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

===========================

Installation is not upload & go... individualized settings are required. Read the install file.

===========================
QUICK TIPS:
===========================

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 Lightly_Toasted

After installing and testing that seems to have solved the issue for 4.2.1. After adding test products, have confirmed that there are no blank pages yet and information is still aggregated into the activity feed.

Thanks again

LT

The activity feed will still gather posts but they won't be treated as a new type as intended. Still, beats errors.

[Ted S]

Version 1.3.9 has been released which resolves a few bugs in the past release including a significant issue a handful of forums had with the activity system.
This update will remove the activity system edits (which is unfortunately not nice and modular like most of vB4) returning actions to that of normal forum posts.

If you are not having issues, no upgrade is needed.

[morrow]

"Let the installer run then look for "Product Review Forums" in your navbar; that's how you know it worked."

I'm not receiving this in my navbar after importing the xml file. I saw no errors and configured everything properly (well... I think I did) .

I'm running vBulletin 4.2.2

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by morrow

"Let the installer run then look for "Product Review Forums" in your navbar; that's how you know it worked."

Did you upload all of the XML files in the zip file to the right location?

If so, reload your ACP and look about half way down the navbar.

[Haywire0311]

First of all, can't thank you enough for this awesome mod. I've been trying to find something like this for a while in order to begin building a community site I had in mind.

Anyway, I recently installed it and since my site is more focused on beer, I made a few changes to the original files to make it more in line with reviewing beers. As you can't actually buy beer from breweries, I had to make some slight changes in regards to the default options and such. I'm also looking into changing the rating system a bit so it incorporates a .25 rating system rather than by whole digits from 1 - 5.

I know that this mod is part of a larger project with giftery.me, however, as my site doesn't truly focus on the purchase of products, I can't really use the giftery.me 'list' feature. I think this is my biggest request. I'd love a way to figure out how to make internal 'Wants' and 'Gots' lists. This way, users can look at beers listed on the site and check off the beers they have in house and also the ones they'd love to have. Perhaps even incorporating this into the user profile so others can see their wants and gots.

Also, the other thing that I have yet to see that builds off the lists is a matching feature. I don't have the know how to figure out how to match users by their wants and gots.

Those would be my two biggest requests. Are you planning anything like this in the future? Also, is there another way for me to support your development as integrating with giftery.me doesn't make suense based on my product base?

[Ted S]

Thanks for the kind words (and reposting this in the forum, we're big believers in letting the community see & respond to all questions / concerns / ideas).

Essentially what you're looking to do isn't rocket science at its basic level but it quickly grows into something that's very specific and really not an addon so much as a customization (i.e. you're not just trying to capture a "want," you're talking checklists, sharing, presumably some privacy options, etc).

Matching and interest recommendations even more so... you can build a simple formula or set of rules (i.e. A+B+C = you want D) or start getting into automated logic. Still not rockets but maybe hobby ones...

I like to think of addons (all of them) as a base step. A feature layer to get you core functionality and build off of. What developers tackle is just a base and won't ever match a site's full needs exactly but rather gives you a working step forward that may need a few design hacks or, in cases like this, some decent code additions.

I know this is not what you want to hear but even if "wants" were in our roadmap (they're not, in fact, we have not been asked for them before), it would still be miles away from what it sounds like you specifically need.

[uarujoey]

Is it possible for users to only leave a star rating and not be able to comment/leave a typed review?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by uarujoey

Is it possible for users to only leave a star rating and not be able to comment/leave a typed review?

Hrm. Try changing the minimum review length to 0?

A thread will still be created however.

[uarujoey]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Hrm. Try changing the minimum review length to 0?

A thread will still be created however.

Nope, that didn't work.

Can i delete a piece of code?


My purpose is to use this more so like a "yellow pages" directory.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by uarujoey

Nope, that didn't work.

Can i delete a piece of code?

My purpose is to use this more so like a "yellow pages" directory.

Sure. You'd be hard hacking the helpfulanswers.php file and looking for the minimum length check to do it... so you'll have to re-apply with any future upgrades.