Chapter 1 JReviews Overview

1.1 How does JReviews work

JReviews integrates with the core Joomla content system and extends its functionality.

Joomla articles have a single field, which can be split into Summary and Description, but with JReviews you will be able to add any number of other content fields, such as: text fields, text areas, single selects, multiple selects, website fields, email fields, date fields, checkboxes, etc.

With JReviews, articles become listings that can be reviewed and rated by designated JReviews editors and users.

Editor and user reviews can also have any number of custom fields, and you can define custom ratings with unlimited criteria.

Different types of listings can be created, for example: Products, Books, Movies, Games, Restaurants, Hotels, Classifieds, Events, News, etc.

1.1.1 Example of a listing:

This is the top part of the listing detail page that contains information about the listing (summary/decription text, custom fields with location, contant and other hotel information, rating stars, action buttons, main listing photo, etc.):

Below the listing info there are photo and video galleries. Photos and videos can be submitted either by listing owner or by site visitors as well if you allowed them that. Photos and videos are not the only type of media JReviews provides, there are also attachments and audio files. For every media type there are multiple display layouts available, this is one option:

With GeoMaps add-on for JReviews it is possible to include the map for the listing with streetview and directions search:

The powerful listing detail page widgets can be included to show related listings:

At the bottom of the listing detail page you will find the reviews sections where editors and users can review the listing:

A live example of this listing can be found on the JReviews demo site.

1.2 Planning and organizing your JReviews setup

1.2.1 Listing Types

Listing types are different types of content that you can setup. Basically, with listing types you define how the listing and review forms will look like (which fields they will include).

Examples of listing types you might create:

Listing Types will be assigned to Joomla Categories.

1.2.2 Directories & Categories

Since JReviews uses Joomla’s content system, you will need to create Joomla categories for JReviews listings. Categories will be assigned to a listing type and a directory.

Joomla allows you to create unlimited levels of categories and JReviews provides additional Directory level that can be used to group similar categories. Here is an example of a directory page:

Creating at least one directory is required, but you don't need to show the directory page on your site if you don't want to. The advantage of the directory page is that it can display the complete category tree (all levels of categories), unlike category pages which can only show direct subcategories.

Examples of directories can be found on the JReviews demo site (every top level menu item in the Top Menu is a directory page):

Even though the demo site has many directories (to show different types of sites you can create with JReviews), most sites need just one directory.

The only reason why you might need to create more than one directory is if your site will have categories that are completely unrelated to each other (i.e. business categories and product categories).

Directories that you create will need to be assigned to categories in the JReviews Categories Manager.

1.2.3 Using JReviews Custom Fields for additional categories

Even though Joomla allows you to create unlimited number of categories and unlimited levels of categories, it is not recommended to create a large number of categories as that can make the overall site setup too complex and time consuming (i.e. creating required menu items for every category).

We recommend to create a small number of Joomla categories and extend those categories with JReviews virtual categories.

The virtual categories are actually values of JReviews custom fields. For certain single select or multiple select custom fields you can enable the Click2Search setting and then each field value of that field becomes a virtual category.

Some of the advantages of virtual categories are that new virtual categories can be added "on the fly" during the listing submission and one listing can have multiple virtual categories (both is not possible with Joomla categories).

A good example of using virtual categories is for restaurant's cuisines. You can create a multiple select custom field "Cuisines" and enable Click2Search so that that field values become virtual categories. When visitors click on a certain cuisine, they will get a list page with all listings that have the same cuisine. Examples of virtual categories can be found on the JReviews demo site:

For more info read How to use custom fields as virtual categories.

1.3 JReviews Submit Forms

Information is entered into JReviews via the Listing, Review and Media forms:

Listings and reviews can be submitted only via the frontend of your site. There are two ways to access the submit form:

The Review form is available to listing detail pages, so that visitors viewing the listing can submit their reviews.

You can also enable the review form to be displayed together with the listing form, if you want to enable users to submit listings and reviews at the same time.

The Media form will appear as a second step after listing or review submissions. You can also enable "Add Media" button for listing detail pages so that users can easily add photos at any time.

1.3.1 Listing submit form

The Listing form contains the following elements:

You can configure which user groups are able to submit certain fields in the JReviews Access Settings.

Example of a listing submit form:

1.3.2 Review submit form

The Review form has the following fields:

Example of a review submit form:

1.3.3 Media submit form

The Media form allows uploading photos, videos, attachments, audio files and linking to external videos (Youtube, Vimeo or Dailymotion).

Example of a media submit form: