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

===========================

Installation is not upload & go... individualized settings are required. Read the install file.

===========================
QUICK TIPS:
===========================

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 Chadi

I have a question, how would users submit reviews? Do they submit only reviews but not ability to submit products themselves? In other words, only admin can add new products?

I set my dedicated forum to enable the "Enable Product Review Forum Features?" option. It works, but when submitting a "new thread" in that forum, I see the regular looking editor and nothing related to product reviews. Is this normal?

There's a link to add a product on the product forums overview page (/productforums.php) which will be activated when a user is able to add products (it's both a usergroup setting and overall option).

You can add this link to other forums / navigation areas as you see fit.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Chadi

I just got a copy of the xml feed from Christian Book Group, 408Mb in size. How can I import this, since its such a large file?

Also, I asked the dev about the proper format and he replied with

You've got two issues here: the structure and the size. Since the structure is different you can't use the import script in it's current format and will need to adjust it to map to the file you've been given, or import the file into something like access and export with the right field names. It's a close fit, no red flags on the data.

More importantly however you can't process a 408 mb XML file through the browser and will need to have the import script turned into a server-side routine to run via shell command against the file uploaded through FTP.

[Chadi]

Originally Posted by Ted S

There's a link to add a product on the product forums overview page (/productforums.php) which will be activated when a user is able to add products (it's both a usergroup setting and overall option).

You can add this link to other forums / navigation areas as you see fit.

I'm confused, I set the "New Product Forum ID" and the link is http://www.talkjesus.com/product-reviews/

How come its not redirecting me to that php page? Even the navbit breadcrumbin the mod itself is taking me to http://www.talkjesus.com/product-reviews/

Also, I left a review and all I got was this page with no content?
http://www.talkjesus.com/productforu...es&productid=2

Product page still says not yet rated when I left it a 5 star rating. It also put my post in moderation first?

Thanks for your help

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Chadi

I'm confused, I set the "New Product Forum ID" and the link is http://www.talkjesus.com/product-reviews/

How come its not redirecting me to that php page? Even the navbit breadcrumbin the mod itself is taking me to http://www.talkjesus.com/product-reviews/

Also, I left a review and all I got was this page with no content?
http://www.talkjesus.com/productforu...es&productid=2

Product page still says not yet rated when I left it a 5 star rating. It also put my post in moderation first?

Thanks for your help

You've got all sorts of different things going on here...

1 - Using a url modifier script will change how mods work. This script is /productforums.php but you may have to exclude that, filter it, edit some ruleset for it to work. vBSEO and the like will not recognize this mod just because you install it.

2 - If the product says no reviews you've set admin moderation in the mod settings.

3 - If the post is in moderation check your forum settings. The mod overrides basic controls but can't stop a full blown locked forum from locking

4 - Blank pages spell errors. Check your server log for a hint of what happened -- if there's no review in the backend {admin} then you know why it won't show up in the frontend {user side}.

[Chadi]

Ted,

Do you think if I renamed the fields from that file to match your format (after reducing it to about 50MB worth of products) it will work?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Chadi

Ted,

Do you think if I renamed the fields from that file to match your format (after reducing it to about 50MB worth of products) it will work?

50mb of text is still thousands of products, likely tens of thousands. You can try it but you'll likely time the browser out on the upload alone.

[tonymacx86]

Hi Ted,

Fantastic mod! I only have two issues at the moment, and I'm sure they are both from something I am doing wrong. It's basically a vanilla installation with the only change I made being changing the name of "productforums.php" to a different name.

1. The product list page isn't showing the price. It is on the product pages in the admin, however.

2. The detail page that loads (when you click to view more info) doesn't have any of the product details; it's just a post with a title.

Thanks for your help!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by tonymacx86

1. The product list page isn't showing the price. It is on the product pages in the admin, however.

Are you talking about productforums.php or a product thread page? Does the value show as blank or just no price line at all?

Originally Posted by tonymacx86

2. The detail page that loads (when you click to view more info) doesn't have any of the product details; it's just a post with a title.

Did you enable the mod in the forum you are adding products too?

[tonymacx86]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Are you talking about productforums.php or a product thread page? Does the value show as blank or just no price line at all?



Did you enable the mod in the forum you are adding products too?

Hi Ted,

I did forget to enable the mod on the forum I had setup for it, which solved the 2nd question. In regards to the price on productforums.php - it doesn't display anything. If I inspect the element there's nothing in it at all.

[Ted S]

Please post up a link.