anytech/silverstripe-google-reviews

elemental block for silverstripe 6 to import and display google reviews using the places api v1

v3.0.1 2026-08-19 02:16 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.3
• ext-curl: *
• ext-json: *
• dnadesign/silverstripe-elemental: ^6
• silverstripe/crontask: ^4
• silverstripe/framework: ^6.1
• silverstripe/siteconfig: ^6
• silverstripe/vendor-plugin: ^3

MIT

• Kayne Middleton

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-08-19 02:20 UTC

README

Elemental block for SilverStripe 6 to import and display Google Reviews using the Google Places API v1.

SilverStripe 5 support lives on the ss5 branch (tagged 2.x).

Features

• Imports Google Reviews automatically via a CronTask
• Displays reviews in a configurable Elemental block
• Controls for minimum star rating, newest/highest order, and result limit
• SiteConfig fields for API key, Place ID, language, and rating filter

Requirements

• php ^8.3
• silverstripe/framework ^6.1
• silverstripe/siteconfig ^6
• dnadesign/silverstripe-elemental ^6
• silverstripe/crontask ^4

Installation

composer require anytech/silverstripe-google-reviews

Rebuild and flush: vendor/bin/sake db:build --flush

Configuration

Already included _config/config.yml:

---
Name: anytech-googlereviews
After:
- '#coreconfig'
- '#elemental'
---
SilverStripe\SiteConfig\SiteConfig:
  extensions:
  - anytech\googlereviews\Extensions\SiteConfigGoogleReviewsExtension

Setup

1. In CMS, go to Settings -> Google Reviews.
2. Enter:
   • Places API Key
   • Place ID
   • Language (e.g. en, en-CA)
   • Optional: Minimum rating to import
3. Enable Places API (New) in Google Cloud: https://console.developers.google.com/apis/api/places.googleapis.com/overview

Sync

Task class: anytech\googlereviews\Tasks\GoogleReviewsSyncTask

Run manually from the CLI: vendor/bin/sake tasks:google-reviews-sync

Or in the browser: /dev/tasks/google-reviews-sync

The task also implements SilverStripe\CronTask\Interfaces\CronTask, so it is picked up automatically by silverstripe/crontask. Run the scheduler once a minute from the system crontab:

* * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/site/current/vendor/bin/sake cron-task

Default schedule is 03:00 daily. Override it in your project YAML:

anytech\googlereviews\Tasks\GoogleReviewsSyncTask:
  schedule: '0 */6 * * *'

Elemental Block

Class: anytech\googlereviews\Elements\GoogleReview

CMS Options

• Max reviews to show
• Minimum stars
• Order: Newest / Highest Rated
• Show avatar
• Show relative time

Template

The module ships templates/anytech/googlereviews/Elements/GoogleReview.ss. To override it, create themes/<yourtheme>/templates/GoogleReviews.ss:

<div class="element-google-reviews">
  <% if $ShowTitle %><h3>$Title</h3><% end_if %>

  <div class="reviews-grid">
    <% loop $FilteredReviews %>
      <article class="review-card">
        <header class="review-head">
          <% if $Top.ShowAvatar && $AuthorPhotoURL %>
            <img class="avatar" src="$AuthorPhotoURL" alt="$AuthorName.ATT">
          <% end_if %>

          <div class="meta">
            <strong class="author">
              <% if $AuthorURL %>
                <a href="$AuthorURL" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">$AuthorName</a>
              <% else %>
                $AuthorName
              <% end_if %>
            </strong>

            <% if $Top.ShowRelativeTime && $RelativeTime %>
              <span class="when">$RelativeTime</span>
            <% end_if %>

            <span class="stars" aria-label="Rating $Rating out of 5">
              <% if $Rating >= 1 %>*<% end_if %>
              <% if $Rating >= 2 %>*<% end_if %>
              <% if $Rating >= 3 %>*<% end_if %>
              <% if $Rating >= 4 %>*<% end_if %>
              <% if $Rating >= 5 %>*<% end_if %>
            </span>
          </div>
        </header>

        <p class="text">$Text.XML</p>
      </article>
    <% end_loop %>
  </div>
</div>

Optional CSS:

• client/css/google-reviews.css (exposed via extra.expose)

Error Handling

The sync task fails with a non-zero exit code and prints the Google error code, status and message. Example cause:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 403,
    "status": "PERMISSION_DENIED",
    "message": "Places API (New) has not been used in this project or it is disabled"
  }
}

Fix by enabling the API and retrying after propagation.

Directory Structure

src/
  Elements/
    GoogleReview.php
  Extensions/
    SiteConfigGoogleReviewsExtension.php
  Models/
    GoogleReview.php
  Services/
    GoogleReviewsClient.php
  Tasks/
    GoogleReviewsSyncTask.php
client/
  css/
    google-reviews.css
templates/
  anytech/googlereviews/Elements/
    GoogleReview.ss
_config/
  config.yml
composer.json
README.md

License

MIT License - Kayne Middleton

MIT summary

• Permissive. Use, modify, distribute, and sublicense commercially.
• Must keep copyright and license notice.
• Provided "as is", no warranty or liability.