Review Fields (for User Reviews)

[Hentai]

Right now we only have two review subsets "pros" and "cons".

I would love for future versions to Showcase to add admin defined review criteria (along with possible minimum length/optional required field) for showcase item reviews. For example lets say my Showcase is about indie video games. I would like people to review various aspects of said games so the criteria I would ask for specific text might include "Graphics" "Sound" "Gameplay" etc.

 

[Bob]

Interesting concept. Im working on review type functionality right now, so this is something I can slip into immediately (don't take that as it will be done, just that I am able to fit some R&D time in on it).

 

[petrolskin]

Something that we can bind to the item category would be really cool.

 

[Bob]

Something that we can bind to the item category would be really cool.

Ya, it would definitely be similar to prefixes and custom fields where you create it and then assign it to one or more categories.

 

[SchmitzIT]

I would really like it if we'd be able to add or remove fields in the Review part of the add-on, from the admin panel, kind of like it's already possible to add fields to categories.

 

[Bob]

I've done my own R&D into this (quite a bit actually), however, I'd love to hear MORE from those that are wanting this.... the more INFO (detailed info) the better. This is one of those things that there are so many different way's of doing it, so I really need to here more details to make sure I implement it the way users want it.

NOTE: TIME HAS LONG SINCE PASSED FOR INPUT. This suggestion is FEATURE LOCKED!

 

[Bob]

Something that we can bind to the item category would be really cool.

It can't be binded to the ITEM, but they can and will be binded to a category (or multiple categories). Review Fields will be just like Item Custom Fields, cept they are for each individual User Review. So for example, you can create a Rating Field called Quality and assign that to Category A, C, F, G, Z and then when users review items in those categories, there will now be a 5 star rating for Quality on the form. You won't be limited to just Stars either, you can add all the same types of inputs that are available on the Item Fields (text, textarea, dropdown, multi select etc). The only one I am unsure about is whether I am going to allow the EDITOR one (IMO, its overkill).

 

[C.Birch]

@Bob knows i have done something like this to Showcase myself.


But it would be so much better if it was tied into the reviews system.

• Each category should let you pick what review fields you wish to use, it should also let you pick if you want an average (overall) rating to be displayed, based on how you voted in the fields.
• The fields there self should let you pick the rating type, eg 1-5 stars, 1-5 (tick box), 1-10 stars and so on and also add a description to display to users.
• If using stars the stars should be showed on the review page as a graphic interface (like above).
• The ratings should be displayed with the reviews and you should also show a total overall rating based on all user views.
• The user who posted the item, should be able to to a author review, that is a stand alone review, ratings. eg like this:

Left being the authors review score and the right being the average rating based on all the user reviews scores.

 

[Bob]

@C.Birch I appreciate the input, however, its a bit late as I am already done with the actual development and am now in the testing/tweaking phase. You'll have to save your idea(s) for future enhancement of the Review Fields System.

 

[C.Birch]

Will do look forward to it because I might just have a use for it on a new project i 'might' do next.

 

[petrolskin]

It can't be binded to the ITEM, but they can and will be binded to a category (or multiple categories). Review Fields will be just like Item Custom Fields, cept they are for each individual User Review. So for example, you can create a Rating Field called Quality and assign that to Category A, C, F, G, Z and then when users review items in those categories, there will now be a 5 star rating for Quality on the form. You won't be limited to just Stars either, you can add all the same types of inputs that are available on the Item Fields (text, textarea, dropdown, multi select etc). The only one I am unsure about is whether I am going to allow the EDITOR one (IMO, its overkill).

That sounds great Bob look forward to having a look when the Beta is out.

 

[Bob]

That sounds great Bob look forward to having a look when the Beta is out.

Sneak Peek.... this is a screen shot of editing an existing user review. You can now change the rating and as you can see, there are a couple Review Fields (2 rating fields and 1 single-line text box). There are 4 locations for Review Fields (Top - below Title and Rating, Middle - above Summary, Bottom - Below Summary and Self Place (meaning you can edit the review template and place the field above the title or between pros and cons for example).

