Client Feedback Joomla Extension
UPDATE - I have created a static page for the most up to date information on this extension. This post is being left here as a reference until I decide to take it down. Thanks!
The Client Feedback extension for Joomla! is a component & module combination that aims to help clear up communication between people who build websites and their clients. Like most web developers, I’ve gotten “the website doesn’t look/work right” emails from clients with no details about how they are trying to view the site.
I built this extension in an effort to help the feedback/support cycle. Now, clients (or anyone for that matter) can browse a site, spot an issue or have a question about a particular page, and submit a feedback form without ever leaving the page. Every feedback form (in addition to the client’s comments) records information about the client, like their browser, operating system, screen resolution, etc. With this information developers & designers can get a better picture of what the client is seeing.
Download
Installation
First unzip the file you downloaded (which should have “UNZIP_FIRST” in the filename). Inside the unzipped file you will find two more zip files: com_feedback.zip & mod_feedback.zip. Install the component, (com_feedback.zip) first and the module (mod_feedback.zip) second via the normal Joomla extension install screen.
Once both the component & module are installed, assign the module to a position that occurs throughout your template. Now the feedback form will appear on your site.
Screenshots
The Client Feedback component in action on FlatBen.org
Admin screen for the Client Feedback component
Development
The Client Feedback extension is the first Joomla extension I’ve built for the general public, so I would appreciate any feedback (lol). Also, if you would like to get the most up-to-date code, you can download the source code directly from its SVN repository (thanks to our good friends at Grownseed for the SVN server space).
License
GNU/GPL see LICENSE.php in the com_feedback folder.
My feedback? Stop giving it away! Sell it!
@Heath – Hey buddy, I’m just trying to be a good member of the community. I’ve used enough free Joomla extensions that I have to start giving them away or my Karma will be all out of whack.
Very nice feedback extensions. Thanks a lot.
Hope in next release, there’s some captcha and required field item. Before they can submit the feedback. An intro Text from us is nice also, so we can give some specific requirements/instruction to people before they fill up and submit the Feedback form.
Thanks for the feedback (lol), Maria! I’ve been working on the next version of the extension and should be releasing it soon.
I will definitely add the intro text suggestion – its been on my list of enhancements for a while now, along with a pair of simple, non-CAPTCHA anti-spam methods.
Hello,
Great extension!!
Can you help me with 2 problems
I want the module on the right side of the webpage
And the feedback.png is not showing up on the page.
Kind regards Matthijs
@ matthijs: Yeah i faced the same problem and found the solution as well. Here’s the solution go to yoursite\modules\mod_feedback\tmpl\default.php . After opening the default.php look for a code
——————————————————————————————-
#feedback-slider {
float:left;
width:30px;
height:200px;
background: #f55110 url(‘/modules/mod_feedback/images/feedback.png’) right top no-repeat;
}
——————————————————————————————-
and replace it with
——————————————————————————————-
#feedback-slider {
float:left;
width:30px;
height:200px;
background: #f55110 url(‘modules/mod_feedback/images/feedback.png’) right top no-repeat;
}
——————————————————————————————
And yes if your feedback.png contains transparent pixels and you want them to appear in the site remove the #f55110 and if you want the feedback icon to appear in the middle of the comment box just add “margin-top:90px;” anywhere between the #feedback-slider{} . I think adding top margin looks really nice and gives freedom to have the feedback.png any where in the left side of the page.
Yes the extension is really nice. It fits my site requirement perfectly. I would love to see the captcha code just above the submit feedback button. And yes a quick note to the author you can send feedback without entering the name and email address. Even i write nothing on the form and hit send feedback button the output is “Feedback Submitted…Mail Sent”. If possible make the name and email field compulsary so that the name and email of the person who had submitted the comment can be contacted in future.
Rest a perfect module. I would love to install the next version with captcha if its free.
Cheers
@promish – That is one way to fix feedback.png not showing up, another way (which will be in the next release) is to change the line:
background: #f55110 url(‘/modules/mod_feedback/images/feedback.png’) right top no-repeat;
so that it uses an absolute path to the image based on where Joomla is installed. Like this:
background: #f55110 url(‘< ?php echo JURI::base(); ?>modules/mod_feedback/images/feedback.png’) right top no-repeat;
Also, don’t worry promish, there will be required fields in the next release. And some anti-spam measures, but probably not CAPTCHA. I’m thinking of more transparent ways.
