Testimonial Manager Support Thread (for ZC v1.5.x)

[mailbeez]

i was wondering if there's anyway to automatically send an email containing a testimonial request after several days/weeks of an order?

hi,

just released the free module "ZC Testimonial Reminder Simple" for this purpose.

You can configure the order status and the timeframe (delay after order, how many days back in the past). The email is generated based on a free customizable template.

It requires to have MailBeez installed (free basic framework, compatible with Zencart 1.3.8 up to 1.5.1 - just drop in the new files...).


ZC Testimonial Reminder Simple - Download
http://www.mailbeez.com/documentatio..._testimonials/
(will submit it soon into the addon section)

Basic Installation ZenCart 1.5
http://www.mailbeez.com/documentatio...en-cart-1-5-x/


Would be great to hear if there is a need for a premium module, which e.g. can:
- automatically login of customer for hassle-free writing of testimonials
- react on more than one order status
- recognize regular customers to avoid sending reminders too often
- automatically rewards testimonials with a coupon
- allows to automatically insert random testimonials into other MailBeez Emails (e.g. winback, nopurchase...)

cheers
cord

[Jeff_Mash]

I got a quick question. I know that this new version doesn't work with old versions, but I'm a little confused as to what I may have done wrong.

I was running 1.3.9h with this module, no problems.,

I then upgraded my store to 1.5.1, and I have been porting all my modules over to this new version. So I went to the ZC Plugin page, downloaded the newest 1.5.X version of Testimonials Manager, and uploaded it to my new 1.5.1 site. The only thing that was carried over from the old installation was the old testimonial database tables.......all php files are the new versions for 1.5.X.

Anyway, as soon as the "config.tm.php" file is placed in my admin/autoloader folder, I get the following security message:

"WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again."

When I remove the file, that error goes away but the module is not auto-installed.

Any idea what I could do in order to fix this? I'd like (if possible) to still use the hundreds of positive testimonials from our database so that we don't start over from scratch. Do I need to drop the tables first, do the install, and then reimport the data into them?

- Jeff

[Jeff_Mash]

I should also add, it seems that the program is "working", meaning that the testimonial sidebox is now displaying on our website and pulling all the data from the database. But the auto installer never added the Testimonial Manager section to the TOOLS menu of my admin panel.

Any ideas on how to proceed?

- Jeff

I got a quick question. I know that this new version doesn't work with old versions, but I'm a little confused as to what I may have done wrong.

I was running 1.3.9h with this module, no problems.,

I then upgraded my store to 1.5.1, and I have been porting all my modules over to this new version. So I went to the ZC Plugin page, downloaded the newest 1.5.X version of Testimonials Manager, and uploaded it to my new 1.5.1 site. The only thing that was carried over from the old installation was the old testimonial database tables.......all php files are the new versions for 1.5.X.

Anyway, as soon as the "config.tm.php" file is placed in my admin/autoloader folder, I get the following security message:

"WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again."

When I remove the file, that error goes away but the module is not auto-installed.

Any idea what I could do in order to fix this? I'd like (if possible) to still use the hundreds of positive testimonials from our database so that we don't start over from scratch. Do I need to drop the tables first, do the install, and then reimport the data into them?

- Jeff

[DivaVocals]

I got a quick question. I know that this new version doesn't work with old versions, but I'm a little confused as to what I may have done wrong.

I was running 1.3.9h with this module, no problems.,

I then upgraded my store to 1.5.1, and I have been porting all my modules over to this new version. So I went to the ZC Plugin page, downloaded the newest 1.5.X version of Testimonials Manager, and uploaded it to my new 1.5.1 site. The only thing that was carried over from the old installation was the old testimonial database tables.......all php files are the new versions for 1.5.X.

Anyway, as soon as the "config.tm.php" file is placed in my admin/autoloader folder, I get the following security message:

"WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again."

When I remove the file, that error goes away but the module is not auto-installed.

Any idea what I could do in order to fix this? I'd like (if possible) to still use the hundreds of positive testimonials from our database so that we don't start over from scratch. Do I need to drop the tables first, do the install, and then reimport the data into them?

- Jeff

Like the instructions say you do NOT drop the testimonials tables unless you want to LOSE all your old testimonials. As far as the error message.. Don't know what it is or what the fix is until you tell us what the error log says..

The message "WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again." = an error log file was generated.. and until you know what the error is and resolve it the installer will not complete and you will NOT see any of the admin menus for this add-on in place..

[Jeff_Mash]

Like the instructions say you do NOT drop the testimonials tables unless you want to LOSE all your old testimonials. As far as the error message.. Don't know what it is or what the fix is until you tell us what the error log says..

The message "WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again." = an error log file was generated.. and until you know what the error is and resolve it the installer will not complete and you will NOT see any of the admin menus for this add-on in place..

That warning message only occurs when the module tries to autoinstall. If I remove the autoinstall file from the admin/autoloader directory, then the error goes away. Where is the error log? I thought it would be in the store/cache folder, but nothing shows up there.

