vBulletin LTS

[Chris] Reviews
Mod Version: 1.2.3, by Christos Teriakis

Demo: http://www.christeris.net/dev42/reviews.php Demo Accounts:
demouser1 / demopass1
demouser2 / demopass2
demouser3 / demopass3

1.- What's this mod?

Is better to say what is NOT . For sure is not that mod requested for years now at this thread. But is a good Reviews system for those who want to review one type of items (eg Games, Books, Autos etc) and one group of rating questions is ok for them. With the help of extra fields and a bit works from your side to configure it, you can have a very good reviews section in your site.

• Supports unlimited categories
• You can set the word that will be use in the pages to identify the type of your reviews (eg Game - Games, Book - Books etc)
• Supports Extra fields (but not searchable)
• Supports one group of rating questions (but unlimited questions)
• Supports users' reviews and overall rating
• Supports Headline, review text, positive points, negative points
• Supports Product photos or YouTube video if exists
• Has PM templates for:
  • PM user when admin approves his Review
  • PM user when admin rejects Review
• Revier can temporary hide the review and a later time he can activate it again.
• There are listings for:
  • Category Reviews
  • Timeframe (What's New) Reviews
  • User Reviews
  • Search Results
• In view Review page the visitor can see also:
  • Editor Rating
  • Community Rating
  • Lowest Rating
  • Highest Rating
  • Editor other reviews on sidebar
• In all pages there are available the follow blocks having the appearance of widgets:
  • Category Menu
  • Search Form
  • Statistics
  • Top Editor Products (Games, Books, etc)
  • Top Community Products
  • New Reviews
  • New Community Ratings
• RSS Feeds for latest 10 reviews
• Facebook Like Advanced (Shows users who liked a review)
• ver.1.1.0 Added a setting to allow or not Audio files (in case that you want to review music). Default is OFF. If you turn on then the users can hear the audio file with the included (simple) audio player.

2.- Installation

1. Download and unzip the file Reviews_XXXX.zip
2. Upload the content of upload folder to the directory where your vB installation is. As a check: reviews.php must be on the same directoru as global.php, forum.php etc. SL Reviews are not working out of vB installation directory.
3. CMOD 777 the directories:
   1. christeris/reviews/photos
   2. christeris/reviews/photos/thumbs
   3. christeris/reviews/photos/tmp
4. Goto Admincp and import product-reviews.xml. Double check before if you have another product with the same name.
5. Set the various settings in Reviews->General settings
6. Set usergroup permissions
7. Check and modify if you want PM templates.
8. Set categories
9. Set Extra fields (in case that you want them).
10. Set Rating Questions
11. *** ATTENTION *** Double check that rating questins are ok before starting adding reviews. After the first review you CAN'T Add/Edit/Delete questions.

3.- SEO URLs

• If you're using vbSeo open the file Reviews_vBSEO_Custom_Rewrite_Rules.txt and add them to your vbSeo installation.
• If you're using .htaccasse file copy the contents of htaccess.txt and add it to your current .htaccess files. If you don't have such file and your server is compatible with such files, upload htaccess.txt to your vB directory and rename it to: .htaccess

4.- CMS Widget / Forum Sidebar block for Latest Reviews

1. Pre-Installation:
   1. Shows latest 5 Reviews. If you want to change the number to another value change at 1st line: $maxreviews = 5;
2. Installation as CMS Widget
   1. Goto Admincp-> vBulletin CMS-> Widgets
   2. Click "Create New Widget" at the list bottom
   3. Set Widget Type: PHP Direct Execution
   4. Give a Title which appears at the widget. eg Last Reviews, or.. Last 5 Reviews etc
   5. Click SAVE
   6. Find in the list the new widget and click configure at the right side
   7. Replace the example code, with the code from Widget_Block_Latest_Reviews.txt
   8. Click Save
   9. Goto Layout and add it in any section you want
   10. Click Save (Layout)
3. Installation as Forum sidebar Block
   1. Goto Admincp-> Forums & Moderators -> Forum Block Manager
   2. Click Add Block
   3. In the next screen "Select block type: Custom HTML/PHP"
   4. Click Continue
   5. Title: Latest Reviews
   6. Content Type: PHP
   7. Content: Copy & Paste the code from Widget_Block_Latest_Reviews.txt
   8. Click Save. The block will be now visible to your forum sidebar

5.- Copyright link

Since the time that DBTech released their Copyright Manager, I've removed my own copyrights. I found their action insulting me to maximum. Their wording "Site is powered by vBulletin AddOns and Modules by Dragonbyte Tech" (and not "Some parts of this site"), means that everything there is their own work, ignoring on the worst way the fact that there are 100's of other coders and designers who are supporting this community for years. So, I'm letting the glory to them. No copyrights from my side.

Enjoy it
Christos Teriakis
aka ChrisTERiS