Reviewpost presale inquiry

chinch · July 27th, 2005, 02:12 PM

I am looking to integrate a vB3 forum with review post and possibly later on photopost. Your website seems to tilt toward photopost and has very little info so hopefully you can answer a few basic questions and followups.

I have a comprehensive website, large forum and now wish to add a review database.

1. I want to use existing username, permissions and usergroups from vBulletin 3.x. Is this possible?

2. When reading "reviews" does the vBulletin member info such as USERTAGS, "join date" "post count", etc. appear?

3. Is there an easy way to "view all reviews written by this member" from a person's profile in vBulletin?

4. What is the typical method of a webmaster to prevent reviewpost from being used to "chat" about products (ie. eliminate followup and debate in reviews). I want all "discussion" on vBulletin and reviewpost to simply be a product review database.

5. Can you provide a few small websites where review post is in use? one of them on your homepage is not operating and the ford mustang site is dreadfully slow

6. what database backup/restore tools are available outside of myphpadmin.

7. can i limit registration to post reviews exclusively thru vB.

Thanks in advance.

Chuck S · July 27th, 2005, 02:44 PM

1. I want to use existing username, permissions and usergroups from vBulletin 3.x. Is this possible?

Yes your login is integrated and uses the vb3 user table. Your vb usergroups are imported into reviewpost admin and you set reviewpost permissions for each usergroup

2. When reading "reviews" does the vBulletin member info such as USERTAGS, "join date" "post count", etc. appear?

The user title posts register date and avatar if exists are shown on reviews

3. Is there an easy way to "view all reviews written by this member" from a person's profile in vBulletin?

We do not modify any vbulletin files at all since we are our own application.

4. What is the typical method of a webmaster to prevent reviewpost from being used to "chat" about products (ie. eliminate followup and debate in reviews). I want all "discussion" on vBulletin and reviewpost to simply be a product review database.

Product reviews are displayed in reviewpost under the actual product. If you want to enforce what is posted there you can define whether members can post reviews in the first place and if so you can even set to moderate them so they do not appear if not approved by you.

5. Can you provide a few small websites where review post is in use? one of them on your homepage is not operating and the ford mustang site is dreadfully slow

http://www.reeftalk.com/reviews

http://www.viperalley.com/viperrev

6. what database backup/restore tools are available outside of myphpadmin.

There is a backup utility in the admin section but that only works when mysql is installed on the same server as we need access to mysqldump to dump the database

7. can i limit registration to post reviews exclusively thru vB.

Registration of users is handled through Vbulletin when integrating with Vb

chinch · July 27th, 2005, 03:18 PM

thanks for the quick reply! great stuff. a few more if you don't mind...

8. regarding posting of reviews, i have GUEST posting in vBulletin disable. Is there a way allow "guests" to post Reviews?

8a. if so, can you require "approval" of guest reviews (via a moderator queue) but allow registered members to post reviews without requiring approval? this would be useful for an established community/forum while preventing spammers & shills to some degree.

9. is there an overview of the "search" features offered by reviewpost? Are there any hooks to integrate with the vBulletin forum search in any way?

10. from reading the support docs it seems styles from vB will integrate... please confirm that the forum headers and navbar from vB will appear on all review pages right?

11. is there any type of "trial or evaluation" time before or after purchase?

I know, I know... it sounds like i want a "review" addon to vBulletin and to an extent that is true w/ 10k forum members and zero "reviews" you gotta transition & merge seemlessly. Thanks again!

InterFX · July 27th, 2005, 03:37 PM

I implemented on one of my client sites @ http://www.christianmom.com... Click on reviews in the header menu, and you can see how it is integrated... (I use VB Advanced and VB 3.07

Hope this gives you some more more ideas from a user...

InterFX

Chuck S · July 27th, 2005, 03:59 PM

8. regarding posting of reviews, i have GUEST posting in vBulletin disable. Is there a way allow "guests" to post Reviews?

yes since usergroup permissions are set in reviewpost admin section you can set unregistered to post reviews

8a. if so, can you require "approval" of guest reviews (via a moderator queue) but allow registered members to post reviews without requiring approval? this would be useful for an established community/forum while preventing spammers & shills to some degree.

yes you can

9. is there an overview of the "search" features offered by reviewpost? Are there any hooks to integrate with the vBulletin forum search in any way?

We have our own search page and you can surely test it out right on Michael's site or anyother running reviewpost

http://www.viperalley.com/viperrev

10. from reading the support docs it seems styles from vB will integrate... please confirm that the forum headers and navbar from vB will appear on all review pages right?

yes they do

11. is there any type of "trial or evaluation" time before or after purchase?