And as I mentioned in my follow up post, the module appears to be working.......but the Admin Testimonial Manager option under the Tools Menu is not showing up. I am hoping that someone can suggest what I can do to make that show up. Otherwise, I won't be able to approve new testimonials.

[DivaVocals]

That warning message only occurs when the module tries to autoinstall. If I remove the autoinstall file from the admin/autoloader directory, then the error goes away.

I understood that, but removing it doesn't help to figure out what causes the error.. The error log that was likely generated would..

Where is the error log? I thought it would be in the store/cache folder, but nothing shows up there.

Well... according to the release thread:

What's New In v1.5.1:
Improvements include:

• CHANGE-207 - Add bypass to bandage the performance/caching problem with products_viewed counter on busy sites, inspired by an idea from data-diggers. This step simply splits the logic out into an observer class, and adds a switch to turn it on or off. Doesn't change any schema or any reports. But of course if the switch is set to something other than 'on', then the reports will be useless too unless alternate custom data tracking code is added to the observer class.
• CHANGE-208 - Implement data-diggers querycache
• CHANGE-220 - Add optional constant 'DOWNLOADS_SKIP_DOT_PREFIX_ON_REDIRECT' to overcome rare problem on some servers which won't allow use of dot-prefixed temporary files. Usage: define('DOWNLOADS_SKIP_DOT_PREFIX_ON_REDIRECT', TRUE); in /includes/extra_configures/ folder.
• CHANGE-238 - php 5.4 Updates, mainly for htmlentities() calls
• CHANGE-240 - Add form auto-focus on advanced-search results and admin category lookups
• CHANGE-265 - Add children support to category-specific stylesheet overrides -- ie: c_XX_XX_children.css
• CHANGE-273 - Add css-driven antispam support to contact-us, create-account, and product reviews
• CHANGE-282 - Add improved notifier support for the shipping calculate_boxes_weight_and_tare() function to allow for easier intercept by plugins
• CHANGE-283 - Add coders the ability to allow for a custom count query in split page results class
• CHANGE-284 - Update db schema and various code bits to handle longer lengths for IP addresses, to accommodate IPv6
• CHANGE-287 - Add hooks for encryption tools needed by modules such as PPA
• CHANGE-297 - Add improvements to notifier support for Downloads script (add all order data to observer resources)
• CHANGE-298 - Move debug logging to separate /logs/ folder, as a performance improvement measure, and be more semantically meaningful

And as I mentioned in my follow up post, the module appears to be working.......but the Admin Testimonial Manager option under the Tools Menu is not showing up. I am hoping that someone can suggest what I can do to make that show up. Otherwise, I won't be able to approve new testimonials.

You can share the contents of the error log to see if it sheds light on why the auto-installer is erroring out for you.. If that issue can be resolved then the auto-installer can finish and add the menu items.. The other option is to look in the FAQs for the instructions on how to manually add admin menu items, and manually add the Testimonials menu items that way..

[Jeff_Mash]

Thanks for helping. I found out the issue, which I will explain below in case it happens to anyone else.

It looks like it's trying to insert a sample testimonial into the database with a NULL value for date_added. Here is what the log says:

[05-Jan-2013 20:12:14 UTC] PHP Fatal error: 1048:Column 'date_added' cannot be null :: INSERT INTO zen_testimonials_manager VALUES (NULL, 1, 'Great', '', 'Clyde Designs', '', 'This is just a test submission to show you how it looks, great, eh?', '[email protected]', NULL, NULL, NULL, 0, 1, now(), NULL) in /home/mydomain/public_html/store/includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php on line 120

So I went into the admin/init_includes/init_tm_config.php, and I commented out Line 41:

// $db->Execute($sql);

This allowed the script to bypass this unneeded SQL insert in my case, and continue on with the installation of the Admin Menus! Thanks again for the great script and the help to point me in the right direction.

[icikite]

I just installed this add-on. It is a great module. Thanks. The only problem that I have is the status field is not set to 1 in the database so the information is not display in the sidebox.
What did I missed? Thanks for looking and helping.

[countrycharm]

I just installed this add-on. It is a great module. Thanks. The only problem that I have is the status field is not set to 1 in the database so the information is not display in the sidebox.
What did I missed? Thanks for looking and helping.

Have you turn on the Testimonials Manager sidebox to show under tools layout boxes controllers?
You probably have, just making sure.

Go to your admin/configurations/Testimonials Manager and see what your settings are.

Try uninstalling with the uninstall.sql statement and reinstalling it to see what happens.

Give us a link to your site so we can take a peek.

[WWWD]

I want to use this mod as a springboard. I have multiple types of "testimonials/reviews". Using the Zen functionality, I want my guests to log in, have their name, town, etc. follow them to their reviews and then answer some different questions which will post to custom tables for viewing within my main website. It looks really close, I would just appreciate finding someone that I can ask questions of as I try to back into this thing.