Product Reviews

The Product Reviews app lets customers submit star ratings and written reviews directly on your product pages. Reviews appear below the product with a summary showing the average rating and star distribution. Store owners can moderate submissions, respond to reviews, and trigger automated email requests after purchase.

Key capabilities include image uploads per review, Google reCAPTCHA spam protection, structured data (JSON-LD) for Google rich snippets, CSV import for existing reviews, review analytics, and a customizable HTML review request email.

Requirements

• PHP 8.3.0+
• Joomla! 6.x
• J2Commerce 6.x

Purchase and Download

The Product Reviews app is a separate add-on available from the J2Commerce Extensions Store. It is not included with the core J2Commerce 6 component.

1. Go to the J2Commerce website -> Apps.
2. Locate the Product Reviews app -> click View Details -> Add to cart -> Checkout.
3. Download the app_reviews.zip file from your account downloads.

Install the App

You can install the Product Review App using the Joomla installer. The following steps help you with a successful installation.

In the Joomla admin, go to System -> Install -> Extensions

Upload the app_reviews.zip file or use the Install from URL option.

Enable the App

Once you have installed the App, you will need to enable it. There are two ways you can access the extension.

Option A: Go to the J2Commerce icon at the top right corner -> Apps

Option B: Go to Components on the left sidebar -> J2Commerce -> Apps

Look for Product Review, click the X, and it will turn into a green checkmark. It is now enabled and ready for setup.

Configure the App

tip

Click the Toggle Inline Help button in the toolbar and the app will show a description below each field as you configure it.

Basic Settings

Enable Reviews: Turn review functionality on or off globally

Auto-Approve Reviews: Publish new reviews immediately without moderation

Login Requirement: Whether customers must be logged in to submit

Prevent Duplicate Reviews: Block the same user from reviewing the same product twice

Enable Quick Icon: Show a quick-access icon in the Joomla administrator dashboard

Enable Dashboard Statistics Tab: Add a Review Statistics tab to the main dashboard chart area with date-filtered review metrics.

Debug Mode: Enable debug logging. Logs are written to the Joomla log file app_reviews.php. Disable in production.

Display Settings

Sub Template: Select the sub template to use for rendering the review star ratings. Auto inherits from the active menu item.

Product Display Stars: Where to show the star summary on product detail pages

Category Display Stars: Where to show the star summary in category listing views

Show Average Rating: Display the numeric average alongside stars in the summary

Clickable Star Rating: Make the review count a link that scrolls to the reviews section

Reviews Per Page: Number of reviews to show per page in the list

Show Rating Distribution: Show the breakdown bar chart (5-star, 4-star, etc.)

Show Rating Distribution: Display the star rating distribution chart.

Default Sort Order: Initial sort when the reviews list loads

Form Display Mode: Show the review form inline on the page or in a modal popup

Style Settings

Theme Color: Accent color applied to buttons and interactive elements

Star Color: Color for filled star icons

Custom CSS: Additional CSS rules applied to all review output

Submission Settings

Minimum Review Length: Minimum characters required in review text

Maximum Review Length: Maximum characters allowed in review text

Require Review Content: Make the text field mandatory (rating is always required)

Enable Review Title: Allow reviewers to add a short title to their review

Enable Image Uploads: Allow customers to attach photos to their review

Maximum Images: Maximum number of images per review

Maximum Image Size (MB): Maximum file size per uploaded image

Allowed File Extensions: Comma-separated list of accepted image formats

Convert to WebP: Automatically convert uploaded images to WebP format

WebP Quality: Quality level for WebP conversion (50–100)

Maximum Image Width: Maximum width in pixels for stored images

Maximum Image Height: Maximum height in pixels for stored images

Thumbnail Width: Width of generated thumbnails

Thumbnail Height: Height of generated thumbnails

Security Settings

Enable reCAPTCHA: Add Google reCAPTCHA to the review form

• reCAPTCHA Type: Version to use: v2 (checkbox) or v3 (invisible)

• reCAPTCHA Site Key: Your Google reCAPTCHA public site key

• reCAPTCHA Secret Key: Your Google reCAPTCHA private secret key

• reCAPTCHA v3 Threshold: Minimum score for v3 (0.0–1.0, higher = stricter)

Disable For Logged In Users: Skip reCAPTCHA for logged-in customers

Rate Limit (Per Hour): Maximum review submissions per user per hour

Enable Honeypot: Add a hidden field to catch spam bots

Email Settings

The app can automatically send review request emails to customers after their order reaches a specific status.

Brand Logo: Your store logo displayed in review request emails

Enable Review Requests: Send automated post-purchase review request emails

Request Delay (Days): Days to wait after trigger status before sending

Trigger Order Status: Which order status triggers the email

Token Expiration (Days): Days the one-click review link in the email remains valid

Admin Notification: Email admins when a new review is submitted

Admin Email Addresses: Addresses to notify (one per line) — leave blank for site admin

Customer Approval Email: Email customers when their review is approved

Setting Up the Cron Job

Emails are sent via a cron job, not immediately on order status change.

1. In the Email Settings fieldset, copy the Cron URL displayed there.
2. Set up a cron job on your server to call that URL every 30–60 minutes:

*/30 * * * * curl -s "https://yoursite.com/index.php?option=com_j2commerce&..." > /dev/null

The cron processes the queue and sends pending emails once the configured delay has passed.

Customizing the Email

Click the Email Editor tab within the plugin settings to edit the subject line and HTML body of the review request email.

