What is ac_Products.AllowReviews used for?

[kstevenson]

I'm sorry if this question was already answered somewhere and my post is redundant. I couldn't find anything so I decided to ask.

While writing the data synchronization routines for getting product data from our backend ERP system into the 7.0.4 DB I stumbled into the flag "AllowReviews" in the ac_Products table. I tried to find any UI element that might tied to that by grepping through the whole code but struck out.

Resetting the flag from False (as it's set for all sample products and any new ones I added for testing) to True directly in the DB doesn't seem to make any difference anywhere either.

Can somebody please tell me what this field is used for and how to access it (aside using sql)?

Thanks a bunch in advance,

-- Karin Stevenson

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Hello Karin,

I'd guess that product reviews are turned off site wide, so regardless of this setting they won't be shown.

[kstevenson]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the quick reply. I do have the Reviews activ on the site and all reviews show just fine and I can add as I please for any product (have it set enabled for All Users and no restrictions). It seems like the ac_Products.AllowReviews flag which is part of product records is not utilized anywhere because for all products that have it as FALSE I can still submit and see the reviews. I wanted to clarify what this flag is used for in the AC 7.0.4, if anything, before I write it off as "dead".

I ran a PowerGrep search for "AllowReviews" through all the code files (including CommerceBuilder) and found it mentioned a few times but nowhere in the UI code so it could be set or cleared via the Admin. So, I assume that it's not used for anything at this time but I wanted to confirm because it would have been real nice to control the ability to allow reviews on an individual product basis and we were ready to add that functionality to our ERP system because it's so cool.

So, can you confirm if that flag is used for anything at all in the code?

Thanks again,

-- Karin Stevenson

[mazhar]

Actually the intended functionality of AllowReviews option on product is same as explained by Mike. This is still unused in 7.0.4. So in 7.0.4 you can't turn on/off product reviews on product level. We utilized AllowReviews option and enhanced turn on/off product reviews at product level in our future work. Its OK that you are having false for this field in your product table. Right now product reviews can be only turned on/off application wise.

[kstevenson]

Thank you so much, Mazhar! That's exactly what I needed to know for my work.

Any idea when this functionality for allowing reviews on a product level will go into the code (this year/next year)? We are still a few months away from going live with our first sites and if it's pretty close then I'll have our ERP system modified in anticipation of it.

Again, thank you very much!

-- Karin Stevenson

[kstevenson]

Thank you so much for rolling this into 7.0.5 already! This is perfect timing for us.