FOB Google Reviews

A professional Google Reviews widget for Botble CMS that displays Google Business reviews with a beautiful carousel interface. Designed to match modern review widget designs with responsive layouts and extensive customization options.

Requirements

• Botble core 7.5.0 or higher.
• PHP 8.2 or higher.

Installation

Install via Admin Panel

Go to the Admin Panel and click on the Plugins tab. Click on the "Add new" button, find the FOB Google Reviews plugin and click on the "Install" button.

Install manually

1. Download the plugin from the Botble Marketplace.
2. Extract the downloaded file and upload the extracted folder to the platform/plugins directory.
3. Go to Admin > Plugins and click on the Activate button.

Features

• Beautiful Design: Professional widget matching modern Google Reviews design
• Responsive Carousel: Auto-playing carousel with touch/swipe support
• Mobile Responsive: Adapts from 1 to 4 columns based on screen size
• Highly Configurable: Extensive settings for customization
• Smart Caching: Reduces API calls with configurable cache duration
• Per-Product Settings: Override place ID per product
• Multi-language: Supports 42 languages
• Accessible: ARIA labels and keyboard navigation support
• Theme Independent: Works with all Botble themes
• Multiple Display Types: Choose between Carousel, Grid, or List layouts
• Dual Source Mode: Use Google API or manual database reviews

Usage

Review Source Modes

The plugin supports two modes for displaying reviews:

1. Manual Mode (Default)

• Reviews stored in database
• Full control over review content
• No API costs
• No external dependencies
• Easy to manage via admin panel or seeder

Use Case: When you want complete control over reviews, don't have Google API access, or want to curate specific reviews.

Setup:

1. Go to Settings > Google Reviews
2. Select "Manual (Database)" as Review Source
3. Add reviews manually or run seeder

2. Google API Mode

• Fetches real reviews from Google My Business
• Automatic updates
• Shows authentic customer reviews
• Requires Google Places API key

Use Case: When you want to display real Google reviews automatically.

Setup:

1. Get Google API Key (see below)
2. Go to Settings > Google Reviews
3. Select "Google API" as Review Source
4. Enter API Key and Place ID

Getting Started with Google API

1. Get Google API Key

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select existing one
3. Enable Google Places API
4. Create an API key from Credentials section
5. (Optional) Restrict the API key to Places API only

2. Get Place ID

Method 1: Using Place ID Finder

1. Visit Google Place ID Finder
2. Search for your business
3. Copy the Place ID

Method 2: Using Google Maps

1. Open Google Maps
2. Search for your business
3. The Place ID is in the URL after !1s or use the Share button

Configuration

Configure Global Settings

Navigate to Settings > Google Reviews to configure:

Review Source

• Choose between Manual (Database) or Google API mode

API Settings (API Mode only)

• Google API Key: Your Google Places API key
• Default Place ID: Your Google Business place ID
• Business Name: Override business name (optional)

Display Settings

• Display Type: Choose Carousel, Grid, or List
• Maximum Reviews: How many reviews to show (1-20)
• Minimum Rating: Filter reviews by minimum stars (0-5)

Carousel Settings (Carousel Mode only)

• Enable Autoplay: Auto-advance carousel
• Autoplay Speed: Time between slides (1000-30000ms)

Grid Settings (Grid Mode only)

• Reviews Per Row: Number of reviews per row (1-4)

Visibility

• Show on Product Pages: Display on product detail pages
• Show "View All Reviews" Button: Link to Google reviews page

Performance

• Auto Refresh Reviews: Automatically refresh cached data
• Cache Duration: How long to cache reviews (5-1440 minutes)

Appearance

• Widget Title: Custom title for the widget
• Show Ratings Summary: Display overall rating and count
• Show Author Avatar: Display reviewer's profile picture
• Show Author Name: Display reviewer's name
• Show Review Date: Display when review was posted
• Show Star Ratings: Display star ratings
• Review Text Length: Maximum characters to display
• Show "Read More" Link: Display link for truncated reviews

Per-Product Configuration

1. Edit any product
2. Scroll to Google Reviews metabox
3. Enable Google Reviews for this product
4. (Optional) Add custom Place ID to show different location reviews

Using Shortcodes

You can place the Google Reviews widget anywhere on your site using the shortcode.

In Page Content (Visual Editor):

1. Edit any page
2. Click the Shortcode button in the editor
3. Select Google Reviews from the list
4. (Optional) Add custom title
5. Insert the shortcode

Manual Shortcode:

[google-reviews][/google-reviews]

In Blade Templates:

{!! Shortcode::compile('[google-reviews][/google-reviews]') !!}

In PHP Code:

echo do_shortcode('[google-reviews][/google-reviews]');

Managing Manual Reviews

When using Manual mode, reviews are stored in the google_reviews_data table.

Via Admin Panel

1. Go to Google Reviews > Reviews in the admin menu
2. Click "Create Review" to add new reviews
3. Fill in review details (author name, rating, text, etc.)
4. Set display order (lower numbers appear first)
5. Save the review

Via Seeder

Run the seeder to create sample reviews:

php artisan db:seed --class="FriendsOfBotble\\GoogleReviews\\Database\\Seeders\\GoogleReviewsSeeder"

Via Laravel Tinker

php artisan tinker

FriendsOfBotble\GoogleReviews\Models\GoogleReviewData::create([
    'author_name' => 'Jane Smith',
    'rating' => 5,
    'text' => 'Excellent service and quality!',
    'review_date' => now()->subWeeks(2),
    'is_active' => true,
    'order' => 1
]);

Widget Features

Header Section

• Google logo
• Business name
• Overall rating with stars
• Total review count
• "Powered by Google" attribution

Review Cards

• Reviewer avatar (or initial bubble if no photo)
• Reviewer name
• Star rating
• Relative time ("2 weeks ago")
• Review text with "Read more" for long reviews

Carousel Navigation

• Previous/Next buttons
• Dot indicators
• Touch/swipe support on mobile
• Keyboard navigation
• Auto-play with pause on hover

Responsive Layout

• Mobile (< 768px): 1 card
• Tablet (768px - 1023px): 2 cards
• Desktop (1024px - 1279px): 3 cards
• Large Desktop (≥ 1280px): 4 cards

Screenshots

Google Reviews Widget

Professional Google Reviews carousel widget displaying customer reviews with ratings, avatars, and responsive design

Plugin Settings Page

Comprehensive settings page with collapsible sections for Review Source, Display Type, and extensive customization options

Development

Building Assets

The plugin uses webpack to compile SCSS and JavaScript files.

# Development build
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run prod

# Watch for changes
npm run watch

# Build specific plugin
npm run dev -- --mix-config=platform/plugins/fob-google-reviews/webpack.mix.js

Asset Structure

platform/plugins/fob-google-reviews/
├── webpack.mix.js           # Webpack configuration
├── resources/
│   ├── sass/
│   │   └── google-reviews.scss   # Source SCSS file
│   └── js/
│       └── google-reviews.js     # Source JavaScript file
└── public/                  # Compiled assets (production)
    ├── css/
    │   └── google-reviews.css
    └── js/
        └── google-reviews.js

API Limits

Google Places API has usage limits:

• Free Tier:
  • $200 monthly credit (~40,000 requests)
  • Basic Data: $17 per 1,000 requests
  • Contact Data: $3 per 1,000 requests

Optimization Tips:

• Increase cache duration (default: 60 minutes)
• Set appropriate max reviews limit
• Use per-product place IDs only when needed

Troubleshooting

No Reviews Showing

Check:

1. API key is valid and Places API is enabled
2. Place ID is correct
3. Cache duration - try clearing cache
4. Browser console for errors

Clear Cache:

php artisan cache:clear

Styling Issues

Check:

1. Assets are published: php artisan vendor:publish --tag=cms-public --force
2. CSS file exists at: public/vendor/core/plugins/fob-google-reviews/css/google-reviews.css
3. No theme CSS conflicts

Carousel Not Working

Check:

1. JavaScript file loaded correctly
2. Browser console for errors
3. Clear browser cache

Security

• API keys stored securely in database
• XSS protection on review text
• CSRF protection on all forms
• Sanitized user inputs

Browser Support

• Chrome/Edge (latest)
• Firefox (latest)
• Safari (latest)
• Mobile browsers (iOS Safari, Chrome)

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Bug Reports

If you discover a bug in this plugin, please create an issue.

Security

If you discover any security related issues, please email friendsofbotble@gmail.com instead of using the issue tracker.

Credits

• Friends Of Botble
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.