Available shortcodes you can use in the subject and body:

Shortcode	Replaced With
[CUSTOMER_NAME]	Customer full name
[CUSTOMER_FNAME]	Customer first name
[PRODUCT_NAME]	Product name
[PRODUCT_SKU]	Product SKU
[PRODUCT_LINK]	Link to the product page
[REVIEW_LINK]	Direct link to leave a review
[REVIEW_LINK_1] through [REVIEW_LINK_5]	Pre-filled rating links (1–5 stars)
[ORDER_ID]	Order ID
[ORDER_DATE]	Order date
[STORE_NAME]	Your store name
[STORE_URL]	Your store URL

Click Send Test Email to preview the email against a real product in your store.

UTM Tracking

Add UTM parameters to review links in emails to track campaign performance in Google Analytics:

Field	Example Value
UTM Source	j2commerce
UTM Medium	email
UTM Campaign	review_request
UTM Content	(optional differentiator)

Google Rich Snippets

When enabled, the app outputs JSON-LD structured data on product pages so Google can display star ratings in search results.

Enable Rich Snippets: Output JSON-LD on product pages with reviews

Integrate with Schema.org Ecommerce Plugin: Inject review data into a co-installed schema plugin instead of outputting standalone schema

Minimum Reviews: Minimum approved reviews required before schema is added

Include Individual Reviews: Add individual review details to the structured data

Maximum Individual Reviews: Number of individual reviews to include in the schema

Include Product Variants: Add ProductGroup schema for products with variants

Include Merchant Listing: Add pricing and availability to the schema

Brand Name: Default brand for structured data (leave blank if not applicable)

Default Currency Code: ISO 4217 currency code for pricing in schema (e.g., USD, EUR)

Managing Reviews

Go to J2Commerce -> Apps -> Product Reviews -> Manage Reviews to access the review management screen.

Review Statuses

Pending: Submitted but not yet reviewed by a moderator

Approved: Visible on the product page

Rejected: Hidden from the public but kept in the database

Spam: Identified as spam, hidden from the public

Moderating Reviews

• Click the **checkbox (**next to the individual review or select more than one) -> Action.
• Use the Bulk Actions dropdown to approve, reject, mark as spam, or delete multiple selected reviews at once.

Filter Reviews

Click on Filter Options. Filter by status, rating, or product using the toolbar dropdowns.

Editing a Review

Click on a reviewer's name to open the full edit form. You can:

• Change the rating, title, and content
• Write a Store Response that appears publicly below the review
• Update the reviewer's name, email, and associated user
• Add or remove review images
• Toggle Verified Purchase status
• Change the review status

Importing Reviews

The app includes a CSV import tool to migrate reviews from another platform.

1. Go to J2Commerce -> Apps -> Product Reviews -> Import Reviews
2. Choose the Product Identifier — either Product ID or SKU.
3. Set the Default Status for imported reviews that have no status column.
4. Enable Skip Duplicate Reviews to avoid re-importing reviews by the same email for the same product.
5. Download the Sample CSV to see the required format.
6. Upload your CSV file and click Start Import.

Required CSV Columns

Column	Required	Description	Example
product_id	If using Product ID	J2Commerce product ID	42
sku	If using SKU	Product SKU code	SHIRT-L-BLU
reviewer_name	Yes	Reviewer full name	Jane Smith
reviewer_email	Yes	Reviewer email address	jane@example.com
rating	Yes	Star rating 1–5	5
review_title	No	Short title	Great product!
review_content	No	Full review text	Arrived quickly...
status	No	pending, approved, rejected, or spam	approved
verified	No	1 for verified purchase, 0 otherwise	1
created	No	Date created (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS )	2025-03-15 09:00:00
order_id	No	Associated order ID	1001
helpful	No	Helpful vote count	12

Review Analytics

Go to J2Commerce -> Analytics -> Review Stats

You can now review the entire summary of review activity:

• Total, pending, and approved review counts
• Average rating
• Email engagement metrics (sent, engaged, pending, expired)
• Star distribution chart
• Reviews by source (product page, email, profile, backend, import)
• Device breakdown (desktop, mobile, tablet)
• User type breakdown (registered vs. guest)
• Top reviewers
• Most reviewed products
• Top-rated products

Frontend Category View

Before/Above Product Card

Before/Above Add-to-Cart Button

Troubleshooting

Reviews Not Appearing on Product Pages

Cause: The app is enabled, but Enable Reviews is set to No, or the individual product has reviews disabled.

Solution:

1. In the plugin settings, confirm Enable Reviews is set to Yes.
2. Edit the product and check the Reviews tab — if an override is set to No, change it to Yes or remove the override.

Review Request Emails Not Sending

Cause: No cron job is configured, or the queue has not yet accumulated emails ready to send.

Solution:

1. Confirm that Enable Review Requests is turned on in Email Settings.
2. Verify the cron job is running and the URL is correct.
3. Check that enough days have passed since the order reached the trigger status — emails are held until the Request Delay period expires.
4. Enable Debug Mode in the plugin settings and check the Joomla log file at administrator/logs/app_reviews.php for error messages.

reCAPTCHA Not Working

Cause: Invalid site key or secret key, or the domain is not registered in your Google reCAPTCHA console.

Solution:

1. Verify your keys at https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin.
2. Confirm the domain of your Joomla site is listed under Domains in the reCAPTCHA settings.
3. If using v3, try lowering the reCAPTCHA v3 Threshold if legitimate submissions are being blocked.

Rich Snippets Not Appearing in Google Search

Cause: Google may take days or weeks to re-crawl and index updated structured data.

Solution:

1. Test your product page in Google's Rich Results Test tool.
2. Confirm Enable Rich Snippets is on and the product has at least the number of approved reviews set in Minimum Reviews.
3. If using the Schema.org Ecommerce plugin integration, confirm that plugin is installed and active.