Since our program is coded in php just like Vbulletin there is no trial or evalution available. Once you buy the program you own it for life

chinch · July 27th, 2005, 04:42 PM

thanks! nice work with the CM's site

one more question please - i think - before breaking out the CC/paypal

12. regarding google/search engine friendliness... is there any optimization in reviewpost (like vB but unlike phpBB) where google and yahoo WILL spider the reviews?

12a. if not is there any "hacks" or addons that would help making the review pages "search engine friendly".

Thanks and hopefully this helps others who might be evaluating the software (you guys need a "before you buy webmaster FAQ")

Chuck S · July 27th, 2005, 04:44 PM

12. regarding google/search engine friendliness... is there any optimization in reviewpost (like vB but unlike phpBB) where google and yahoo WILL spider the reviews?

Yes we have a spider friendly switch where you can make the urls more friendly by switching it on like so

http://www.reeftalk.com/reviews/show...p/product/1759

instead of the normal

http://www.reeftalk.com/reviews/show...p?product=1759

poseoff · March 1st, 2006, 11:50 PM

Kool! Exactly the sort of questions I was about to ask / post in this forum.

But it seems that everything's been answered thoroughly.

Chinch, do you still have any 'Before You Buy Webmaster FAQ' in hand that you might forgot to ask?

Also, have you bought this product at all? If so, can I see it in action pls?

Cheers!

chinch · March 2nd, 2006, 08:53 AM

working here:
http://www.jemsite.com/reviews/

orangeflea · May 16th, 2006, 03:49 PM

Quote:

4. What is the typical method of a webmaster to prevent reviewpost from being used to "chat" about products (ie. eliminate followup and debate in reviews). I want all "discussion" on vBulletin and reviewpost to simply be a product review database.

Back to this question.

1.) Can Reviewpost automatically limit the number of reviews/ratings a registered member can post? Like 1 review/rating per member?

2.) If I allow a guest to post, how will Reviewpost make sure that they don't try to "beef up" the score of a product by rating it over and over and over. Will it check that guest's IP and prevent him/her from doing it?

Chuck S · May 16th, 2006, 04:13 PM

1. No there is no limit to how many reviews a user can post

2. Yes it should check the IP address to check but realize on services like AOL and such IP's do dynamically change

orangeflea · May 16th, 2006, 08:53 PM

Quote:

1. No there is no limit to how many reviews a user can post

So a member can review one product multiple times, and I won't be able to do anything to stop that aside from moderating every single review entry? Come on, there's got to be a way for me to set it so a member can only post one review or one rating for the same product.

There's no "Prevent Double Review/Rating" feature?

Chuck S · May 16th, 2006, 08:57 PM

It used to be this way and users wanted to be able to post multiple reviews. You can alter your files if you wish yes.

orangeflea · May 16th, 2006, 10:52 PM

Well, if it used to be that way, then it is a matter of comparing and contrasting the code of the recent version with that of the previous. How exactly would I modify the code to allow a member to post only one review per product? Please don't direct me to the mod section, because the last time I asked a reasonable question there, I got no response, so unless there's already a solution waiting for me there, I'd rather not bother asking another question. This is the only thing preventing me from purchasing this product -- the only thing -- and it's a feature that should have been included anyway.

Chuck S · May 17th, 2006, 05:59 AM

well maybe something like this towards top of file

Code:

Content visible to verified customers only.

orangeflea · May 17th, 2006, 06:29 AM

Of which file, and are you certain it will work?

Chuck S · May 17th, 2006, 06:33 AM

I have not tested it but it should work since we use a variation of it lower in the file to make sure the message is not the same as one already in the reviews table.

The script to edit would be reviews.php and you would place it near this line.

Code:

Content visible to verified customers only.

orangeflea · May 17th, 2006, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

I have not tested it but it should work since we use a variation of it lower in the file to make sure the message is not the same as one already in the reviews table.

The script to edit would be reviews.php and you would place it near this line.

Code:

Content visible to verified customers only.

Well, like I said, I don't have Reviewpost yet and the only hold-up is this issue. Is there a way for you to confirm that this works, Chuck, because this issue is "buy or bye" for me. Don't you guys have a test board or something?

Chuck S · May 17th, 2006, 01:08 PM

Modifications are not supported by our company. I was simply posting something that should work for you being nice

It works for me as I posted but whatever mods you do and how you do them would be up to you here.