Thanks for trying the extension, the next release should be out shortly.
@promish tried both fixed but not working for me, installed it on an other site same problem.
thanks to all the replies.
kind regards matthijs
Hey everyone,
As promised, here is the next version of the extension:
http://mertonium.com/2010/08/version-1-1-of-client-feedback-extention/
(The download link above points to the most up to date version as well)
Working like à charm
great thank you very much.
Kind regards Matthijs
Thanks a lot, I uninstalled the old one and install the new version, Works great John..Thanks for your generosity.
God Bless You.
@ John:
Hi, thanks for the updated version. It’s good that user must have to enter their name and email before submitting the feedback. But are there some antispam measures or its not showing in my website?
Rest very very good work. Thanks a lot.
Cheers
[...] [This is an update to the previous post on my Client Feedback extension] [...]
@Promish – Good question. I guess I kind of glossed over it in the CHANGELOG. I’ve added a more thorough explanation of the new anti-spam measures to the v1.1 release post.
Wow, Great Anti Spam features, just now I understand about it. Nice Technique.
Thanks again for this.
@ John: Got ya…..Good technique.
Thanks for it again.
Cheers
doesnt seem to working in ie9 . so also in mozilla !!!!!
Sir,
Thank you!
Hi,
excellent
I added a little more thing into the #feedback-div css selector of the module.
z-index: 95;
Then with this the module is always at the top, never overlap by something else.
How to make it always on top?
I don’t know where to write that -index: 95;
What is the filename and what div class where I can write that z-index: 95;?
Thanks for any help.
The file is:
/modules/mod_feedback/tmpl/default.php
Find:
#feedback-div {
position: fixed;
get(‘location’,'left’); ?>:0;
top: 20px;
}
Replace by:
#feedback-div {
position: fixed;
z-index:95;
get(‘location’,'left’); ?>:0;
top: 20px;
}
Thanks Sirius, but maybe I have different template style, still the menu button and vertical module still in the top of the feedback form.
Works like a charm! Now I will try to make it a different color
Hi,
Does it support UTF8? I try to use it in my language, I cannot read it. It only show ???????????????? .
Component Great thanks.
I’m just having trouble occm some components as follows:
If access is by a Joomla menu item the result is ok
If access is via a link from the component itself the result is that the screen appears Feedback already open and can not close.
V 1.1
For this reason I left off, but I’ll be tracking the changes and eager to put on my site.
Thanks again
Conti
On my Website it doesn’t work. The feedback modul doesn’t pop out, when I click on it.
@Sophorth – If your default MySQL character set is not set to utf8, your language will not work. Thanks for bringing up this point – the next version of the extension will explicitly declare the default character set & collation of the table to be utf8 and utf8_unicode_ci, respectively.
If you want to fix this now, you can change it via phpMyAdmin (or the database interface of your choice) and the extension should work fine.
BTW – What is your language? Cambodian?
[NOTE TO ANYONE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THE EXTENSION]
If you are having trouble with the extension be sure to:
1. Make sure you don’t have any javascript errors on the page (everyone making a website should get familiar with Firebug).
2. Post a link to an example of the module not working. If you don’t feel comfortable posting the link publicly, use the contact form at the bottom of the page.
I’m usually pretty busy, but I will help if possible.
-John
What would be nice in the next release is a Modal Popup containing the form!
Center aligned in the middle of the page of course. + Popup AutoClose after submital, ex. 30 Seconds after displaying the email message sent box.
Thanks,
James
How would one go about opening the Feedback Panel using a link?
For example I have the feedback panel on ALL pages. As well as opening the panel by clicking the Feedback button I would like users to be able to open it clicking another button on the page. Not related to the module itself.
The button would be an image within a module position on the site.
Thanks,
James
Great job, I was going to make one for my site sometime and I stumbled onto this, great extension, thanks for saving me time from making it lol.
http://geratal.eintracht-borbeck.com/ I know how to use Firebug
and I found no JavaScript Error on my Page.
I would be great when you take a look on my site. Thank you.
Hy !
Great component. 1 Question ..is there any way of making it that it does’t show in full every time I open a new webpage? If a user opens several pages on my site, it will open on each one of them.. then close to the right side. I want this extension to start docked every time, and open only the user clicks on it.
how I can change the text “feddback submitted, Mail sent” to another language.
