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 imported_df+++++

installing and testing latest and greatest!
thnx agian Ted S!

I head out of town in a few hours so please let me know of anything you need asap!

[GCC LLC]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Would a sidebar widget work? If not maybe a forum block above the threads with product photos [remember the old photopost integration?]

Sidebar widget would be excellent! I know you're leaving so no big rush, I'll probably mess with it while you're gone anyway.

[Ted S]

Trip got pushed back a day... So here's a few thoughts.

Sidebar widgets are pretty simple. First you need to learn how to build containers which you can do either with a plugin that shows php code or as an actual block [more control, more work].

Once you have your empty widget you'll need to write a new query pulling either the latest reviews [with a join to get the product data] or random products.

Each product has all the needed details self contained so you can just format the output with images [easy since you use the uploader] and no needing to reconstruction anything like you would a vB post or setting.

[deverill2010]

Hi ted I haven't upgraded but just spotted a missing review.

In this thread - http://www.midwiferyonline.co.uk/thr...6422#post36422

Two reviews have been posted but only one is showing (the very last one), however one has been submitted by another member as you can see the product says two reviews but its not showing?

Also is the title issue on activity stream fixed in the latest update?

[UK CHI3F]

Little issue, It says i dont have permissions

Sorry, you don't have permission to access the administrative controls on this page.

If you need to access this page, ask your lead administrator to enable your permissions for this page using the Administrator Permissions section of the control panel.

I am in the config file as super admin and undeletable, in the usergroup I'm enabled to use the forum but still wont let me use it, what am i missing?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by deverill2010

Hi ted I haven't upgraded but just spotted a missing review.

In this thread - http://www.midwiferyonline.co.uk/thr...6422#post36422

Two reviews have been posted but only one is showing (the very last one), however one has been submitted by another member as you can see the product says two reviews but its not showing?

Also is the title issue on activity stream fixed in the latest update?

You'll need to update to confirm issue #1 is still happening

Issue #2 I was unable to duplicate and will look into this weekend for a patch-level release once we can recreate it. Does this happen for all threads? Do you have any changes to the default activity settings that you recall?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by UK CHI3F

Little issue, It says i dont have permissions



I am in the config file as super admin and undeletable, in the usergroup I'm enabled to use the forum but still wont let me use it, what am i missing?

Where do you see this?

[Bruce1984]

Awesome mod! Definitely marked as installed .

I keep bumping into a problem though. As soon as I try to add a product using the forums (not the ACP), I get the following vBulletin Message: "This feature is currently not in use"

Any ideas/suggestions?

- I am currently running vB 4.2.0 and the product installed fine.

- What I'm trying to do:
I'd like basically two sections; one for movies (and if I get everything working, I'd like the same for TV series and music albums as well) and one for hardware components at the moment (possibly software in the future, when I get things working/sorted out).
I'd like users (or myself) to be able to add either a movie (eventually a TV series and music albums) or an actual product (like a headset, monitor, hard drive, etc) and add a review, with for now basically one thread per product (and the reviews/responses/etc).
If I can set it up correctly, eventually perhaps one thread with all reviews and one with responses to the product/reviews, just not entirely sure how to set that up properly.

The separate forums are already present; a category with sub-forum called 'Movies' and a category for the hardware (& software) with a sub-forum 'Hardware'. I created a test product using the ACP in the Movie section, which worked flawlessly. Other users and myself are able to add a review to that product without issues.

However, as soon as either myself or a user tries to add a new product, I receive the aforementioned message. I did check the usergroups and the option 'Can add new products (moderated)' has been set to 'Yes', not only for myself but basically most usergroups.

I hope what I'm trying to achieve is possible (I believe it is?), but for some reason, I can't get it working. I did read the instructions carefully and have enabled the option in the usergroup manager, but am probably still missing some setting?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Bruce1984

Awesome mod! Definitely marked as installed .

I keep bumping into a problem though. As soon as I try to add a product using the forums (not the ACP), I get the following vBulletin Message: "This feature is currently not in use"

Open up the install link and read through the required fields... Essentially you're missing required settings and to prevent the mod from destroying your forum [no joke] it's erroring out.

In this case it's either the option to post products or the forum for the threads to go but where one is missing others are likely incomplete as well. I know it's long but you really need to go through the guide & options.

[Bruce1984]

Thanks for the response, appreciated!

I think that what I'm looking for (the separate forums, different products) isn't possible, well, not exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully I can explain everything clearly enough, pretty hard to explain without visuals.

But I think I've managed a work-around (not exactly a work-around, but a setting I had to adjust). Before, I had no forum ID entered, as there were several different forums (movies, hardware, etc). Now, I've created a sub-forum in the 'staff area' where new products will be posted once submitted, up for moderation. When moderated, they can then be placed in their respective categories and along with it the proper sub-forums.

As far as I can tell by the way the mod works, and please do correct me if I'm wrong, not trying to step on any toes or what not, but it looks like it will not be possible for me to have separate threads for the reviews and comments, rather than a single thread for both reviews and comments?

With the initial, to-be-moderated, products listed in the sub-forum in the staff section, it works fine, since it only creates a 'review' thread for the product. But if I would like an accompanying thread for comments, so I can keep reviews and comments separate, that would be a different thing entirely, wouldn't it?

Or will the "Create New Thread on Review", if enabled, be moved along with the original product thread to the proper destination once moderated?

In that case, users can simply comment on the individual review thread, rather than the original product review thread. So if both happen automatically, I spoke way too soon, meaning this is sort of what I'm looking for.

Again, don't get me wrong, it's an awesome mod and works fine! I'm guessing it's just the setting up which is the hard part, for it to work perfectly.

Edit: Also, thanks for your continuous support on this, I'm sure many would agree that's a big plus .