What would you like to see in a Reviews module?

Now is your chance to make suggestions as I am working on a Review module - it's still in very early stages and some features may be easier to add at this stage than later on.

Thanx for creating a review module. I wanted to make one too, but I am not skilled enough to do so ...

Then, if you agree, I will try to give you ideas, and will enjoy helping you in the module development.

First of all : I think there must be a dinstinction between products and reviews : the admin handles the products (it might be ... anything. Users might e able to suggest new products, but it would be the admin's job to hanfdle them. The products need a description, keywords, a picture, and not much more.

The reviews need a rating (stars or numbers), and the admin should be able to create reviews item's : there is such a possibility in the "myreviews" module, but it is not developped anymore. The reviewers also need a field for writing the pro's they see in the product, the con's, and a field for the review in itself.

Finally, what is also important is the way the reviews are displayed :

I would be pleased if the product summary, picture, average notation of the reviewers, etc ... remains in the upper screen, and the reviews would be just under.

Don't hesitate to contact me for further discussions, I am very excited in seeing a reviewing module going under development.

Thanx for your work.

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Thanks

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I believe the URL format isn't such an issue with search engines like Google any more. However, I shall still look into implementing URL rewriting.

Well, I've wrestled with the idea of adding a field for a URL, but I decided against it as it will make the review add/edit form more complicated/cluttered and it would only allow for one URL. You can, however, still add a link in the "item details" box, which will allow for more than one URL. If you are worried about re-adding a lot of the same info in this field, a default template for it can be set in the preferences.

I've been looking for a great reviews module also! Its hard to find one out there that has all the features we need. I also would like it to have a star-based rating system (that USERS can rate.) Now, one thing that all the reviews modules I have found are missing is the ability for each topic/product/item you are reviewing to be listed only once. Like if you are reviwing item A, can all the reviews for item A be listed under the same heading with the star based rating system averaging out for the total number of rates/votes? That would be great. I wish I could make it myself but I cannot.

And like someone else said, aesthetics are also important. I was looking at your AM Reviews module and it seems that it could use a little pizazz. Like highlighting the subjects/categories or making them bold and stand out more. (Also increasing the font size of the categories might be good) Also maybe some colors (although nothing too out there) and a little emphasis on structure. Like putting lines between important sections, like your blocks do. Seems like a great start though!

Oh, ps. Is it possible also to include a search box that ONLY searches for reviews? That would be cool. And very important for me I would like to have it all visible to Anonymous users who are not logged in!

Thanks, this is great! I will check back soon.

And I am also using PHP and MySQL and Xoops 2.0.16. Thanks.
Would it also be possible to be able to view the reviews module as the main part of the site on the Home page or if not, at least as a block? I'm sure you already have some of these things but thanks for taking suggestions!

I adapted Myreviews to some of the features (listing) you gave just before.

You can see it in action here. It is not public yet, therefore there are no reviews yet. Just go under canon - objectifs and 4th page to see one item reviewed.

You can see it in action here.

I still have things to add, but I apprecciate the feature of being able to set your own categories of evaluation. That is great.

What is still missing most is xoops text editor, that is not implemented in myReviews.

If you want me to send the zip file of the adapted myreviews module, just contact me via questionphoto.net

Why not AM-reviews, but some features HAVE to be implemented, for example the ability to define different categories of evaluation for different categories of products (as in MyReviews).
Otherwise, Myreviews adapted as I have made meets my needs in the presentation aspect (list of items, click = details of the product + reviews).

I am available to help in AM-reviews if it goes where I would like to see it go.

Clare and zorglub, I'll try and answer both your posts in one.

The looks side of things: It's obviously not finished yet, so it's not that important just yet. However, AM Reviews does use for the most part use the default XOOPS CSS classes and IDs - an example being the listing of reviews for a certain category, these use the same classes in the default XOOPS CSS file as the news module does. Because of this, it is dependant on the theme used. This also means that the look can modified to match the site.

Multiple ratings: (the ability to add more than one rating per review, or "rating categories" as they are known in myReviews) I wasn't going to add this, or not at least until a future release. But this has been requested enough times that it has now been pushed up the list. I'm not exactly sure how to implement it just yet, but I'll look into it.

Text editor: AM Reviews already uses the default XOOPS DHTML editor, and should support the WYSIWYG editors such as SPAW, fckeditor, etc. Although, I have yet to check these.


zorglub, I would appreciate it if you could send me your modified copy of myReviews to andy{AT}sirium{DOT}net .