Thanks a great module
Hi it’s impossible to install component.
Cause :
* JFolder::create: Ne peut pas créer le dossier
* Composant Installation: Échec lors de la création du dossier: “/joomla/administrator/components/com_feedback”
But installation modules is OK !!!!
do you have any idea ?
Hy,
suddenly the slider doesn´t open. Iat was OK the hole time. Suddenly there is no reaction by clicking it. i installed and deinstalles some modules today. No Javascript mistakes in firebug.
If i change the position from -255 to 25 in firebug the form appears, an by klicking the slider it closes, but clicking to open: NO !!!??
Any idea?
i have re-installed it, but same problem.
Karsten
Dear Sir/Mdm,
I’ve downloaded & installed successfully. However, after clicking on the Feeback tab, the Form appeared but some parts were hidden by the Template Header/Banner. if you can give me your email address I will attached a sample to you, which will be self explanatory.
Thks & Rgds,
I have the same problem as described in the post above me. Slider will not open. I just installed it today…
Sounds like you need to add a z-index to the modules default.php #feedback-div if parts of your site are interfering with it as discussed above. Either that or change the location of the object by editing the css in the default.php found in the folder module>tmpl
The first div “#feedback-div” has the property (top: 20px;)
Just change the 20 to a higher number and move the form down so its no longer behind your banner.
I believe all this is correct, I only glanced at it but should do the trick either way.
Hey everyone – I’ve been taking your input and updating the component. The main features to look out for in the next version are: Mootools 1.2 integration & Multi-language support (if you want to translate the component/module into you language get ahold of me via the contact form below).
@James – The modal popup box is how almost every other feedback form I’ve seen works. Its not a bad idea, but since I’m doing this for free its at the bottom of my list. Also, there is a way to get the form to slide open using a link, but it sort of falls under the same heading as your other request
If, however (and this goes for anyone else), you would like a customized version of the component/module contact me via the form below and we can discuss my freelance rates.
@Mike – I had another quick look at your site and it feels like a CSS problem/conflict. When I remove the “position:fixed;” the form shows itself. I searched for what could be interfering to no avail. Have you tried assigning it to different module positions on the page? Or even creating a module position just inside the BODY tag and assigning the module there? Anybody else (with more time or CSS expertise) have any ideas?
@Vlad – The reason the module works like this is so that if there is a JS error (or JS is disabled) the form is still usable (and not stuck off the page). As a quick fix try changing the following line in /modules/mod_feedback/tmpl/default.php from
< ?php echo $params->get(‘location’,'left’); ?>:0;
to
< ?php echo $params->get(‘location’,'left’); ?>:-260px;
@carlos – Multi-language support is coming! See above. Let me know if you want to make the translation for your language.
@Benjamin – It sounds like the permissions on your /administrator/components/ folder is not sufficient. This may sound like a daft question, but are you able to install other components without errors? You may need to temporarily change the permissions on the folder to 775 (or 777), install the component and then change the permissions back after installation.
@Karsten & @charlie – Have you got links to examples of non-working pages (as requested above)?
@David – Have you tried adding a z-index to the CSS declaration for #feedback-div? Sirius talks about it above.
Again – enjoy the extension!
Hi all,
Thanks for all your prompt suggestions & corrective measures.
I’ve fix the problem as suggested by @Jason above. Tq Jason.
Great Component/Module. Will submit my review.
Thks Guys
You are quite welcome, glad you fixed it David!
I will take a look at Mikes issue soon as I am done fixing my own css bug lol.
Hi John,
thanks for your great effort and for your good will to share this nice module/component with us.
I’ve installed it and in FF its working fine. But when i load the page in IE there something going wrong: The Feedback DIV is opened and not closeable and i got some strange orange line (about 10px height) above the custom text. IE gives me two errors, the first is about the Browsercheckroutine and the second tells us nothing: ‘Object doesn’t support this property or method’. Again in FF it works like a charm.
Thanks
Lavaground
Need to show the url for anyone to help ya John.
Please contact me via Mail for this Info.
Lavaground@gmail.com
Greetz
I’m not involved with the developer, I was just going to offer some help. I don’t want to step on Johns toes here…
Thank you very much this feedback extension…nice. love it.:)
No problem. Of if you still want to take a peak contact me…
Love your Feedback extension!
