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.

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Completely! The mod is intended as a starting place and should, by all means, be customized to the unique nature of your community and the products to be reviewed on it.

Heh, yeah, if could write vBulletin mods, I probably wouldn't be using one off vBulletin.org.

[Morrus]

OK, I've spent a couple of hours scouring the mod for every WYSIWYG option I could find, along with the core vBulletin settings. It's set to yes everywhere I look, so I'm pretty much at a loss unless I've managed to completely miss some obscure setting somewhere. WYSIWYG has been working fine on the forums, CMS, blogs, everywhere for years, though.

If the information is of any help, I do get a smaller text box when WYSIWYG is switched off for the reviews system, and a larger one with an expand drag thing in the bottom right when it's switched on.

I've attached another image which might help.

[Morrus]

So, any thoughts on that? I've still got the system installed, though I've hidden any links to it for now.

[Ted S]

Thanks for digging in. I'm traveling until this weekend but promise to take a look then... You're on the latest (4.2.2), right?

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Thanks for digging in. I'm traveling until this weekend but promise to take a look then... You're on the latest (4.2.2), right?

Yep, that's right.

I've been doing a bit of work in the meantime. Easier stuff than vBulletin editors. I've gotten it to compile all use reviews into a percentage (so it looks a bit like Rotten Tomatoes) and label low scoring items as "fumbles" and high scoring items as "crits".

I do like the system, and I'm figuring out how to customize it. Once we get that WYSIWYG editor working properly, I'll be pretty happy!

[Morrus]

I've managed to do something I think it quite cool.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/product....php?do=recent

All recent reviews. Reformatted a little, too. I did try to put it on the main review page, with the page divided into two columns (newly added products, new reviews) but that proved beyond my abilities.

Out of interest, how is the landing page sorted? At first I thought it was newest added first, but some items get added in the middle or the bottom of the list. Is it reverse alphabetical order?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

I've managed to do something I think it quite cool.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/product....php?do=recent

All recent reviews. Reformatted a little, too. I did try to put it on the main review page, with the page divided into two columns (newly added products, new reviews) but that proved beyond my abilities.

Out of interest, how is the landing page sorted? At first I thought it was newest added first, but some items get added in the middle or the bottom of the list. Is it reverse alphabetical order?

Very cool! It's great to see forums customizing "beyond the box" to make the mod a better experience for their site...

Ranking on the page defaults to the title, descending order. This can be changed on line 128 of productforums.php

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Yep, that's right.

I've been doing a bit of work in the meantime. Easier stuff than vBulletin editors. I've gotten it to compile all use reviews into a percentage (so it looks a bit like Rotten Tomatoes) and label low scoring items as "fumbles" and high scoring items as "crits".

I do like the system, and I'm figuring out how to customize it. Once we get that WYSIWYG editor working properly, I'll be pretty happy!

Playing around as promised and I'm still not sure what's causing this for you...

Using a completely clean install, there's no issues preserving line breaks as you can see at http://vbulletin.moderninsider.com/ (no min posting to review, no limit on reviews / product).

This opens up the question as to your specific settings. Since we've got the basics, let's talk details... editor options? html allowed? bb code allowed? moderation?

And of course the most basic... you are using 4.2.2 for sure, right (this is the #1 cause of compatibility issues so sorry for asking twice).

[pieceofpie]

I'm using VB 5.0, can your reviews work? Thanks!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by pieceofpie

I'm using VB 5.0, can your reviews work? Thanks!

vB 4 addons will not work with vB 5.