 

[Bob]

I would really like it if we'd be able to add or remove fields in the Review part of the add-on, from the admin panel, kind of like it's already possible to add fields to categories.

DONE DEAL!

Showcase now has a COMPLETE Review Fields system that works exactly like the Custom Fields System does for Showcase Items. As seen below, there is a new Menu Option "Review Fields" under the Showcase Application. Just like Custom Fields, the land page is a listing of ALL fields grouped by LOCATION (Top, Middle, Bottom and Self Placement).




The CREATE FORM looks and works pretty much the same as the one for Custom Fields does. The differences start with the "Display Location". Since this is only for USER REVIEWS, the only locations that can be used are on the User Review itself. There are 3 set locations (Top, Middle and Bottom) and I also included the ADVANCED option for self placement. There are also a "secondary" display locations (currently only 1). This simply exposes the data for use in blocks and widgets that come with Showcase (you'll need to modify the block/widget to display what you want).

Field Types. There is a NEW Field Type called "rating". This is a STAND ALONE 5 Star Rating field. Stand alone means that its not connected to other rating fields or effects an "overall" rating field in any way. You can also create all the other types of fields that are a standard part of Custom Fields in XenForo with ONE exception..... Rich Text Box. IMO, its just OVERKILL for a user review.

General Options: You can make any field REQUIRED, you can choose which category(s) that are associated with the field and you can add your own Value Display HTML (Advanced options).




There is a new TAB in the Category Edit/Create form that allows you quick management of Review Fields for that specific Category.




Here is a screen shot of the Rate & Review overlay displaying the custom fields created above. You can see that there are 2 "Rating" fields and 1 Text Input field.




And here is what it looks like when viewing the User Reviews. The 2 rating fields are displaying in the TOP location and the Text field is displaying in the MIDDLE position. As you can see, when fields are not required and not filled out, they don't display at all (the 2nd review doesn't have the TEXT in the middle position). You can also see that the 2 Rating Fields in the 3rd review have NO effect on the actual "RATING" (which in itself is a stand alone rating).




Here is a shot of the new EDIT and you will notice that RATING (the top one) is now EDITABLE (yes, users can now CHANGE their ratings on reviews).

 

[Bob]

This has been marked as IMPLEMENTED and will be available starting with SC 2.3.0 Beta 3

 

[petrolskin]

Awesome work @Bob

 

[3rd angle]

Great work Bob.. Am traveling but had to log in to check and appreciatr how good it is.. :thumbsup:

 

[petrolskin]

Bob how does the aggregation of custom review fields work across items and categories? In the example above if we take custom paint with a 5 star rating for that item. How is the following shown:

Aggregation of custom paint for all user reviews for that item?
Aggregation of custom paint across a category?

For example a drivers performance across the Monaco Grand Prix and also across all Grand Prix for the season?

 

[Bob]

how does the aggregation of custom review fields work

There is no such thing. All custom fields (to include the rating fields) are static for each specific user review. This applies to User Fields, Resource Fields, Item fields etc.

 

[petrolskin]

There is no such thing. All custom fields (to include the rating fields) are static for each specific user review. This applies to User Fields, Resource Fields, Item fields etc.

What table / field are they stored in Bob? Could I get a query to pull all the review ratings across an item and review custom field. Do some math and then either insert into a new custom field (say average rating)?

 

[Bob]

The canonical values are stored in the xf_nflj_showcase_review_field_value, however, there is no ITEM_ID stored, just the rate_review_id, so you can't do direct queries to that table to fetch anything for a specific item. You'd have to first fetch the rate_review_id's for a given item, then fetch based on those.

The CACHE values are stored in 2 fields, one in the Category record that the Item associated with the Review belongs to named 'review_field_cache' and the other is in the review record (xf_nflj_showcase_rate_review table) itself named 'custom_review_fields'. That data is serialized in stored in a BLOB. To access it, you need to fetch the record and then unserialize the data.