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.

[owning_y0u]

it will run on a local test site where only i can post ;-). i currently has an complete live forum Database backup over it. beta mod i always test first local before putting it live ;-)
If you want can you send me the product xml to me? so i can see what i can do for you?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by owning_y0u

it will run on a local test site where only i can post ;-). i currently has an complete live forum Database backup over it. beta mod i always test first local before putting it live ;-)
If you want can you send me the product xml to me? so i can see what i can do for you?

Well said.

Here's the full product and just the xml file. Be sure to enable the mod in each forum you want it on and configure the options prior to using it.

[Ted S]

Note: This mod is in BETA and is not recommended for live sites just yet. However if you are considering using it and run a test site or have a good backup system and wish to try it out we are looking for a few more users to validate that everything runs smoothly.

[malinghi]

Sigh. Crap. So, I downloaded this a while ago and installed it, back before this thread renaming issue surfaced. I only just started using it now, and yeah, all my threads have been renamed.

So I don't know if anyone has mentioned this detail or not, but it happened when I tried to rename one of the products. Instead of just renaming that single product, it renamed every thread on the board. I've been able to reproduce that part. If I name one of the products "example", then every thread on the forum is now called "example".

[malinghi]

So, I'm not a programmer or anything, but is it possible that the code that tells it how to rename a single product just has a typo that tells it to make that new name the title of every single thread?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by malinghi

Sigh. Crap. So, I downloaded this a while ago and installed it, back before this thread renaming issue surfaced. I only just started using it now, and yeah, all my threads have been renamed.

So I don't know if anyone has mentioned this detail or not, but it happened when I tried to rename one of the products. Instead of just renaming that single product, it renamed every thread on the board. I've been able to reproduce that part. If I name one of the products "example", then every thread on the forum is now called "example".

Verified the issue.

Update coming along shortly and hopefully that does it for this bug. So, what features would YOU like us to add?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by malinghi

So, I'm not a programmer or anything, but is it possible that the code that tells it how to rename a single product just has a typo that tells it to make that new name the title of every single thread?

That was pretty much it... mySQL checks things well but a couple wrong characters and that's all gone. What I call a rookie move but hey, that's why the mod was in beta for everyone to test around.

90% of the mod [as it relates to threads] runs through a default vBulletin process to create and update. This is a very sophisticated routine and helps insure things don't go wrong, in fact there's about a dozen critical error points in the script that if something happens, the script just shuts down and stops to prevent impacting other data.

Of course in the other 10% of stuff that we coded from scratch to work with threads there was a bug that triggered something wrong...

When you code an app you build a lot of elements, then go back and fix them up. Bugs tend to occur when something on day one is messed up by what you do on day 10. As was the case here.

[Ted S]

Version 1.1.1 beta has been released to address a serious bug that can impact thread titles across your forum! All users with previous versions should do a forum back up and upgrade immediately.

While this upgrade appears to resolve the issue completely, 1.1.0 was a significant release and there are likely other features that will need tweaking. As such the mod remains in beta... but is edging much closer to a production version just in time for the holiday season.

Thank you to everyone who helped report and track down the issue and especially malinghi who kept testing through it to report back the exact source.

[owning_y0u]

Cant submit a review due to a removed file since 4.1.4 (functions_wysiwyg.php)

problem can be solved if you change the following in your productforums.php
Find

PHP Code:

if($vbulletin->VERSION < '4.1') {
                require_once(DIR . '/includes/functions_wysiwyg.php');
                $newpost['message'] = convert_wysiwyg_html_to_bbcode($message, 1);
            } else {
                require_once(DIR . '/includes/class_wysiwygparser.php');
                $html_parser = new vB_WysiwygHtmlParser($vbulletin);
                $newpost['message'] = $html_parser->parse_wysiwyg_html_to_bbcode($message, 1);
            } 


and replace with

PHP Code:

             if (version_compare(@$vbulletin->versionnumber, '4.1.4', '>='))
             {
              require_once(DIR . '/includes/class_wysiwygparser.php');
              $html_parser = new vB_WysiwygHtmlParser($vbulletin);
              $vbulletin->GPC['message'] = $html_parser->parse_wysiwyg_html_to_bbcode($_POST['message'], 0);
             } else {
              require_once(DIR . '/includes/functions_wysiwyg.php');
              $vbulletin->GPC['message'] = convert_wysiwyg_html_to_bbcode($_POST['message'], 0);
             } 


[Ramsesx]

Hi Ted, thanks for adding the number of written reviews into the user profile.
It would be cool if it could be done by an extra tab and listing all reviews like in the new productforums.php view.
The phrase prodforums_admin_category_added is missing when adding a category.