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

One more request, this one very quick. Try turning off all your (other) plugins and load the write a review page. 99% sure it won't change anything but hey, it happens. Obviously best to do this at an off time and quickly.

Holy crap, that took a long time. Guess what I discovered? vBulletin doesn't have a "turn all off" option.

Nope, no difference.

Now to go and turn them all back on again one at a time....

[Morrus]

Incidentally, what was the productforums.php change you made? I'd like to re-upload my custom version and restore various bits of functionality, but with the posting-to-database issue fixed. Is it a small change I can apply myself?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Incidentally, what was the productforums.php change you made? I'd like to re-upload my custom version and restore various bits of functionality, but with the posting-to-database issue fixed. Is it a small change I can apply myself?

There's likely a few tweaks around the file as digging this way turns up more than just the issue. Using a file compare (UltraCompare) is the best way to track it...

Speaking of code hacks, let's open up productforums.php and find:

// make the post as HTML using the right version of wysiwyg
if ($vbulletin->GPC['message'])
{
    // handle this properly based on vBulletin version
    if (version_compare(@$vbulletin->versionnumber, '4.1.4', '>=')){
        require_once(DIR . '/includes/class_wysiwygparser.php');
        $html_parser = new vB_WysiwygHtmlParser($vbulletin);
        $comments =& $html_parser->parse_wysiwyg_html_to_bbcode($message, 1);
        
    // older forum versions
    } else {
        require_once(DIR . '/includes/functions_wysiwyg.php');
        $comments =& convert_wysiwyg_html_to_bbcode($message, 1);
        
    }
}
if(!$comments AND $vbulletin->GPC['message']){ $comments = $vbulletin->GPC['message'] . "\n\r" . $optmsg; }
else if($vbulletin->GPC['comments']){ $comments = $vbulletin->GPC['comments'] . "\n\r" . $optmsg; }

Replace this with:

if ($vbulletin->GPC['message'])
{
    echo "found on message<br>";
    $comments = nl2br();
} else if($vbulletin->GPC['comments']) {
    echo "found on comments<br>";
    $comments = nl2br();
} else {
    echo "found nothing"; die;
}

Post up a review and look to see if anything gets displayed quickly on the screen at the top of the page.

This is not safe content filtering so be sure to revert to your current version when you're done, less someone decide to add a bunch of unfiltered links to a product.

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Post up a review and look to see if anything gets displayed quickly on the screen at the top of the page.

This is not safe content filtering so be sure to revert to your current version when you're done, less someone decide to add a bunch of unfiltered links to a product.

It did two things.

1) It rejected my review saying it had 0 characters.

2) Plus it had this at the top of the screen:

found on message

Warning: nl2br() expects at least 1 parameter, 0 given in ..../productforums.php on line 413

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

It did two things.

1) It rejected my review saying it had 0 characters.

2) Plus it had this at the top of the screen:

Well this is just embarrassing... Forgot to actually finish the code.

if ($vbulletin->GPC['message']) {     echo "found on message<br>";   $comments = nl2br($vbulletin->GPC['message'); } 
else if($vbulletin->GPC['comments']) {     echo "found on comments<br>";     $comments = nl2br($vbulletin->GPC['comments'); } 
else {     echo "found nothing"; die; }

On the plus side, we got the debug info I needed to keep playing.

[Morrus]

So do I need to do anything now, or do you have what you need?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

So do I need to do anything now, or do you have what you need?

Try the code change with the updated version, let's see if it's a reasonable stop-gap while I try and figure out why your editor isn't loading up (still have no idea on the cause, everything seems normal).

On a related note, I'm traveling tomorrow - monday without web access. Sorry. :erm:

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Try the code change with the updated version, let's see if it's a reasonable stop-gap while I try and figure out why your editor isn't loading up (still have no idea on the cause, everything seems normal).

Ah... I'm unclear. Code change with the updated version? You mean that file you said to only use briefly?

On a related note, I'm traveling tomorrow - monday without web access. Sorry. :erm:

Ugh. I guess I'll hang on until next week then. Darnit; I'm running out of time!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Ah... I'm unclear. Code change with the updated version? You mean that file you said to only use briefly?

Yes. Have to figure out what's causing the editor not to work as that does seem to be where the issue lies.

[tpearl5]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Certainly possible.

What Amazon functionality were you looking for?

Forgot to reply to this Mainly importing of products with images (if available) from specific categories and then providing a link to 'buy' with a current price. It would probably also need the ability to filter by keyword. For example, all products from Cameras with keyword 'Nikon' import into category 'Nikon Cameras'.