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 CoZmicShReddeR

This was a an updated install and I did recover my forums from a 4 day old backup but this happened as soon as I add a product...

CoZmicShReddeR -

Thanks for the additional info. One of our development forums had the same problem but we're not sure when exactly it happened as that site has hundreds of sub-installs... After upgrading did you add products, create reviews or know if any users did?

In short we're trying to understand what triggered the issue to stop it from happening again.

And of course our apologies for any issues your site experienced. Despite the beta label, I realize things can still happen to real sites. If we can help with anything please just let me know.

[carsafety]

Can anyone comment how review threads created on this mod look with the vbulletin app, forumrunner or tapatalk? Obviously I know it wont be fully feature compatible, but I'm looking to create a product review website and would like some platform that includes an app or has one available. Maybe wordpress or some other platform would be better for this?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by carsafety

Can anyone comment how review threads created on this mod look with the vbulletin app, forumrunner or tapatalk? Obviously I know it wont be fully feature compatible, but I'm looking to create a product review website and would like some platform that includes an app or has one available. Maybe wordpress or some other platform would be better for this?

Since the apps are closed development it's not possible to make this mod render posts with the same product block. The solution we've mapped out for the future is to place the key details in the first post of the thread -- which is currently hidden -- and unhide it for mobile but it's not an ideal fit.

For a true review site I would suggest coding your product & review features first and back into a forum integration as needed. Our main site is a product service as well and that's the approach we took.

[Sforums]

Originally Posted by CoZmicShReddeR

WTF!! Take this plugin down it just renamed every post in my entire forums to a review name!

Originally Posted by CoZmicShReddeR

This was a an updated install and I did recover my forums from a 4 day old backup but this happened as soon as I add a product...

That is exactly what happened to my forum. Luckily I did backup prior to installing.
I really need this stuff but I am scared to install it again.

[carsafety]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Since the apps are closed development it's not possible to make this mod render posts with the same product block. The solution we've mapped out for the future is to place the key details in the first post of the thread -- which is currently hidden -- and unhide it for mobile but it's not an ideal fit.

Any idea how it looks with the Vbulletin4 mobile style or a low-bandwidth/mobile style mod?

For a true review site I would suggest coding your product & review features first and back into a forum integration as needed. Our main site is a product service as well and that's the approach we took.

It's not limited to reviews so I do prefer a forum platform. If only I could do my own coding lol! An app isn't essential, but I'm not seeing any other platform that integrates easy website review templates along with a forum and mobile app availability. Hiring a coder seems like the other option.

What happens if you uninstall the mod? Do you just get basic thread with reviews in it?

Finally, who's currently using this in a live site and can you share a public demo link please?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Sforums

That is exactly what happened to my forum. Luckily I did backup prior to installing.
I really need this stuff but I am scared to install it again.

Sforum,

Unfortunately while we've had the issue happen on one test server we can not recreate it on demand... good for meaning it won't happen, bad for making sure. The mod has been pulled as we look into this and will not be reposted until we are certain it is gone... however if you have any information on when this occurred, such as right after an upgrade, durign a review or posting a product that would be very helpful.

Our goal is to confirm the new version and roll this out in stable form to use on live sites.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by carsafety

Any idea how it looks with the Vbulletin4 mobile style or a low-bandwidth/mobile style mod?

It depends on how the mobile skin is built. From our side it will look identical to how full sized forums show it as the code will render the same but if the skin does not allow plugins then it would not display at all.

It's not limited to reviews so I do prefer a forum platform. If only I could do my own coding lol! An app isn't essential, but I'm not seeing any other platform that integrates easy website review templates along with a forum and mobile app availability. Hiring a coder seems like the other option.

Of course not, because what you're looking for isn't a mass used tool. There's no market to build product review sites with discussion integration. Custom coding is your only real option if you want something with real potential.

As much as vBulletin can be a platform, out of the box a mod is not going to cut it. Sure this will let you have some review threads but it's still premised on forums without most of the features you would need to stand out. Data is by far the biggest challenge for large product focused sites and of course if you want to play in this space you are not the first -- thus you must stand out.

If your goal is less ambitious and you just want a place for niche product discussions I'm sure this mod could be a starting point but you'll likely still need to bring a developer in to match whatever category you are going after.

What happens if you uninstall the mod? Do you just get basic thread with reviews in it?

You get a post with the reviews, but the product content is gone.

Finally, who's currently using this in a live site and can you share a public demo link please?

The mod is in beta.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Sforums

That is exactly what happened to my forum. Luckily I did backup prior to installing.
I really need this stuff but I am scared to install it again.

If you're up for it and have a test site or don't mind pulling a backup, try uninstalling the previous version and installing the latest one [posted a few replies back]. This would be a significant help for us to track down the bug.

[kfyonur]

where is the file ? i didn't see

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by kfyonur

where is the file ? i didn't see

The mod is offline pending debugging.