A Review of Node Review Modules

September 5, 2006

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Interested in allowing users on your site to rate products or other content? Overwhelmed by the number of similarly-named Evaluation and Rating modules? This article will show you what each node review module does in order to help make the decision on which one to use for your purposes a bit easier.

Node Vote

Node Vote screenshot

Node Vote displays a "star" rating on each node, and allows viewers to click a "Rate It" link in order to provide a rating of their own, from 1 to 10. It also provides several configurable options, including which node types should be vote-enabled, whether users can vote multiple times, and whether a user is allowed to vote on their own content.

NodeReview

NodeReview screenshot

NodeReview creates a new node type called "review," and allows you to specify which node types may be reviewed (including reviews, for maximum recursive fun!). You may also specify "axes" for reviews, meaning that you can review different aspects of the node you're reviewing (price, storyline, etc.)

Note: NodeReview requires the Views and Voting API modules.

Simple Vote

Simple Vote screenshot

True to its name, Simple Vote provides a simple widget for rating any node from 1 to 5 stars. By hovering and then releasing your mouse over a star, you register your vote, and the widget updates to show the overall rating. You can change your
vote at any time. As a result, anonymous voting is not supported.

Note: Simple Vote requires the Voting API module

userreview

userreview screenshot

Another module which stores reviews as nodes, the userreview module allows users to rate nodes on a scale of 1-10, along with a comment. It tallies both the overall rating of a node, and also provides a breakdown of what each user voted. An administrator can specify which node types can be reviewed, and which roles can create and/or edit their own reviews. The module also provides a number of display-based customizations (naming, fieldset defaults, etc.).

Note: userreview requires the Views and Voting API modules.

Vote up/down Package

Vote up/down Package screenshot

This module provides a simple widget for users to "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" a node, similar to the system used at sites like http://digg.com/. A tally of points is provided on each node, and a "votes" tab shows the individual users' results. By combining this module with others such as Voting Actions, you can allow users to promote nodes to the front page themselves once a threshold is reached.

Note: Vote up/down Package requires the Voting API module.

Voting

Voting screenshot

The Voting module acts very similarly to the Simple Vote module, in that it provides a "star" interface that you can use to cast your vote. It shows both the vote you chose as well as the average vote. It includes the source .fla file for changing the way the voting widget looks.

by angie

Comments

Thanks

On September 5th, 2006 Rick (not verified) said:

Thanks for this article. Anything like this to sort out confusion on modules available is very much appreciated. I listen to your podcast all the time!

Very helpful!

On September 5th, 2006 cutter (not verified) said:

Thanks for this summary of modules. I agree with Rick, reviews like this help a lot, so I hope you will do this again.

Don't forget to look into the Content Recommendation Engine

On September 5th, 2006 Scott Reynolds (not verified) said:

It recommends nodes based on how the current user's votes stack up with the other user's votes. Its a very interesting module that utilizes the Votingapi

Yeah, CRE is very cool...

On September 6th, 2006 angie said:

My focus for this article, however, was only on those modules that handled user-submitted reviews for nodes rather than all of the evaluation/rating modules. Maybe I'll review the rest of them in a follow-up article though!

Oh god, publicity...

On September 6th, 2006 Larry Garfield (not verified) said:

Thanks for the free advert, Lullabot. :-) Please excuse another one, as I've had some requests to jazz-up the NodeReview interface somewhat. I am quite happy to entertain patches from others! The multi-axis capability is the main reason I wrote NodeReview, but UI-wise I'm sure it could use some improvement. If you have concrete suggestions, or better yet code, please do share them in the issue queue.

mediumvote?

On September 6th, 2006 enky4u (not verified) said:

mediumvote module is missing here,

Thanks...

On September 6th, 2006 angie said:

I've edited the mediumvote project so it shows up on Drupal's Evaluation/Rating modules list. If I get some time, I'll update the article and include that as well. If you come across any others that are missing, please submit an issue to the Drupal.org Maintenance project, so they can be fixed!

Userreview

On September 6th, 2006 Qatar (not verified) said:

Thanks for this! I was looking to add reviews to my "places" nodes where people can add places on a map. I started insalling review modules but after the third one got fed up and then decided to put it on hold...

