tipman while novice users find it a great buy].

Groups is also a fun idea around posting products. Thanks!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by angeljs

Hi, I'm receiving this error message when trying to add a product:

Something went terribly wrong in creating your review. End of the line.

Not sure why

Did you pick a forum to save the product too?

Does it have the rights to be posted in?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Da-Vinci

Hi Ted, your mod looks really good, but when I install it, the thread the review should show in, just displays the title and below it says.


Not sure what I could have done wrong, I uploaded everything to the root and installed the product via the product manager.

When I visit http://www.cameraguru.co.uk/productforums.php I just get redirected to the CMS.

Here is how I've got the settings.

This post should be wrapped in a hidden div. Can you check for the code:

<div style="display:none;">

By view sourcing the page?

[Ramsesx]

Some more suggestions, it would be nice to have the reviews listed in the user profiles in a new tab. And an overview of all reviews on productforums.php, and some informations like most viewed reviews, latest reviews etc. like you can see it here. A lot of work, I know but maybe you could think about offering later a paid pro version.