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Geek Article and Review System GARS is the mega popular system for turning forums into articles, tutorials, or even reviews.

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  #1  
Old 01-07-2008, 05:41 AM
Raze Raze is offline
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Default A few pre-sale questions.

First of congratulations to Morgan in acquiring the little vBgeek empire - I'm sure you'll do a smashing job and make the vBgeek proud

Just a few questions I hope you can help with.
  1. Does GARS only add extra queries/load to the forums that are specified to use it? Or once installed does it increase load for all forums?
  2. Even when in use, can we opt to disable some plug-ins/areas of gars if we don't need them for specific forums (ie with conditionals I guess in the plug-ins) or will it 'break'? For example, If I have custom fields on a thread, but don't actually want the custom field data to show with the thread itself (showthread.php) - can I disable that part of GARS to make it use less server resources? (a lot of the times I will use custom fields just to add my own notes to a thread - only time I'll need the info with gars itself is when I click on edit, all other times a custom script will call up the data for display to my users - so I guess I am intending on using gars as a cool back-end system ).
  3. Can we set-up different rating questions/fields for different forums?
  4. If I ever want to stop using gars and uninstall it, will all thread data i.e first and all posts remain intact? (I guess comments are posts?)(how does that work with multi page articles?).
  5. How well is Gars suited to very busy sites?
  6. Does it add much load to the server? Do you have a rough idea of how many extra queries it adds to say its showthread and forumdisplay pages?
  7. If I buy the normal version to begin with, can I later pay the difference to go unbranded?

Sorry for so many questions!

Thanks in advance.
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  #2  
Old 01-07-2008, 04:10 PM
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Morgan Morgan is offline
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Default

The basic premise behind GARS is to allow you to 'type' a forum so that it works like something else, whether it be articles, reviews, link directory, etcetera. Anytime you add something to vBulletin, you are creating extra load and probably adding extra queries, but GARS is geared towards affecting only those forums you type. While I haven't done any benchmarks or query counts, you might try searching for a large board via Google or maybe some GARS users will pop into this thread and talk about their experience. Think of GARS as a 'reformator' that allows you to change the look and feel of your forums. It allows you to add information, such as custom fields, but it doesn't take away vBulletin posts. Backups of course are always a good idea. Speaking of custom fields, only those you choose for each forum are the ones to show. Not all custom fields show in all forums, unless that is what you set. If you don't want custom fields to show to anyone other than yourself, you could edit the code or more simply add a template conditional to the GARS templates. What if anything you break is dependent on what you do, and yes, just like custom fields, you can have different rating questions per forum. If you want to go brand free after purchase, just send me a PM or email.
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Please use the forums for support, feature requests, and similar such things. Support does not include custom code, custom template edits, or third-party modifications. PMs and emails to me should be for private information only, such as login information. If you PM or email me a support question, chances are good that I'll ignore it. Thanks.
While the work or play is on, it is a lot of fun if while you are doing one you don't constantly feel that you ought to be doing the other. -- Franklin Pierce Adams
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  #3  
Old 01-08-2008, 04:56 AM
Raze Raze is offline
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Default

Thanks Morgan for the reply.

Are the custom thread fields added to the thread table? Or do you create a new table for the thread fields. (Are there any benefits of doing it either way?)

Is there anyway to create a seperate search for the gars forums? And perhaps only index the first post? (ie specifically not the comments).

Cheers,
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  #4  
Old 01-08-2008, 02:44 PM
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Morgan Morgan is offline
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Custom fields have their own tables. No need to add to the thread table, especially for forums that do no have custom fields. Searching and indexing is controlled by vBulletin, so if you want to change how that works, you'd need to create your own modification.
__________________
Please use the forums for support, feature requests, and similar such things. Support does not include custom code, custom template edits, or third-party modifications. PMs and emails to me should be for private information only, such as login information. If you PM or email me a support question, chances are good that I'll ignore it. Thanks.
While the work or play is on, it is a lot of fun if while you are doing one you don't constantly feel that you ought to be doing the other. -- Franklin Pierce Adams
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