Reviews - Updated [Support Thread]

[lat9]

... However I'm surmising: if you are using FEC with it set to guest checkout only and only a registered customer can write a review (yes?) then logically you wouldn't be able to write a review until the system knows your information/account details anyway, right? Hence you being able to write a review only *after* submitting your personal details and not beforehand.

This plugin (Reviews Updated) has no knowledge of a guest login, so once a guest-customer has gone partially through the guest "information gathering" the session variable that identifies that a customer is logged in is set. That's why this guest customer can write a review.

[picandnix]

This plugin (Reviews Updated) has no knowledge of a guest login, so once a guest-customer has gone partially through the guest "information gathering" the session variable that identifies that a customer is logged in is set. That's why this guest customer can write a review.

What she said
Same answer but written in a less confusing way than mine.

[tom97zr2]

Thanks for the replies. I thought one of the main points of the reviews update was so a guest can write a review, and I figured they could do that without having to enter in all that name and address information, which I'm assuming would be a big deterrent to anyone who clicks on the write review button. I would like it to go straight to the page where they can write the review and just enter their name and select a product from a drop down list perhaps? I could make this happen with some html, like when I made a simple survey page for my old site that didn't use any php.

[lat9]

Did you enable the product reviews by guests? Configuration->Product Info->Enable product reviews by guests? should be set to 1. Do you have any other plugins that modify the product_reviews_write page?

[tom97zr2]

Did you enable the product reviews by guests? Configuration->Product Info->Enable product reviews by guests? should be set to 1. Do you have any other plugins that modify the product_reviews_write page?

Yes I did. Went through the install instructions a few times to make sure it was done right. No. Thanks

[lat9]

I'll do a fresh install in the morning and see if I can see anything amiss on a "stock" Zen Cart base. Did FEC make any changes to /includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php? If so, would you post your version?

[tom97zr2]

No file changes in that file from FEC. I made changes to that template, moved some things around and stuff, didn't edit any of the code for the write review. thanks!

[tom97zr2]

As a guest, when I click on write review, the next page says "Whoops! Your session has expired.". Before this I removed the Log in and My account links/code so visitors don't see anything about logging in or signing up for an account, and so when they add a item to the cart and click go to checkout, then they go straight to the checkout page to fill in their billing address, they don't get the option to log in or create an account or ask them if they want to checkout as a guest.

If I add a product to the cart, and fill in the billing information and go to step 2 the payment page, then go back to the product page and click the write review link it will take me to the write review page. I'd like it to send you directly to that page as a visitor, so anyone can write a review of the product regardless if they purchased from my website, so they don't have to log in.

Looks like I would have to remove some sort of code that requires the visitor to log in before they can get to the write review page. hopefully that is possible to do. thanks.

[lat9]

As a guest, when I click on write review, the next page says "Whoops! Your session has expired.". Before this I removed the Log in and My account links/code so visitors don't see anything about logging in or signing up for an account, and so when they add a item to the cart and click go to checkout, then they go straight to the checkout page to fill in their billing address, they don't get the option to log in or create an account or ask them if they want to checkout as a guest.

If I add a product to the cart, and fill in the billing information and go to step 2 the payment page, then go back to the product page and click the write review link it will take me to the write review page. I'd like it to send you directly to that page as a visitor, so anyone can write a review of the product regardless if they purchased from my website, so they don't have to log in.

Looks like I would have to remove some sort of code that requires the visitor to log in before they can get to the write review page. hopefully that is possible to do. thanks.

I installed "Reviews Updated" on a just-installed Zen Cart v1.5.1, and was able to write a review as a guest. Is the file /includes/modules/pages/product_reviews_write/header_php.php the one that ships with this plugin? The top-most portion of the file should look like:

// This should be first line of the script:
$zco_notifier->notify('NOTIFY_HEADER_START_PRODUCT_REVIEWS_WRITE');
  
require(DIR_WS_MODULES . zen_get_module_directory('require_languages.php'));

if (REVIEWS_BY_GUESTS != '1' && !$_SESSION['customer_id']) {
  $_SESSION['navigation']->set_snapshot();
  $messageStack->add_session('header', MESSAGE_REVIEW_WRITE_NEEDS_LOGIN, 'caution');
  zen_redirect(zen_href_link(FILENAME_LOGIN, '', 'SSL'));
}

I'm not sure why you're being redirected to the time_out page, but I'm also not familiar with the changes that the installation of FEC has introduced to your store.

[tom97zr2]

Yep it has that code. I deleted some code before in the common header file to get rid of the log in link, maybe I deleted too much of that code? I'll have to check after work today. Thanks