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 Morrus

I tried both {vb:raw createddate} and {vb:var createddate} but neither of them work.

(vb:date createddate} just gives me Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00.

When you look at your database, are there values on those fields in the pf_ tables?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Shinkaze

Very cool (and needed) mod. I just installed it and am setting everything up. However the image uploader does not appear to work well with my version of vB (4.2.2). I have set the CHMOD for the upload directory a directed to 777, but am still getting a failed to open stream error on upload of images?

According to the error, your file path is incorrect. Be sure it's set from the root of your server, not just the root location you FTP into which is likely a far higher level.

Also some functions I need to update, hence the depreciated warnings. These aren't nice but won't impact the function.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

prodforums_matches_bit isn't the right one - I meant where the actual review is. I guess it's a postbit template?

I've attached an image which hopefully explains it!

Ahh.

Viewing a review is actually just viewing a post/ thread. While there's index data, the module simply creates new posts when a review is posted to allow for the discussion to continue.

As such, you'd have to append the link to the post before it's created.

There's no hook location that's ideal for this in the module but if you add your code around line 407, you should be good. I'll add one to the next release for portability.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Now, can I copy that over to the product listing part of the file? And, if so, is there then a way I can use that $history thing (variable?) in the template to determine whether or not to display a link to review a product or a note that the user already has reviewed it?

Not sure where you want to use this? Can you rephrase or provide a url (remove your domain if you wish, I just need the forum part)?

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Ted S

When you look at your database, are there values on those fields in the pf_ tables?

Oh, that was a while ago now! I figured it out. The variable wasn't registered (a concept I was not even aware of 5 days ago).

I had to learn how to register variables for use with templates. But before that, I had to work out where the code was, and it took me a couple of days to work out it was in a plugin, and what a plugin was.

Still, I got there eventually. Took a while!

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Not sure where you want to use this? Can you rephrase or provide a url (remove your domain if you wish, I just need the forum part)?

I have buttons around the place saying "Review this!". I would like them not to appear if the user has already reviewed it.

Example:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/productforums.php

As you can see every item has a button at present.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Oh, that was a while ago now! I figured it out. The variable wasn't registered (a concept I was not even aware of 5 days ago).

I had to learn how to register variables for use with templates. But before that, I had to work out where the code was, and it took me a couple of days to work out it was in a plugin, and what a plugin was.

Still, I got there eventually. Took a while!

What ones did you add in (so I can be sure to port it to the next update)?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Morrus

I have buttons around the place saying "Review this!". I would like them not to appear if the user has already reviewed it.

Example:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/productforums.php

As you can see every item has a button at present.

Gotcha.

You could use that query though it will add more load as it's coming up on every view to those pages.

To minimize, run it on logged in users only (simple check that there is a userid set). Then use $history with your templates to decide if the button shows or not. I can help if you get stuck in any of that.

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Ted S

What ones did you add in (so I can be sure to port it to the next update)?

I wouldn't worry. My version of the product is so different to yours now that I'm never going to be able to use any updated versions!

My current bugbear is showing product info (rating, number of reviews, etc.) in the umatches_bit template. The PHP code in that area of productforums.php is too complex for me to play with, with all its arrays and loops and stuff.

[gfran5]

Am i able to have this without it being displayed on forumhome? Want it just to be accessed through the nav bar...