How Reviews Are Stored

Reviews are stored as a WordPress custom post type. There is no custom database table and no comment-based storage.

The review custom post type

Registered on init with:

• public = false, but show_ui and show_in_menu = true, so reviews are managed from the WordPress admin under a Reviews menu (dashicon testimonial).
• Custom capabilities (edit_review, read_review, delete_review, edit_reviews, edit_others_reviews, publish_reviews, read_private_reviews), with create_posts mapped to do_not_allow so reviews are created only through the plugin’s own flow. map_meta_cap is on.
• supports: title, editor, author, thumbnail.

A review_category taxonomy is registered for the post type; group reviews use the group category.

Review status = moderation state

Post status	Meaning
draft	Pending. Awaiting group admin (or site admin) approval. Not public, not counted in averages.
publish	Approved. Shown on the Reviews tab, directory, and header, and counted in the group average.

Approving a review publishes it; denying leaves it as a draft (or trashes it).

Post meta

Meta key	Stored on	Value
linked_group	the review post	The BuddyPress group ID the review belongs to.
review_star_rating	the review post	A PHP-serialized array of per-criterion star values (1-5).

Because review_star_rating is a serialized array, per-review and per-group averages are computed in PHP, not directly in SQL.

Group-level criteria

Per-group criteria are stored in BuddyPress group meta under the key bgr_group_criteria_settings, an array with enabled_global_criteria, custom_criteria, and archived_criteria.

Plugin options

Option	Holds
bgr_admin_general_settings	Moderation, per-page, notifications, activity, excluded groups, multiple reviews, group-criteria toggle.
bgr_admin_criteria_settings	add_review_rating_fields and active_rating_fields (the global criteria).
bgr_admin_display_settings	review_label, manage_review_label, bgr_rating_color.
bp_group_review_email_settings	Email toggles, subjects, and messages.