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.

[Killhunter]

It would be great if images would be also displayed at the list (productforums.php).

Originally Posted by Ted S

Nice suggestion!

Write it down!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Killhunter

And how to change it? The date isnt really a text.

Then your question needs to be explained further as what you asked to change is text:

date text to german

[Killhunter]

Its called Fri Nov 4th, 2011
But it german it should be Fr Nov 4, 2011

Or its call "Tue Dec 5th, 2011"
It should be "Die Dez 5, 2011"

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Killhunter

Its called Fri Nov 4th, 2011
But it german it should be Fr Nov 4, 2011

Or its call "Tue Dec 5th, 2011"
It should be "Die Dez 5, 2011"

Hum. The dates come out of mySQL which would be less than fun to tweak around for you. I'll have to look at this in a future version if it's an ongoing issue.

[Killhunter]

It isnt very important, but it would be great if you do that anytime.

[lazytown]

A VERY useful feature would be if other users could mark a review as Helpful or Useful (similar to a "like" "thanks" or thumbs up/down mod). Most review sites (including Amazon) now feature this. That way people can tell which reviews for a particular product/etc have the best content. Ideally, those reviews with the most helpful content would be displayed first.

That feature, and showing thumbnails in the review listings would be 2 huge improvements..
Thanks!

[Ted S]

Since we also created the helpful answers feature I'm sure we can find a way to add thumbs

However it's really broader than that. A review is naturally biased by the person and their relationship to the object. Someone who eats at 5 star restaurants and goes to a 3 star diner is going to have a different read than someone who eats at home and goes out for the first time in a year. That's not an easy solve, heck, the best solution right now is to aggregate "about me" tags with reviews but we're thinking about what could be done knowing the detailed nature of a forum to go deeper and provide not just acceptance of a review, but context.

[downloadsuk]

Hi Ted,

I'm not having much luck with the bulk import. Attached is a file I tried to upload, I got the "All Done" message, but no products appeared.

The columns don't need to be in a certain order do they?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by downloadsuk

I'm not having much luck with the bulk import. Attached is a file I tried to upload, I got the "All Done" message, but no products appeared.

XML does not require a field order nor are extra fields like the style and setting elements in your file an issue.

However, your format is not even close to what the importer. You'll want to review the documentation and included sample feed to see the structure as you have to follow the right convention [i.e. <product> records] and field names.

[downloadsuk]

Thanks Ted - that was a glaring oversight on my part. All working now.

However, when uploading the amount with a £ sign, I get an unusual character in  ( for example (£69.99)) - the encoding is set to UTF-8 - I tried Googling, but couldn't find a specific reason - any ideas?