Case Studies

Kumbooka is a Social Shopping site with a twist. Most sites build recommendations around the stuff we buy, kumbooka however works on the stuff we own. Users add their "Stuff" to their "Shelves" and then can become expert reviewers, on-line traders and trusted advisers.

What were the site requirements?

The strength of Kumbooka is our unique "Search & Find" engine. You can find the stuff you own by typing a few keywords or even a barcode. Our key requirement was a well structured database that we could parse the search results into, and from there, allow the user to do more with their stuff, including reviewing items they own. Data entry into the database (listings) had to be transparent to the user.

Why was JReviews chosen?

JReviews offered everything we were looking for, more or less out of the box. As Kumbooka was to be built around "Social Networking" the fact that jReviews had support for Community Builder, and JomSocial, was another deciding factor.

How is JReviews being used on the site?

Apart from acting as our database for the parsed search results, jReviews is linking our users together by the stuff they add. Although items are first added with our own "Search & Add" engine, even at this early stage, jReviews is the receiver of the data. Once added, most other "Stuff" functions are done directly from within jReviews. We have probably not yet pushed it to it’s limits, but we are using related modules, embedded into jReviews core. We are using the $customfield variables to a great extent, allowing users from different countries to have relevant product links etc. JReviews $customfield is also used to find other users that already own items being viewed, and really allows us to knit the whole site together.

What are the key advantages of using JReviews for your website or business?

The support on this product is second to none. The developer even assists with integration of other components into JReviews, whilst at the same time, observing trends in the Joomla market place. For example JReviews was ready to support JomSocial integration, almost as JomSocial launched.

PlayShakespeare.com is the Ultimate Free Shakespeare Resource providing high-quality plays, reviews, a discussion forum, a download library, and the latest Bard news.

What were the site requirements?

At first, the site had a very limited roadmap, but users requested features right away. Having reviews was always part of the original plan, but we implemented other aspects like a document library, discussion forum, and a customized search first.

Why was JReviews chosen?

After a survey of the available options, we chose jReviews because it appeared there was strong support and a future. For us, the product cost was only a small part of the overall investment—most of it going into the time and effort of building and maintaining a reviews section, which could all be lost if a product suddenly died. So the stability of jReviews played a major role in our decision. jReviews was able to do most of what we needed out of the box. But we have very specific needs that pushed the limits of the product and the developer responded to a multitude of challenges, solving our every need.

How is JReviews being used on the site?

We use JReviews to allow our team of Shakespeare reviewers worldwide to contribute reviews on theatrical performances, books, DVDs, feature stories, or just about anything Shakespeare related. Reviews are evaluated on a variety of criteria as well are cross-referenced to the theatre profiles and reviewer profiles in Community Builder. Custom fields allow us to automate and monetize our reviews with aspects like Amazon and other product links. The Listings Module helps more fully integrate JReviews content into relevant areas of our site. In the future, we hope to build a directory of Shakespeare products to take full advantage of the power of JReviews. By extending Joomla's core content functionality we're able to do things previously not possible.

What are the key advantages of using JReviews for your website or business?

We're happy to see that the developer was interested in seeing jReviews work in real world applications. While it may be a challenge for some to learn the ins-and-outs of the product initially, the benefits are clear in the long run. We're trying to find other ways to leverage the power of jReviews and push it to its limits.