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.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by astdirect

Not a coder and had a look but couldnt see exactly how to edit it and what to replace and with what :/ Any help would be much apprecaited.

It's really just as simple as finding the price variable [which says price in it] and removing it or adding something else.

Admin and moderators posting reviews works fine but when any other group adds review it doesnt get listed. EDIT: It appears it is listed, but isnt showing in latest posts or "last post by" when a regular user posts a review for some reason.

So the review is showing up for regular users but not updating the last post column? If that's the case check the permissions for the forum.

[astdirect]

Originally Posted by Ted S

So the review is showing up for regular users but not updating the last post column? If that's the case check the permissions for the forum.

OK checked forum permissions and its all set up to allow the reviews to show with no moderation. In the product review "manage reviews" it shows the review as approved. For some reason though in the main adminCP moderation queue the review is having to be manually approved even though all permissions should be allowing them to go on straight away. Once i manually approve it in AdminCP moderation queue it noww shows fully on forum last posts etc.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by astdirect

OK checked forum permissions and its all set up to allow the reviews to show with no moderation. In the product review "manage reviews" it shows the review as approved. For some reason though in the main adminCP moderation queue the review is having to be manually approved even though all permissions should be allowing them to go on straight away. Once i manually approve it in AdminCP moderation queue it noww shows fully on forum last posts etc.

I'm not sure what to tell you... If it's not getting stuck in the product forums area then the issue exists somewhere between the post and the forum settings. Since no one else has reported this issue and we don't see it in testing I'm inclined to think it's a setting somewhere.

Can you check the permissions on the forum the product thread is in as well as the forum the posts go too [if they are different].

[Killhunter]

Hi, 2 Questions...

1. I enabled the option to create a new thread for each review. Why does this addon post the Reviews in the forum for products and not the forum for reviews (id´s are correct, my review forum is under my product-forum).

2. Can you PLEASE make a little revision: I really need the feature to auto-size pictures to a special width.

Thank you

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Killhunter

1. I enabled the option to create a new thread for each review. Why does this addon post the Reviews in the forum for products and not the forum for reviews (id?s are correct, my review forum is under my product-forum).

The code tells it to post to the reviews forum. I'll take another look but it seems to be working on my test site.

$foruminfo = $vbulletin->forumcache[$vbulletin->options['prodforums_reviewforum']];

Originally Posted by Killhunter

2. Can you PLEASE make a little revision: I really need the feature to auto-size pictures to a special width.

There's nothing little about adding an entire file management, uploading and image resizing routine. The easiest way to resize images is with the bulk function in a tool like Photoshop where you can process hundreds of images in 4 or 5 clicks.

An uploader has been requested several times and is on the future update list but and will be a part of the next major update.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by astdirect

OK checked forum permissions and its all set up to allow the reviews to show with no moderation. In the product review "manage reviews" it shows the review as approved. For some reason though in the main adminCP moderation queue the review is having to be manually approved even though all permissions should be allowing them to go on straight away. Once i manually approve it in AdminCP moderation queue it noww shows fully on forum last posts etc.

FYI, I'm making a few changes to the next version that will override any forum settings to approve the post out of moderation to insure forum settings aren't an issue.


This will be out later in the week.

[cowcowcow]

Eagerly anticipating the next version

[Killhunter]

Originally Posted by Ted S

There's nothing little about adding an entire file management, uploading and image resizing routine. The easiest way to resize images is with the bulk function in a tool like Photoshop where you can process hundreds of images in 4 or 5 clicks.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ghlight=resize

Thats easy enough?

[bigtree]

Can't we use the vbulletin editor for this? That would make the most sense.

[The Ottoman]

Originally Posted by Ted S

We figured CSV would be mighty popular but given the need to support advanced data in the descriptions, we stuck to XML which is much more stable. If you add column headers to a CSV, save it into an XLS, you can convert it.

Holy crap!, that was easy.

You may however want to adjust your sample XML file to have another sample product in it instead od the single one. It took me a little bit to figure out why Excel was only mapping a single line. If you have two sample products, the XML mapping understands how to handle multiple lines then.