Multi-axis Review System using Fivestar with Views Implementation for Drupal 6

Tutorial Objective:

Create a simple rating/review system with a Drupal 6 installation and the latest stable versions of the following modules:

• Fivestar
• Voting API
• CCK

This tutorial was written based on testing performed in the following environment:

• Windows Vista Home Edition
• Apache 2.2.8, PHP 5.2.6, MySQL 5.0.51a
• Drupal 6.11
• CCK 6.x-2.2
• Fivestar 6.x-1.15
• Voting API 6.x-2.0-rc2

This tutorial will use two content types created using CCK - "Product" and "Review". "Product" is the target node type, or in other words, the node type that is being reviewed by users. Users can submit reviews of Product's using the "Review" node type. The "Review" node type will contain the Fivestar CCK fields that users will use to rate the Product nodes. A multi-axis review system will be demonstrated. The multi-axis review system will consist of reviews that allows users rate a Product in more than one category (e.g. Reliability and Value instead of a single Overall Rating).

Step 1: Create the Product node type using CCK and create a Product

Create a new node type called "Product". IMPORTANT: CHECK THE "ENABLE FIVESTAR RATING" BOX UNDER THE "FIVESTAR RATINGS" FIELDSET. Votes made by the Review content type will not be calculated unless this box is checked. Then select "Hidden" under "Teaser Display" and "Full node display". This will hide the rating widget on the Product nodes (we don't want the widget on the product nodes, we want it on the Review nodes). Save this content type and create a Product node titled "Product A". Note the URL of this node as you will need to come back to it later.

Step 2: Create the Review node type with multiple rating fields using CCK and create a Review node

Create a new node type called "Review". Save the node and add a node reference field with the label "Select the product you wish to review" and field name "product_reference". Make the field a required field and check the "Product" node type under "Content types that can be referenced". Save the field and add a Fivestar rating field with the label "Reliablity Rating" and field name "reliability". Make the field a required field and under "Voting target" select the node reference field "field_product_reference". PHP CODE IS NOT NEEDED -- LEAVE BLANK. Under voting axis, enter "reliability". Save the field settings. Enter a second Fivestar rating field with label "Value Rating" and field name "value". Use the same field settings as the "Reliability Rating" field, but under voting axis, enter "value". Save the field settings.

Now you can create a Review, enter a title, enter body text (optional), give it a rating, and select "Product A" under "Select the product you wish to review". Submit the review.

Step 3: Create custom node template file

Go to your theme folder. Copy node.tpl.php and rename it node-product.tpl.php. Insert the following code in the template file to display the average of the rating:

The position of this code in the template file will determine where the rating widget(s) is/are displayed on the Product node pages. See Creating and Contributing a Fivestar Widget Set for creating custom fivestar widgets

After you have inserted the display code into node-product.tpl.php, visit the Product A node. You should now see the rating widget(s). In order for the widget to display an average of ratings, you must submit multiple Reviews. By design, a second rating by a user will overwrite the initial rating that user submitted. In other words, you must submit Reviews by at least two different users to see an average calculated on the Product node pages. After you submit multiple Reviews, you can verify that the average is being calculated and displayed.

After this review system has been built, the display of these reviews using Views is the common next step. This second part of this tutorial outlines a simple procedure for displaying the results of each rating axis for each node that is being rated using the system outlined above.

Once the review system is in place, make sure you have at least 1 "Product" node (call it "Product A") and 2 "Review" nodes (call them Review 1 and Review 2) created by 2 different users that rate the "Product A" node.

Objective: Build a view that displays all "Product" nodes and the average of each rating given to each "Product" node. Sort views by highest rating in different categories.

Go to admin/build/views and create a new view. Give it a View name of "Products" and a View type of "Node". Add a Page display and make the title of the page "Products and Product Ratings". Make the Style of the page a "Table" and make the Path of the page "products". Add a field of type "Node: Title". Add a filter of type "Node: Type" and select "Is one of" and check the node type "Product".

Now add a Relationship to the view of the type "Node: Voting results". In the previously mentioned tutorial, the axes that were used were "reliability" and "value". Staying consistent, give the relationship a label of "Reliability Results". Make the Value type "Percent", the Vote tag "reliability", and the Aggregation function "Average". Add a second Relationship of type "Node: Voting results" - label it "Value Results", make the Value type "Percent", Vote tag "value", and Aggregation function "Average".

Now add a field of type "Voting API results: Value". Make the Appearance "Fivestar Stars (display only), the Relationship "Reliability Results" and the Label" "Average Reliability Rating". Add another field of the type "Voting API results: Value". Make the Appearance "Fivestar Stars (display only), the Relationship "Value Results" and the Label "Average Value Rating".

You should now have a view that displays the Product name and the aggregate averages for each rating axis (Reliability and Value). Now a sort can be added to this view. Add a Sort Criteria of type "Voting API Results: Value". Make the Relationship "Reliability Rating" and sort "Descending" to go from highest values to lowest values. This will sort the Products from highest "Reliability Rating" to lowest "Reliability Rating". This view can then be cloned and edited so that the products are sorted by different rating axes (sort by Value rating for instance).