Scot, thanks for creating this wonderful module. While searching for the best review module (which I believe should be like what Amazon uses), I ended up with yours and NodeReview. Here are my initial thoughts:

Reviews - Advantages
1) Stable
2) Moderation before publication

NodeReview - Advantages
1) Works with Fivestar
2) Users can leave comments on reviews

In my mind, the ideal review module is one that has all 4 things I mentioned above. So do you think you might be able to incorporate NodeReview's advantages into Reviews? Or if you want Reviews to remain simple, maybe maintain both modules since you've perfected one of them already? NodeReview has a strong foundation because it was originally developed by Crell (aka Larry Garfield) and just needs a good developer like yourself to properly port to D7. Its instability is the main reason why I'm not already using it for my D7 startup (http://collectiboard.com), which can be a perfect showcase of whichever module I eventually choose for others to preview before downloading and using it themselves.

I'm not skilled enough to do this myself, but I'm a very good beta tester and I'm willing to provide timely feedback if that helps. I also write good content regarding Drupal (http://jayl.ee/blog/2012/10/22/how-to-use-launchrock-with-drupal is a good example) and want to eventually write a blog post for Drupal's ultimate review module, so I was hoping you'd be interested. Let me know, thanks!

Comments

scot.hubbard’s picture

scot.hubbard commented

Hi Jay,

Leave this with me - I'll take a look.

Scot.

jay.lee.bio’s picture

jay.lee.bio commented

Scot, I found another similar module that is based on entities called Reply that you should also look into. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a review needs to be an entity / node for it to be used with comments & Fivestar.

I should also mention that an Amazon-style review feature can theoretically be built using Field Collection (which already works with Fivestar), if the following two problems were fixed:

1) The Field Permissions module has issues with it, making it impossible for anyone other than the author of the content to write a review about it.
2) It still doesn't support commenting.

Reply's advantage over Field Collection is that the permission settings for it actually work perfectly, but doesn't support commenting from Drupal core (it let's you Reply to a Reply, which I think is wrong) & also doesn't work with Fivestar.

Sorry if I posted needless information. I just wanted to let you know everything I know so far, how close I am and yet no cigar. I hope you're making progress on your end. Let me know if anything I said needs more explanation.

scot.hubbard’s picture

scot.hubbard commented

Hi Jay Lee,

Due to other commitments I don't plan on doing any major work on this module, and from what I can see, making it entity driven would be almost a complete re-write. So for the time being it will remain as is - unless you'd like to submit a patch?!

Thanks,
Scot.

scot.hubbard’s picture

scot.hubbard commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)
jay.lee.bio’s picture

jay.lee.bio commented

Thanks for the reply Scot. For what it's worth, I was told by a hardcore developer friend (thanks to Bill Bostick, who said that each comment in D7 looks for a node ID in the database) that a review currently needs to be a node for it to be able to be commentable using Drupal core. Also, Reply actually does work with Fivestar so I was wrong on that one. In conclusion:

1) Reviews: Use it if you need simple reviews. It's stable.
2) Reply: Use it if you need Fivestar integration. Alpha release due shortly. It's based on entities though, so cannot be integrated with comments from Drupal core.
3) NodeReview: Use it if you need Amazon-style reviews. Unstable with errors, but core features do work.

So I think Reviews can stay this way in its simplest form. However, I will be posting bug reports for NodeReview in its issue queue, so feel free to help out if you can. If a few major bugs can be fixed, I think I can actually start using it. Thanks for everything!

scot.hubbard’s picture

scot.hubbard commented

Hi Jay Lee,

Thanks for your update.

Just for the record this module was only ever intended as a simple review system, so hopefully I have met my own brief!

Thanks,
Scot.

jay.lee.bio’s picture

jay.lee.bio commented

Scot, yes you did really well. That's why there are 10 ways to do anything in Drupal. It also looks like a couple of developers are stepping up to the plate to fix NodeReview's errors, so I'm happy. :D

jay.lee.bio’s picture

jay.lee.bio commented

Scot, apparently there has been interesting developments that might enable this module to provide me with what I need:

1) Fivestar: https://drupal.org/node/2066787
2) Comments: https://drupal.org/project/field_comments

I'll try to test these out shortly and will report back with results.

jay.lee.bio’s picture

jay.lee.bio commented

Dang, it turns out that Field Comments don't work with this module. :(