Yeah, we've done it a few times. Take a look at the link below. I was actually thinking of writing up a how-to on this as I think a lot of merchants would benefit from easily being able to drop a blog into their site. You are able to run BV in 3.5 and a sub-folder (application) in 4.0. The only changes we had to make to the BlogEngine config file was to add these two lines in the <modules> node.



Anyway, here's a look at the blog in action! We did a tiny amount of integration where the comment form user data is populated if the user is logged into BV. To do this you will need to add some of the DLLs from BV as well as the database connection string to the config file.

http://www.roommatesdecor.com/blog/

Thanks Aaron. We're looking at doing something simlar in terms of customisation or writing a simple blog plugin work in BV. BlogEngine looks the most economical in terms of development time and functionality, but not all merchants will be able to run the 3.5/4 split.

Edited by user Thursday, April 25, 2013 3:56:39 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

More to do with actual knowledge/confidence to make the change themselves (and don't have a maintenance plan/support from else where). From past experience some host are nowhere near as accommodating users request as they should be, especially if the users don't have Remote access to the server for example.

In the past some host have only provided ftp access hence we are currently looking at adding a plugin rather than the full BlogEngine solution.

Hi

You can turn off comments/reviews in terms of removing it from the database, but you can disable comments or simply remove then from your product template.

I would however I would urge you to leave them. Going forward they would provide a useful method of content creation for search engines. Products with reviews provide confidence to would be purchesters who find review by customers more engaging than normal copy, and will help with your conversion rates.

Why not offer some sort of prize in terms off a discount code for first time buyers who review their products, as this encourages both content creation and repeat custom?

If you could provide the URL of your website, then I might be able to provide better feedback.

Edited by user Monday, May 20, 2013 3:13:42 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

As I mentioned earlier in the thread I don't have any instructional information written for how to install the two applications side-by-side. Honestly this is more of a developer task.

Just had a thought... we already have the ability to run both applications side by side with our host. Its just the database setup that I need help with.

Aaron is this something we can schedule you to do?

Edited by user Tuesday, May 21, 2013 9:26:54 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified