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 L2Insomnia

I would love to see this as well. I plan to use this for a hosting based community and sub-categories would really be needed. I will be trying this mod out over the next few weeks thanks!

Thanks and noted!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Afresh07

Is there an option (or one in the Near future) for mutiple pictures per product? I have this installed on my site and it looks great!

Also, my two cents the next great option would be to compare products? I think this would work great?

When the page is shared on Facebook? It does not share the image? Can that be repaired to work or NO?

There is not a multiple photo option but with the uploader that's easier to do than it was in the past so probably part of the next major release.

Product comparing is less likely as it takes a lot of data structure and that's hard when you have disparate product types between communities [and in many cases not products at all].

Facebook is an easy tweak as we just need to throw some meta data into the page. I'll see if I can do a patch-level release for that today.

[Afresh07]

Originally Posted by Ted S

There is not a multiple photo option but with the uploader that's easier to do than it was in the past so probably part of the next major release..

Awesome to hear, do you know when the next major release is expected, Just asking?

Originally Posted by Ted S

Product comparing is less likely as it takes a lot of data structure and that's hard when you have disparate product types between communities [and in many cases not products at all]...

Originally Posted by Ted S

Facebook is an easy tweak as we just need to throw some meta data into the page. I'll see if I can do a patch-level release for that today.

AWESOME---- > Happy, happy.. yay.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Afresh07

Awesome to hear, do you know when the next major release is expected, Just asking?

Not date is set, no features in progress. We build based on usage & interest... 1.3 this summer was a major, major update but we didn't see a huge spike in use so we've held towards more "core". Probably mid fall.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Afresh07

AWESOME---- > Happy, happy.. yay.

Give this version a whirl to add the facebook meta support... It's only single site tested so if something seems off revert.

[Mr Anarch]

Originally Posted by fwulfers

I tried this out on one of my sites but found the following issues that prevent me from using this, unfortunately. Unless I am missing something.

1) No sub-categories for main categories
2) No custom fields for each category

Looks like a great mod though, perhaps this will be available in a future version.

I would love to see these things as well!

[Stefan84]

while using the uploader, in core settings i must enter my path to the images folder. I created in my public_html/images/ folder a sub folder named products, and chmod it to 777. What do i enter in the core settings at images uploader path, i tryed alot but none worked..and yes GD and cUrl are enabled.

Image Upload Path: The absolute path images should be posted too [i.e. /var/www/home/forum/productimages chmod 0777]

[Stefan84]

Originally Posted by Stefan84

while using the uploader, in core settings i must enter my path to the images folder. I created in my public_html/images/ folder a sub folder named products, and chmod it to 777. What do i enter in the core settings at images uploader path, i tryed alot but none worked..and yes GD and cUrl are enabled.

Got it using /home/{loginname of website}/public_html/images/products/ in my case!

[Afresh07]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Give this version a whirl to add the facebook meta support... It's only single site tested so if something seems off revert.

Ill install it later on today and give you the heads up, if it worked fine or not !!!

Thanks !!!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Stefan84

Got it using /home/{loginname of website}/public_html/images/products/ in my case!

Tree paths are unique from host to host so while I'm glad you figured it out, others should be sure to check their settings before trying to jump in on this one or it can be a long, long guessing game.