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.

[Harpo]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'll try relabeling. Stupid me, which templates do I edit?

[UK CHI3F]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Pop open productreviews.php and about a third of the way down is the ranking routine. You can manually change the default.

Awesome just for everyones elses reference its line 139/140

// sort up or down
	$sortorder = strtolower($sortorder);
	if ($sortorder != 'asc')
	{
		$sortorder = 'asc';
		$oppositesort = 'desc';

Change the $sortorder to 'asc' like we have

Thanks Ted

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by UK CHI3F

Awesome just for everyones elses reference its line 139/140

// sort up or down
    $sortorder = strtolower($sortorder);
    if ($sortorder != 'asc')
    {
        $sortorder = 'asc';
        $oppositesort = 'desc';

Change the $sortorder to 'asc' like we have

Thanks!

[ludachris]

I know there is no live demo site to look at, but can anyone share a live installation so we can poke around a little to see how it works in a community environment? I for one would just like to see how it's being used.

[ludachris]

Would just like to confirm something on the functionality - the admin is able to specify usergroups who can add products, correct? Are they able to add products on the front end or do they have to have ACP access? Can they edit product info (as well as affiliate links) without going into ACP after the product is posted?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by ludachris

Would just like to confirm something on the functionality - the admin is able to specify usergroups who can add products, correct? Are they able to add products on the front end or do they have to have ACP access? Can they edit product info (as well as affiliate links) without going into ACP after the product is posted?

Correct, product additions are a usergroup level permission as well as an overall mod option.

Users add products on the frontend but can not upload photos directly. URLs to external links can however be sync'd.

Users can not add to products after the fact or change links.

1.4 will update both those last points and may allow multiple stores per product.

[ludachris]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Correct, product additions are a usergroup level permission as well as an overall mod option.

Users add products on the frontend but can not upload photos directly. URLs to external links can however be sync'd.

Users can not add to products after the fact or change links.

1.4 will update both those last points and may allow multiple stores per product.

So editing the product information and links would have to be done in ACP then?

When do you estimate 1.4 to be ready, roughly?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by ludachris

So editing the product information and links would have to be done in ACP then?

Yes. Only an admin will have access to approve / update an item.

Originally Posted by ludachris

When do you estimate 1.4 to be ready, roughly?

I have no real estimate yet as we haven't had the level of input / requests we look for before starting changes. Thus right now our focus is on working with forums to insure the mod fits, works as intended and learn where we can take it.

[KeystoneAirsoft]

Hi all,

Ok I have added this to one of my sites and have an issue and a question pertaining to my issue as well as another question.

My issue is when I try to do a Review on a product and click submit I get this error message - Fatal error: Class 'vB_ActivityStream_Manage' not found in /home/xxxxxx/public_html/productforums.php on line 588. I noticed on page 88 of this post, post #1316 someone else had the same issue and in post #1318 located here you made mention of having a activity system installed. Now is this a completely different mod or one built into this one that I am overlooking?

Now my other question, I have a forum area for Product Reviews, now I have several sub category forums under product reviews(Forum ID 7) such as Spring Guns (Forum ID 8), CO2 Guns ( Forum ID 9), AEG's (Forum ID 10), Scopes(Forum ID 11), etc, etc. Is there a way to allow Reviews under each one of these sub categories instead of the main Forum Area?

Thanks much in advance.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by KeystoneAirsoft

My issue is when I try to do a Review on a product and click submit I get this error message - Fatal error: Class 'vB_ActivityStream_Manage' not found in /home/xxxxxx/public_html/productforums.php on line 588. I noticed on page 88 of this post, post #1316 someone else had the same issue and in post #1318 located here you made mention of having a activity system installed. Now is this a completely different mod or one built into this one that I am overlooking?

The activity stream is a default part of vBulletin 4.

What version of 4 are you running?

Originally Posted by KeystoneAirsoft

Now my other question, I have a forum area for Product Reviews, now I have several sub category forums under product reviews(Forum ID 7) such as Spring Guns (Forum ID 8), CO2 Guns ( Forum ID 9), AEG's (Forum ID 10), Scopes(Forum ID 11), etc, etc. Is there a way to allow Reviews under each one of these sub categories instead of the main Forum Area?

Add your products to the respective forum categories and the reviews will be included as post replies to them.