Major Additions - Plugin Pages CMS for vBulletin 3.8

Welcome to the Plugin Pages? CMS Beta page for vBulletin 3.8. This is the start of an exciting new capability for vBulletin forum owners, and we hope that you will be able to participate. We look forward to your feedback and input.

The best way to understand Plugin Pages is to see it. A very generic demo is available at http://pluginpages.com/forum/pages.php. This same demo catalog comes with the distribution kit.

Plugin Pages is a CMS that?s designed to create catalogs. The base catalog type is an Amazon product catalog. This will be followed by a Product Review catalog, a Coupons Catalog, and an Articles Catalog (2011 deliverables). After Plugin Pages goes Gold with the four basic catalog types, more catalog features will be added, including videos, recipes, vehicles, business/website listings, pets and more.

For a more complete overview of Plugin Pages, please see the first post or our website.

Plugin Pages Beta Process

At a minimum, we will visit this thread twice a day, Monday through Friday, to answer questions and provide support. All of the documentation and FAQs are on the PluginPages.com website. When we answer a new question here on vBulletin.org we will add it to the documentation. Please help us manage our workload by reading the FAQ and documentation to see if it answers your questions. If our documentation is unclear or not accurate, please let us know so we can fix it.

On completion of Beta Phase I we will introduce Plugin Pages for vBulletin 4. Our goal is to create a single distribution for vBulletin 3.8.x/4.1.x. We have no plans to support vBulletin 3.6 or 3.7 (good chance it is compatible, but not tested) or vBulletin 4.0.x.

With Beta Phase II we will introduce Article Catalogs for how-to articles. Article Catalogs allow you to publish your community?s best how-to content in an organized fashion to help support product catalog sales. Beta Phase III will introduce the first interactive catalogs for members, including Review Catalogs and Coupon Catalogs.

Requirements

This beta is for vBulletin 3.8.x only. It has not been tested on 3.7.x or 3.6.x, however it may work. We have not tested it. This beta version will not work on 4.x.x and we will not answer question about how to make it work on 4.x.x.

You will need an Amazon AWS account and a developer?s key so that you can access the Amazon catalog API. Don?t bother installing Plugin Pages until you have your AWS account and have the developer key and secret key. The catalog will not work without it.

API access to eBay, Commission Junction and Shopzilla are optional, however, you need access to at least one of the APIs to use the shopping comparison feature in Plugin Pages. We recommend joining all of these affiliate networks.

Google Adsense is also optional. If you don?t have or can?t get Adsense, you may use another ad delivery network.

Installation

The installation process is quick and easy. Upload the distribution files, import the Product XML file, and set permissions on several folders. That?s the install process in a nutshell.

Plugin Pages adds several tables to your database for catalog storage. It does not modify any vBulletin tables or files.

After installation you will need to add your affiliate network API key information and adjust a few setting for your site. We made every effort to make installation easy to get you up and running quickly.

Our demo catalog ships with the distribution kit. We highly recommend loading this catalog before attempting to make your own. It will help you learn and become familiar with all of the features so you can be on your way building your own catalog. If you have an automotive forum, please feel free to use and modify the demo catalog as much as you like.

In this first beta implementation we have added ?meta noindex? to the header area of all templates. We believe this is the right thing to do during the initial shakeout.

Also, we do not automatically add a link to your navigation bar. Once you decide how you want to use the catalog you can add your own link where ever it makes the most sense. We may change this in the future and make it an option.

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by Plugin Pete

I'm not using forum/thread/comment tables to store catalog data, so it will not be possible to list new reviews along with new posts/threads.

For vb4 will you be provide for a way to let new reviews/ comments show up in 'Whats new'? For example like this addon provides for: What's New - Reloaded

Within what time frame do you plan to materialize reviews and paid listings?

Will there be a GARS importer?

Do you plan to add Google Affiliate Network, Clickbank, Cafepress and Zazzle?

[Plugin Pete]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

For vb4 will you be provide for a way to let new reviews/ comments show up in 'Whats new'? For example like this addon provides for: What's New - Reloaded

Within what time frame do you plan to materialize reviews and paid listings?

Will there be a GARS importer?

Do you plan to add Google Affiliate Network, Clickbank, Cafepress and Zazzle?

I'm working on the vb4 templates now. Everything is going along pretty smooth, so I should have the same code base I released for 3.8 available late this week. At that point I will start on the templates for reviews. None of this is new, I originally built it for WordPress, so I'm simply converting from one template system to another and making the mods for user profiles, etc.

I was a GARS user for 5+ years. I didn't think about an importer, but it seems possible. I used GARS for articles, not reviews, so I will need to set it up and add review structures so I can see how the data is stored. For reviews I used the Censura system (a royal PITA!).

I will support the Google Affiliate Network, Pepperjam, Share-A-Sale and Linkshare. I'm not sure about the others yet. I did play around with creating an importer for Clickbank. If there is demand I can do it.

I have not decided on a sales model for the Pro version yet. I'm still looking and taking input.

Regarding your question about "What's New," to the extent that it is possible to provide this information without hacks to the original vB files, YES. So, if I can find the hooks to make it possible, I will do it.

[Alfa1]

Thanks Pete. I am using GARS for reviews and business directory. I have 11.000 entries in that. I'd like to use the business directory so that companies can buy expanded listings/reviews.

[Plugin Pete]

Alfa1, on my former community I integrated phpMyDirectory with my vB 3.x forum to allow vendors to buy listings and add products that would display in rotation in ad spots on the forum. It worked great, but it was a PITA to maintain.

I will be applying the phpMyDirectory concept to my Plugin Pages CMS. The goal would be to let any sponsor/advertiser have a listing in a "Sponsors" catalog and bid to have the button on a product catalog page link to their store.

I originally made this work the hard way by creating a web page spider that would scan and index all of my sponsor's stores. From the spider data I created a shopping comparison catalog using a system called Price Tapestry. When I lashed it all together, my sponsors got exposure from review pages, business listings and the shopping catalog.

My goal is to bring all of those same features together in a truly integrated system for vBulletin. Your input is appreciated.

Pete

[interfx]

I'm ready, when you have a VB4 beta ready to go...

What is your pricing model going to be for the PRO version? Shared affiliate or full price (willing to pay)

[Plugin Pete]

Originally Posted by interfx

I'm ready, when you have a VB4 beta ready to go...

What is your pricing model going to be for the PRO version? Shared affiliate or full price (willing to pay)

The vB4 beta should be ready by the end of the week. I need to finish cross browser compatibility.

I have not finalized anything on the Pro version. It's still to early for me to discuss.

Pete

[interfx]

Any update on the Vb4 beta?

[interfx]

Been another month. Any update?

[downloadsuk]

Hi,

We are very interested in this plugin and are waiting for the VB4 beta.

Pete - any updates?

Thanks,

[Alfa1]

Its too bad that the developer has gone missing and that the pluginpages site is gone.
This add-on had a lot of promise.