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 snotek

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)

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].

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Ted S]

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.

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

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.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Kirk Fitzgerald

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".

[snotek]

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.

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'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].

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

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.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by snotek

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

[snotek]

blerg. noted.

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Ted S

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".

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.

[Ted S]

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

[Ramsesx]

Originally Posted by Ted S

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.

Cool, this would be a good start:

Originally Posted by Ted S

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

Thanks for the continuous development Ted, will try the product again on the new release.