But after seeing this article I knew userreview was exactly what I was looking for and just insalled it!

Thanks alot and keep the articles coming

Reviewing reviews

On September 8th, 2006 smokey (not verified) said:

Great summary of what's available! Finding just the right module to do what you want can sometimes be quite frustrating. This article helps a ton!

My question is: what do you think is the best route to allow helpful/not-helpful reviews of reviews?

Based on a review's helpfulness, we would then show the most helpful reviews. (Similar to netflix or amazon user reviews.)

Since NodeReview is the only (I think) review module that allows reviewing reviews, do you think that's the best way to go? Or perhaps a custom module is needed.

The problem is that the options for regular reviews will be on a 1-10 scale plus a comment. Reviews of reviews would only have 2 options -- helpful/not-helpful.

It doesn't seem like there's an existing module that can handle this functionality quite yet.... or am I missing something?

Thanks,
smokey

PS: Doesn't nmoderation deserve to be on this list as well?

Two options

On September 9th, 2006 Larry Garfield (not verified) said:

I see two ways to do that:

1) Use a voteup/down module to allow users to review review nodes generated by NodeReview (or some other module).

2) Enhance NodeReview to allow configurable review scales for each axis.

I'm not currently working on #2, but it's certainly inline with the goal of the module so if someone submitted a patch I'd definitely accept it (assuming it's good quality etc.)

Also missing node moderation

On October 3rd, 2006 yaph (not verified) said:

Very nice article I should have read before I tested most of these modules myself. I agree with smokey that the node moderation module should be reviewed. It offers some features I haven't found in other modules, e.g. define your own list of voting options and assign a score to each option and also offers better access control than other modules. Maybe you consider it in part 2 of your article.

Thanks Lulabot! wonderful article

On October 27th, 2006 Anonymous (not verified) said:

Thanks Lulabot! wonderful article
it would be perfect if this article also placed in Drupal hanbooks with your credit
also i find it self explanatory of module screenshots and adopted to drupal.org/modules layout similar to drupal.org/themes

thanks

On March 14th, 2007 reggie (not verified) said:

this article really helps in helping new users decide which review module is best suited for them. Thanks again!

Useful article

On April 7th, 2007 blamcast (not verified) said:

Thanks, this is a nice summary. None of these modules do quite what I'm looking for, but nodereview seems to be a good starting point.

5 star rating

On July 3rd, 2007 Anonymous (not verified) said:

I am looking for some help implementing a new five star rating system on our successful music community Drupal site that does not force users to hit GO when rating and reviewing a song. It currently uses the User Review module with the Voting API.

Does anyone have time to help us change our module to one of the above to solve this? The GO button is causing quite a bit of confusion for members who are used to not having to hit go to submit a fivestar review of a song. Sorry if this is not the right venue for posting this.

http://staging.instatone.com

Note, this is not an ad! We're looking for a developer to help with this who is an expert at drupal and voting modules!

Funny... try "Fivestar" ;)

On July 5th, 2007 nate said:

This module was not around when this article was written, but Lullabot took up the flag to create the voting module to end all other voting modules, at least ones with rating or a system similar to the typical "five star" review.

Try http://drupal.org/project/fivestar

Also, another module which was written at the same time was jRating. As an author of Fivestar, I can't say I'm too familiar with this project.

http://drupal.org/project/jrating

reviews and vote

On August 12th, 2007 rlilloy (not verified) said:

if I install drupal, what the next step to install reviews and vote tool.Many thanks.
raul lilloy
www.urbanamarketing.com

Vote by checkbox?

On August 17th, 2007 john (not verified) said:

Great article, extremely helpful analysis!

I've been using five-star with CCK in Drupal 5.1, it's terrific.

In addition to a five-star, I'd like to add a checkbox vote labeled "I'd buy it!" ... slightly different semantics from vote up/down. No matter what the rating, if enough voters want to buy, I want to know about it ... so, need a view to report list of users who checked the box.

Any suggestions on a module that might fit or be a good starting platform?