It seems to be working fine on every page… except for our
Forum (Kunena v1.5.12) http://vpowerkids.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=63 and our
Community (CB v1.2.3) http://vpowerkids.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userslist&Itemid=56
Hi there. Really great feedback component. But is it possible to make it vertical instead of horizontal so that i kan have the feedback at the top of my page scrolling down instead?
It looks like the same error as my page.
I got an imageslider which is conflicting witch that module. now i need to get both running or another slider xD
and here’s the fix which worked for me:
my imageslider got custom mootools, i deactiveted it by just renaming the fileextension of the file.
now its works like a charm
Elena, you are having a z-index issue for one…
open up: mod_feedback/tmpl/default.php
you want to find the first div:
#feedback-div {
position: fixed;
get(‘location’,'left’); ?>:-260px;
top: 20px;
}
change to:
#feedback-div {
position: fixed;
get(‘location’,'left’); ?>:-260px;
top: 20px;
z-index:1001;
}
The Z-index will basically move the extension “forward” and lay it over everything else, as you can see it is behind some content on your site and they work on layers. I like to use 1001 because for some reason most people tend to Z at 1000 as a common value so this ensures it will be higher =)
Now your major issue is the feedback is throwing an error:
”
Webpage error details
User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; SLCC2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C; InfoPath.3)
Timestamp: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:41:02 UTC
Message: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Line: 229
Char: 2
Code: 0
URI: http://vpowerkids.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=63
”
I believe it is conflicting with something on your site. I see there are other objects using AJAX and it is impossible for me to know which one (unless theres something I dont know to find out). I would say do the above fix, then disable each of your extensions one at a time testing your broken pages in between each item you disable. I would bet money it will start working by disabling a particular one. Extensions sometimes dont play nice with each other.
Perhaps John knows more, but thought I would help as I have helped fix some other =P
Hey lava, you got them working together?
indeed i did xD
but now i have a minor issue:
the feedbackmodule shows 100% on load, when the loading process is ended it closes the module as it should be already in loading.
mail me for examples
The new version of the extension is out:
http://mertonium.com/2010/08/client-feedback-extension-v1-2/
@Elena – Kunena & Community don’t automatically load MooTools – which is needed for the feedback module to work properly. I tend to make my templates always load MooTools (so that I don’t have to worry about it). But have no fear, the new version of my extension auto-loads MooTools before any javascript code is run. It also works with the new MooTools 1.2 upgrade plugin that was released with Joomla 1.5.19.
-John
Hello, is a major component, works perfectly in Firefox 3.6.8, but does not work in IE 8, gives the following error:
Details of the errors of the Web page
User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC2;. NET CLR 2.0.50727;. NET CLR 3.5.30729;. NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0 ; InfoPath.2)
Stamp Date / Time: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:34:04 UTC
Message: ‘BrowserDetect.browser’ is null or not an object
Line: 2199
Char: 3
Code: 0
URI: http://localhost/Joomla_test/
Message: Object does not support this property or method
Line: 2197
Char: 2
Code: 0
URI: http://localhost/Joomla_test/
Any tips? Thank you.
Hello, John;
I’ve removed version 1.1 and loaded the new version 1.2 but I get same problem as I previously identified: Feedback slider shows template background only, and cuts between drop-down menu selections (as per my e-mail).
I want to make the Z-index modification as per your post addressed to Elena, but there are no Client Feedback posts prior to Aug.23, so I’m not sure that Elena’s issue is identical.
Can you re-post Elena’s feedback? Thanks.
Great that you updated so quickly – now I just need to succeed to get Feedback 1.2 working with with my Vintage template. Thanks for your efforts.
I followed the A-index issue advice (Aug.23) and looked at the default.php.
For version 1.2 the z-index was set to 1000, not the 1001 cited in John’s reply.
I set it to 1001 but it made no difference. Any further suggestions?
Hello,
I have installed the latest version 2.0 succesfully. However, when I attempt to test the feedback form, a statement in the form appears ‘Please enter a valid email address’ – even though I have entered a valid email address. Help please?
@Carlos
try different module positions, sometimes it conflicts with other modules or try to deactivate integrated mootools of the other mod/plg, at least that did the trick for me
hi ,
Thank u for such a awesome component..
@Mathew – Re-download the extension and install it again. I’ve updated the email validation
Good extension, but I have a little problem, the title of the module appear in the right modules position; if I give the module in another position I lost the Feedback module in the right side of the screen too.