# Google Reviews Carousel for Shopware 6 — Installation, configuration and usage

> The Google Reviews Carousel plugin displays your business's Google reviews as a responsive carousel in the Shopware 6 storefront. It automatically generates Schema.org markup (LocalBusiness + AggregateRating + Review), caches…

- Page: <https://www.datafirefly.com/en/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/>
- Language: en
- Last updated: 2026-07-07
- Other languages: [fr](https://www.datafirefly.com/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/index.md), [es](https://www.datafirefly.com/es/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/index.md), [de](https://www.datafirefly.com/de/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/index.md), [it](https://www.datafirefly.com/it/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/index.md), [pl](https://www.datafirefly.com/pl/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/index.md), [nl](https://www.datafirefly.com/nl/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/index.md), [pt](https://www.datafirefly.com/pt/documentation/carrousel-avis-google-shopware/index.md)
- Index: <https://www.datafirefly.com/en/documentation/llms.txt>

The **Google Reviews Carousel** plugin displays your business's Google reviews as a responsive carousel in the Shopware 6 storefront. It automatically generates Schema.org markup (LocalBusiness + AggregateRating + Review), caches the reviews and ships two built-in themes. No administration build is required: it installs on any hosting, including shared hosting.

## Requirements

- Shopware 6.5.x, 6.6.x or 6.7.x
- PHP 8.1 or higher
- A Google Cloud API key with the **Places API** enabled (free up to a large request volume)
- The **Place ID** of your Google business

## Installation

Upload the ZIP archive via _Extensions > My extensions > Upload extension_, or copy the `DfGoogleReviews` folder into `custom/plugins/`. Then run:

```
bin/console plugin:refresh
bin/console plugin:install --activate DfGoogleReviews
bin/console cache:clear
```

The plugin then appears under _Extensions > My extensions_, ready to configure.

## Getting your API key and Place ID

### Google API key

1. Go to `console.cloud.google.com` and create (or select) a project.
2. Under _APIs and services_, enable the **Places API**.
3. Under _Credentials_, create an API key and copy it.
4. Recommended: restrict the key to the Places API and your domain.

### Place ID

Use Google's _Place ID Finder_ (Google Maps Platform documentation) to retrieve your business identifier. It looks like `ChIJ...`.

## Configuration

Open _Extensions > My extensions > Google Reviews Carousel > Configure_. All settings are managed **per sales channel**: select the relevant sales channel at the top of the page before configuring.

### Google connection

- **Enable the reviews carousel**: main switch.
- **Google API key**: your key with the Places API enabled.
- **Place ID**: your business identifier.
- **Reviews language**: language code (e.g. `fr`, `de`, `en`) passed to the API for review texts and relative dates. Leave empty for Google's default.

### Display

- **Position**: _Homepage_ (above the footer), _All pages_, or _Manual_ (see next section).
- **Title**: carousel heading (empty = translated default, provided in 5 languages).
- **Theme**: Light or Dark.
- **Autoplay** and **interval** (in milliseconds): automatic pause on hover and focus.
- **Maximum number of reviews**: up to 10 (the Google API returns 5 at most).
- **Minimum rating**: only shows reviews above the threshold (e.g. 4 to keep only 4 and 5-star reviews).

### Cache

- **Cache lifetime**: from 1 hour to 7 days (24 hours recommended).

## Displaying the carousel

### Automatic mode

With the _Homepage_ or _All pages_ position, the carousel is inserted automatically above the footer. No theme change is required.

Automatic mode uses the `base_footer` block. If a custom theme fully overrides this block without calling `parent()`, use manual mode below.

### Manual mode (Twig include)

Choose the _Manual_ position, then include the component wherever you want in your storefront theme:

```
{% sw_include '@DfGoogleReviews/storefront/component/df-google-reviews.html.twig' %}
```

This is ideal for placing the reviews on a specific CMS page, inside a Shopping Experience or at a precise spot in your layout.

## Console commands

Two commands make maintenance easier:

```
# Test the API connection and preview reviews (cache bypassed)
bin/console df:google-reviews:test

# Clear the reviews cache
bin/console df:google-reviews:clear-cache
```

Both accept the `--sales-channel-id=...` option to target a specific sales channel's configuration. The test command shows the business name, the overall rating and the list of returned reviews — handy to validate the API key and Place ID before publishing.

## SEO and Schema.org

On every render, the plugin injects complete JSON-LD markup: `LocalBusiness` (name, overall rating), `AggregateRating` (average and total review count) and one `Review` block per review. This markup can make stars appear in Google results (rich snippets). Since the content is rendered server-side, reviews stay readable by crawlers and users without JavaScript; the carousel is only a progressive enhancement.

## Performance

The CSS (~2 KB) and JavaScript (~2 KB, vanilla JS) are injected only on pages where the carousel renders. No third-party library, no jQuery. Calls to the Google Places API are cached in the Shopware object cache according to the configured lifetime.

**Graceful degradation**: if the Google API is momentarily unavailable, the last valid cached reviews keep being displayed. The storefront is never broken by the widget.

## Troubleshooting

- **The carousel does not appear**: check that the plugin is activated, that the "Enable the reviews carousel" box is ticked, and that the API key and Place ID are filled in. Run `bin/console df:google-reviews:test` to diagnose.
- **API error**: make sure the Places API is enabled in Google Cloud and the key is not too restricted. Check `var/log` for details.
- **Reviews are not updating**: clear the cache with `bin/console df:google-reviews:clear-cache` (the Google API only returns the 5 most recent reviews anyway).
- **Automatic mode invisible on a custom theme**: switch to manual mode and add the Twig include.

## Uninstallation

Deactivate then uninstall the plugin from _Extensions > My extensions_, or via:

```
bin/console plugin:uninstall DfGoogleReviews
```

If you choose to remove data on uninstall, all configuration (`DfGoogleReviews.config.*` keys) is automatically cleaned up.