Overview

Description

Turn your community into a trusted review destination.

Reviews Directory is a comprehensive review and listing platform for Invision Community Suite v5 that lets you build a categorized directory of businesses, products, venues, or anything your community wants to review - complete with star ratings, location mapping, custom fields, forum integration, and deep IPS framework integration. Still in active development, more features coming soon!

Demo

Discovery & Browsing

• 4 configurable homepage layouts: Hero, Search-focused, Reviews-focused, and Feed/stream

• Hero stats dashboard: total listings, total reviews, average rating, contributor count

• Featured listings (random rotation, configurable count 1–12)

• Top Rated, Newest, and Recent Reviews sections on homepage

• Unlimited nested categories with drag-and-drop ordering and custom icons

• Grid and List view toggle for category browsing

• Advanced sorting: newest, top rated, most reviewed, most viewed

• Full pagination with AJAX load-more

• SEO-friendly URLs with auto-generated slugs

• IPS Search and Sitemap integration

• Browse all listings with multi-sort and filtering

• RSS feeds for new listings (global and per-category)

• Side-by-side listing comparison (select 2–4 listings to compare ratings, pricing, location, and more)

Your directory looks native, fast, and fully integrated.

Listing Pages

Each listing includes:

• Cover image with gallery tab for multiple screenshots

• Interactive Lightbox for browsing screenshots

• Star ratings with review count

• Contact actions: website link, phone, email (toggleable via ACP setting)

• Price range indicator ($$$)

• Location with interactive map (Leaflet/OpenStreetMap)

• Hours of operation (toggleable via ACP setting)

• Social media links: Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok (toggleable via ACP setting)

• Admin-defined custom fields (per-category, with sidebar/listing display options)

• Tags and prefix support

• Related listings ("More in this category")

• Tabbed interface: Overview, Reviews, Gallery, Comments

• Automatic forum topic creation (per-category, with configurable prefix/suffix)

• Claim system - members can claim ownership of listings

• Add to comparison directly from listing cards or detail pages

Reviews & Ratings

• 1-5 star rating system

• Author responses - listing owners can reply to reviews

• Photo reviews - attach images directly to reviews

• Per-category review moderation (auto-approve or require approval)

• Reactions on reviews, comments, and listings

• Report Center integration for flagging abuse

Every review matters. Owners can respond. The community votes on helpfulness.

Comments & Social

• Threaded comments on listings (per-category toggle)

• Follow listings for updates

• Follow categories for new listing notifications

• Content sharing integration

• Reactions support on all content types

Location & Mapping

• Full geolocation support: address, city, region, country,

• Interactive map view with up to 500 plotted listings

• Per-category location settings: required, optional, or disabled

• Map markers with listing info popups

• "View on Map" link from homepage

Perfect for local business directories, travel guides, and venue reviews.

Comparison Tool

• Compare 2-4 listings side by side in a detailed table

• Persistent compare list via floating bottom bar

• Add/remove listings from any browse page or listing detail page

• Compares: rating, category, price range, website, phone, location, hours, claimed status, views, and date added

Moderation & Trust

• Full approval workflows for listings, reviews, and comments

• Per-category moderation settings

• Hide with reason, edit history tracking

• Moderator CP queue integration

• Member restrictions (block submissions per-member)

• IP address logging

• Pin, feature, lock, and hide controls

• Anonymous posting with staff visibility

You control the quality. Every piece of content goes through the gates you set.

Administration

Full IPS-native ACP experience:

• Manage all listings: approve, feature, pin, hide, move, change author, delete

• Advanced search: filter by name, author, rating, views, date, status

• Quick filters: visible, hidden, unapproved, featured, pinned

• Full Node-based category tree with permissions matrix

• Custom fields builder (per-category assignment, multiple display locations)

• Forum integration settings per category

• Statistics: listings over time with area charts, date range filtering

• Dashboard card with quick overview stats

• Member ACP profile integration: listings submitted, reviews written, recent activity

• Group permissions: view, submit, claim, review, comment, max listings per member

• Landing page layout selector

• Configurable limits for featured, per-page, and homepage sections

• Toggle settings for contact fields, hours of operation, and social media links

• Rebuild & Recount tool for recalculating all listing statistics

• My Listings and My Reviews member pages accessible from front-end navigation

Built-in Widgets (5)

All widgets are sidebar/CMS compatible with configurable limits.

Background Automation

• Review Reminder Task: Automatically notifies listing owners of unapproved reviews after 3 days without response. Runs every 6 hours, prevents duplicate notifications, scans a 14-day rolling window.

• Rebuild & Recount Task: Recalculates review counts, comment counts, average ratings, and timestamps for all listings in batches of 50.

• Trending Algorithm: 7-day engagement scoring: (reviews x 3) + (comments x 2) + views

Claiming System

• Members can claim ownership of unclaimed listings

• Permission-controlled per group

• Tracked with full audit trail

• Claimed listings show owner badge

Let your community build the directory - then let business owners step in and take ownership.

Forum Integration

• Auto-create forum topics when listings are approved

• Per-category forum assignment

• Configurable topic title prefix and suffix

• Two-way sync: edit listing => update topic

• Optional: delete topic when listing is deleted

• "View Forum Topic" and "Post to Forum" context menu links

Bridge your directory and your discussion forums seamlessly.

Perfect For

• Restaurant and food review sites

• Local business directories

• Hotel and travel review platforms

• Product review communities

• Venue and event space directories

• Service provider directories

• Community-curated "best of" lists

• Educational resource directories