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Book Reviews 1.0.1

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Overview FAQ Updates (2) Reviews (8) History Discussion
Rob said:
Is everyone able to wait until the resource manager is released? I have a strong feeling that it will include a lot of the functionality needed for this system I would far rather extend the resource manager core than work on something from scratch which duplicates much of the RM. Just an idea but I think it makes sense to see what the RM is capable of.
Click to expand...
I agree. RM is the dark horse here and we don't want to spend time and energy to do something that may come with RM.
 
The Pet Board said:
So Azhria Lilu can we sponsor a new application with you to get an addon that does general reviews and could be compatible with amazon associates as well as other affiliate systems? It seems like there is a large demand for this and I am sure we could raise enough money to make it happen. :)
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Rob and I have already discussed this :) So I will direct you to Rob's post above mine :D
 
Rob said:
Is everyone able to wait until the resource manager is released? I have a strong feeling that it will include a lot of the functionality needed for this system I would far rather extend the resource manager core than work on something from scratch which duplicates much of the RM. Just an idea but I think it makes sense to see what the RM is capable of.
Click to expand...

Guess that all depends on when the RM is going to be out. ;)
 
It didn't take very long to modify the templates and phrases to get something close to what would be a nice add-on for product review. The challenge is the ASIN and being tied to Amazon, a very good reason to wait for the RM.

Anyway - here is my tinkering.

Screen Shot 2012-05-16 at 11.49.31 PM.webp
 
Alfa1 said:
What is a library mod? Is that a directory? Or something more specific to books?

Reviews is a directory by definition. For example the difference between a business directory and a reviews directory is only, that the latter has ratings and comments.

Currently I see a lot of demand for a full blown reviews addon for XenForo, vbulletin and IPB. Similar threads are to be found at all 3 communities.
Click to expand...

FYI: LPH tweaked the book reviews mod.
 
It seems as if people have a very different idea of what they would need for reviews! Some of them only use a few fields, allowing the reviewer to type in most of the review. Others, like mine, constrain the review intentionally so that many particular fields of information are entered - but still allow comments.

I hacked mine together back in 1998, so it definitely is showing its' age. Still, it gives an idea of what I would need in terms of functionality.

Examples: Input forum
http://www.hearth.com/ratings/stoveratings.php
(this is simple form, but some fields are populated by the existing db or else limited to what I decide could be input).

Output: http://www.hearth.com/ratings/art.php?id=1620

Searching - my setup has poor searching, but good enough for now.
http://www.hearth.com/ratings/search.php
Ideally, there would be a lot more options for listing by age of the reviews, number of stars, etc.

Many of my users know the brand(s) they want to search for, so the populated drop down works good.

Moderated - since my form is outside of any CMS, each entry is emailed to me - and I click a link in the entry to either delete it or publish it.

Editable - mine are not editable by the user because of not being tied in.

Comments - mine does not allow other comments by others on a particular review. This may not be a good thing anyway.

Any XF system I might move to would have to have the ability for the same fields and to import my existing (over 1200) reviews. It would also have to have some advantages.

Updates and editing might be an advantage. The ability to limit each person to no more than X reviews also. Upload of related pics would be a neat thing. Etc.
 
The Pet Board said:
I would love to buy this mod if you could create categories of items like books, video games, movies etc. I already do a lot of amazon associates marketing and this would be a great way to have a forum to do just that will all amazon products!
Click to expand...

I agree, especially movies. That would open things up a lot for this add-on.
 
Really impressive add-on. Thanks for the great work.

I only have two issues with this right now, which I hope are future releases:
  1. Will it be incorporated to work with XF search (ES as well)?
  2. Will it have multiple listing error correction, ie. by ISBN so that a book cannot be listed more than once?
 
Oh... also found you hadn't cached your frontend phrases globally, thus adding a query for each phrase as required to the front-end page loading.
 
Nice catch Anthony. I wasn't sure whether or not to cache them since book reviews is only a small section of a website.

Someone correct me if I am wrong but if every mod's phrases were globally cached then wouldnt this increase the resources needed on the server? It seems as though this would be a 'personal preference' borderline case.

I'm new to coding for xenforo so my thinking here may be way off base.
 
I believe backend you don't cache them for the reason you mentioned, though anything front-end actually adds another query, as XF compresses all global phrases and sends them to the front-end in a single query, thus the load is reduced compared to creating a query for every phrase at the front-end, not more. ACP... hey, there is only one or two admins accessing that.

I think it's more the evil factor that performance is negligible when caching phrases and sending them in a single query compared to crashing your DB by overloading it with queries.
 
Thanks for this :)

Is there a way to create a thread from a review automatically?

Also, can people post more than one review for each book or will/can they be restricted to one review per book?
 
Renada there are likely to be two types of reviews.
The Amazon type "Book Reviews" I think you can have a series of reviews.
The Library Template type there would be one starter review, like an article. Then others can be posted on its forum thread.
[EDIT] Also it's very easy to attach a thread to the review. You just browse to the thread you want.
 
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