// $Id: README.txt,v 1.1.2.7 2008-01-24 09:01:32 quicksketch Exp $ The Five Star voting module adds a clean, attractive voting widget to nodes in Drupal 5. It features: * jQuery rollover effects and AJAX no-reload voting * Customizable star sets * Graceful degradation to an HTML rating form when JavaScript is turned off * Per-nodetype configurability * Support for anonymous voters * Spam protection to keep users from filling your DB with bogus votes * Easy-to-use integration with Views module for lists sorted by rating, or filtered by min/max ratings * A Fivestar CCK field for use in custom node types * An easy-to-use Form API element type for use in other modules Fivestar was designed by Nate Haug and Jeff Eaton. This Module Made by Robots: http://www.lullabot.com Dependencies ------------ * votingapi Fivestar also provides additional features for both the CCK and Views modules. Install ------- Installing the Five Star voting module is simple: 1) Copy the fivestar folder to the modules folder in your installation. 2) Enable the module using Administer -> Modules (/admin/build/modules) Note: Aggressive caching will complain that fivestar doesn't work, but it actually causes no problems. To improve performance, the module implements hook_init() -- and the caching advisor screen uses that as the only metric to determine whether a module will work with the caching system. Activate it without fear, friends -- Fivestar will continue to hum happily along. Configuration for Simple Rating ------------------------------- Fivestar has two completely separate modes of operation. The first is letting an end-user rate a piece of content. The settings for this are on the content type settings page. These settings let you expose a rating widget when viewing the node, not editing it. Clicking on the widget registers a vote for that node, and never anything else. The configuration for Fivestar is spread between the content type settings page, Fivestar site settings page, and access permissions. To configure: 1) Configure the site-wide setting for Fivestar, Administer -> Settings -> Fivestar. 2) Activate voting on each content type. For example, if you want Fivestar to appear on story nodes, use Administer -> Content Management -> Content Types -> Story, and check the "Enable Five Star rating" box under the "Five Star ratings" heading. Repeat for each content type desired. 3) Enable anonymous voting. If you want to allow anonymous voting, you'll need to set permissions for that. Use Administer -> User Management -> Access Control, and check the "rate content" and "view ratings" checkboxes for the roles you'd like. You'll find these permission items under the "fivestar module" heading. Configuration for Reviews of Content ------------------------------------ Fivestar can be used to quickly setup a rating system for your site visitors to review a piece of content. When enabling the Comment widget, visitors will submit a rating on the *original piece of content* along with their comment. Visitors will not be rating the comments themselves. Fivestar does not allow for the rating of comments. 1) If it's not already enabled, turn on comment module at Administer -> Site Building -> Modules. 2) Visit the content type you want to enable reviews, such as Administer -> Content Management -> Content Types -> Story, and select an option under the "Comment widget" section. Configuration as a CCK field / Advanced Rating ---------------------------------------------- Fivestar has extensive CCK support, which makes it so that the user is presented with a widget to rate some node with the widget while editing a node. It does not necessary rate the current node, nor does it rate anything if no value is entered in the Node ID field when configuring the CCK field. The value is saved in the node (so when you edit it it is still there), but no vote is registered in VotingAPI without the Node ID field filled out. An example of a situation where you might want to use the CCK fivestar field is creating a node type called 'review'. This review type would let users rate some particular node, and accompany their rating with a review. This could be combined with a standard rating on the target node, so that some users could rate the target node using the simple method, or write a complete review to accompany their rating. To configure a CCK field for rating a node while creating a new 'review' node: 1) Create a new node type called 'review' at Administer -> Content Management -> Content Types. Configure the type. Do NOT set any fivestar settings on the content type form! We don't want users to actually be able to rate the reviews themselves! 2) Edit your new content type, then click on the "Add Field" tab while on the content type form. Add a field called 'rating' to your new type, make it of type Fivestar Rating with the Stars radio button. 3) Configure the rating widget to your liking. Most field have help text which explain their purpose. The Node ID field is the most important field on the page which determines exactly what node will receive the value of the rating. In a realy simple case, you could just enter the value 10 to always rate on the same node with nid = 10. Usually you'll need to enter PHP code to dynamically select what node you want to rate. A common scenario is using fivestar with nodecomments to make reviews. If using nodecomments a separate checkbox appears the Node ID field to allow you easily select the nodecomment parent as the target of the vote. Save your field. Now when making new nodes of type 'review', the user will select a star that will register a vote on the value of the Node ID field. Views Integration ----------------- Fivestar depends on the views integration provided by VotinAPI, but adds some special features to make it work specifically with Fivestar. To display Fivestar ratings in a view, select the "VotingAPI percent vote result" from the list of available Fields. This will display the average vote for nodes. Then choose "Fivestar rating" from the Handler options for the field and the averages will be displayed as Fivestar ratings. Fivestar also provides handling for the display of Fivestar CCK fields, they are in the Field list under "Fivestar Rating: [Field name]". Contributing ------------ Have a sweet set of stars you'd like to contribute to the Fivestar module? Post them to the Fivestar issue queue: http://drupal.org/project/issues/fivestar Support ------- If you experience a problem with fivestar or have a problem, file a request or issue on the fivestar queue at http://drupal.org/project/issues/fivestar. DO NOT POST IN THE FORUMS. Posting in the issue queues is a direct line of communication with the module authors.