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.

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Ted S

I'm so confused here... didn't you process the images through the bulk sync script turning them into local links like /productforums/xxxxxx.img?

The reason external links won't work is the query I had you run which changes / to \ to work specifically for local links. If you want to use remote images instead that's no problem, we can fix the links to point back to those...

Hi Ted,
yes, I did sync the images and I did run the query, the result you are seeing in my last post is the result of adding a product from the front end where members would be submitting Products. I changed nothing after running the query other than submitting a new Product on the front end to see what happened, and the results I posted was what happened.

Perhaps this is a problem specifically with using Xampp on localhost, I don't know, windows is notorious for being riddled with bugs, we may be looking at a conflict that windows is to blame for. I don't know what else to tell you Ted, the process I went through has been laid out as acted upon, I have absolutely no idea why the results are as they are.

I could shut down my real site for an hour or so, back up everything and run the upgrade there for the Beta and see what happens!

[qpurser]

Ted,
I used your "old" mod which worked fine for me and love it.
I just updated to your newest version and a little confused/lost.

Now all the new reviews I post need approval/moderation. I can't figure out anymore how to turn this off as I don't want to approve them.

Also when adding a new review the image uploader doesn't show up on the page.
What could be the issue?

Thanks for any help or suggestions
Michael

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by qpurser

Now all the new reviews I post need approval/moderation. I can't figure out anymore how to turn this off as I don't want to approve them.

The moderation process didn't change but it is an admin option in the general settings [Screen New Reviews?]. Also be sure that your forum settings don't place posts into moderation either.

Also when adding a new review the image uploader doesn't show up on the page. What could be the issue?

Reviews don't get images.... Products do and only as an admin.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Kirk Fitzgerald

Hi Ted,
yes, I did sync the images and I did run the query, the result you are seeing in my last post is the result of adding a product from the front end where members would be submitting Products. I changed nothing after running the query other than submitting a new Product on the front end to see what happened, and the results I posted was what happened.

Perhaps this is a problem specifically with using Xampp on localhost, I don't know, windows is notorious for being riddled with bugs, we may be looking at a conflict that windows is to blame for. I don't know what else to tell you Ted, the process I went through has been laid out as acted upon, I have absolutely no idea why the results are as they are.

I could shut down my real site for an hour or so, back up everything and run the upgrade there for the Beta and see what happens!

Well if you added an external url image and then ran my query which was designed to handle internal urls of course it broke. Like I said when I posted it, it will impact every url.

Can you do the same source comparison on an image that was actually up and moved locally?

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Well if you added an external url image and then ran my query which was designed to handle internal urls of course it broke. Like I said when I posted it, it will impact every url.

Can you do the same source comparison on an image that was actually up and moved locally?

Ah, okay, sure, here is one that was already there, the source shows this:

<img src="\productphotos\5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg" style="max-width:300px;max-height:300px;" />

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Kirk Fitzgerald

Ah, okay, sure, here is one that was already there, the source shows this:

<img src="\productphotos\5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg" style="max-width:300px;max-height:300px;" />

Now we're on the right track...

So \productphotos\5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg

1. If you type this path into windows [C:\server\...\productphotos\] does it work?

2. When you open the file 5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg from that folder in windows, does it show anything?

3. Looking at another image on your pages that does work, what's the path?

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Now we're on the right track...

So \productphotos\5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg

1. If you type this path into windows [C:\server\...\productphotos\] does it work?

2. When you open the file 5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg from that folder in windows, does it show anything?

3. Looking at another image on your pages that does work, what's the path?

C:\xampp\htdocs\vb4dev\productphotos\

This opens the productphotos directory in windows successfully

C:\xampp\htdocs\vb4dev\productphotos\5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg

This opens the image with windows image viewer successfully

The no image icon shows on the Product listings page, it loks like this:

<img src="themes/pscubby/rating/pf/noimage-75.png" width="75" height="75" border="0" alt="missing photo" />

[nibb]

Hi Ted S, does the beta fix the issue I commented some replies back?

I still have this plugin installed but nobody can review anything. Should I install the beta or wait for a fix?

Regards

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by nibb

Hi Ted S, does the beta fix the issue I commented some replies back?

I still have this plugin installed but nobody can review anything. Should I install the beta or wait for a fix?

Regards

What was the issue?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Kirk Fitzgerald

C:\xampp\htdocs\vb4dev\productphotos\

This opens the productphotos directory in windows successfully

C:\xampp\htdocs\vb4dev\productphotos\5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg

This opens the image with windows image viewer successfully

The no image icon shows on the Product listings page, it loks like this:

<img src="themes/pscubby/rating/pf/noimage-75.png" width="75" height="75" border="0" alt="missing photo" />

Ok, well I have no idea why the link didn't work then but it feels like we're close...

Try changing the source in your template from {vb:raw mainphoto} to productphotos/5001db3eda3fd_full.jpg