13 - Custom Forum

Submitted by tsangk

This is an installable forum based on the forum template site at http://forum-template.wikidot.com/. The forum holds sections, each with threads. It uses wiki pages for sections and threads, and lets users add comments to a thread page. Additionally, it uses a simple tag-based workflow to let users 'close' threads.

Real life example

The Wikidot Project Forum is an example.

How to use

• Install the package page to your site.

show some random code for the installer

[[table style="width:100%; border: 1px solid silver; font-weight:bold; margin-top:1em; padding-left:0.5em"]]
  [[row]]
    [[cell style="width:76%; font-size:110%"]] Section [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:12%; text-align:center"]] Last thread [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:12%; text-align:center"]] open / closed[[/cell]]
  [[/row]]
[[/table]]

[[div class="error-block"]]
Included page "section:_summary" does not exist ([/section:_summary/edit/true create it now])
[[/div]]

[!-- Other shades you might like
#ded6ee
#d6d8ee
#eed6d6
#e4d6ee
#d6eee8
#dfeed6
#eee3d6
--]

[!--
      It is highly recommended that you DO NOT edit this page unless you know what you
      are doing. This template controls the appearance of the section pages.
                        e.g. section:announcements
--]

[[div style="overflow: hidden"]]
[[div style="overflow: hidden; float: left; clear: left"]]
[[module PreviousPage]]
Previous: %%linked_title%%
[[/module]]
[[/div]]

[[div style="overflow: hidden; float: right"]]
[[module NextPage]]
Next: %%linked_title%%
[[/module]]
[[/div]]
[[/div]]

%%content%%

[!-- template for new section page, replace SECNAME with section name --]

[[table style="width:100%; border: 1px solid silver; font-weight:bold"]]
  [[row]]
    [[cell style="width:65%"]]
[[module NewPage category="thread" parent="%%full_page_name%%" button="Ok" size="60"]]
    [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:35%"]]
      Start a new thread
    [[/cell]]
  [[/row]]
[[/table]]

[[table style="width:100%; border: 1px solid silver; font-weight:bold; margin-top:1em"]]
  [[row]]
    [[cell style="width:58%"]] Thread [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:15%"]] Author [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:12%"]] Replies [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:15%"]] Started [[/cell]]
  [[/row]]
[[/table]]

[!-- Show sticky threads first, ignore closed threads --]
[[module ListPages category="thread" parent="%%full_page_name%%" tags="+_sticky -_closed" order="dateEditedDesc" separate="no" perPage="50"]]
  [[table style="width:100%; border:1px solid silver; font-weight:bold; margin-top:-1px; background-color:#eeeeee"]]
    [[row]]
      [[cell style="width:58%"]] %%linked_title%% (sticky)[[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:15%"]] %%author%% [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:12%"]] %%comments%% [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:15%"]] %%date|%Y-%b-%e%% [[/cell]]
    [[/row]]
  [[/table]]
[[/module]]

[!-- Now show normal open threads --]
[[module ListPages category="thread" parent="%%full_page_name%%" tags="-_sticky -_closed" order="dateEditedDesc" separate="no" perPage="50"]]
  [[table style="width:100%; border:1px solid silver; margin-top:-1px; background-color:#dddddd"]]
    [[row]]
      [[cell style="width:58%"]] %%linked_title%% [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:15%"]] %%author%% [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:12%"]] %%comments%% [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:15%"]] %%date|%Y-%b-%e%% [[/cell]]
    [[/row]]
  [[/table]]
[[/module]]

[!-- Now show closed threads --]
[[module ListPages category="thread" parent="%%full_page_name%%" tags="+_closed" order="dateEditedDesc" separate="no" perPage="50"]]
  [[table style="width:100%; border:1px solid silver; margin-top:-1px; background-color:#cccccc"]]
    [[row]]
      [[cell style="width:58%"]] %%linked_title%% (closed) [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:15%"]] %%author%% [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:12%"]] %%comments%% [[/cell]]
      [[cell style="width:15%"]] %%date|%Y-%b-%e%% [[/cell]]
    [[/row]]
  [[/table]]
[[/module]]

====

Come to this section to discuss whatever, edit this text to be more specific.

[[div style="overflow: hidden"]]
[[div style="overflow: hidden; float: left; clear: left"]]
When you add a section, you need to:
# [/section:_start/edit/true Edit main list of sections]
# [/nav:section-side/edit/true Edit sidebar list of sections]
[[/div]]
[[div style="overflow: hidden; float: right"]]
Thread management:

* To make a thread sticky, tag it '_sticky'.
* To close a thread, tag it '_closed'.
[[/div]]
[[/div]]

[[table style="width:100%; border: 1px solid silver; font-weight:bold"]]
  [[row]]
    [[cell style="width:60%"]]
[[module NewPage category="section" button="Ok" size="60"]]
    [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:40%"]] Create a new forum section [[/cell]]
  [[/row]]
[[/table]]

[[include section:_start]]

[[table style="width:100%; border:1px solid silver; margin-top:-1px"]]
  [[row]]
    [[cell style="width:76%; padding:0.5em 2em 0.5em 0.5em; background-color:{$shade}"]]
      [[size larger]]**[/section:{$name} {$name}]**[[/size]] \
[[include section:{$name}]]
    [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:12%; text-align:center; background-color:{$shade}"]]
[[module ListPages category="thread" parent="section:{$name}" separate="no" order="dateEditDesc" limit="1"]]
[%%link%% %%date|%e %b %Y%%] %%author%%
[[/module]]
    [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:6%; text-align:center; background-color:#dddddd"]]
[[module CountPages category="thread" parent="section:{$name}" tags="-_closed"]]
%%count%%
[[/module]]
    [[/cell]]
    [[cell style="width:6%; text-align:center; background-color:#cccccc"]]
[[module CountPages category="thread" parent="section:{$name}" tags="_closed"]]
%%count%%
[[/module]]
    [[/cell]]
  [[/row]]
[[/table]]

[!--
      It is highly recommended that you DO NOT edit this page unless you know what you
      are doing. This template controls the appearance of the individual threads.
                        e.g. thread:thread-name-here
--]

By %%author%%, on %%date|%e %b, %H:%M (%O ago)%% [[iftags +_sticky]](Sticky)[[/iftags]]

[[div style="overflow: hidden; margin-top:-1em; margin-bottom:-0.5em; padding:0"]]
[[div style="float: left"]]
[[module PreviousPage]]
 << %%linked_title%%
[[/module]]
[[/div]]
[[div style="float: right"]]
[[module NextPage]]
%%linked_title%% >>
[[/module]]
[[/div]]
[[/div]]

%%content%%

**Rate this thread**

[[module Rate]]

[[module Comments order="reverse" title=""]]

====

Write your text here and click the Save button or press Ctrl-S.  You can edit this page afterwards, as often as you like.  If you want to show an image, write '[[f>image :first]]' to show a right floating image and attach the image after you've saved this page.

This forum is unmoderated but supervised.  Spam and other unallowed content will be removed and all posts are subject to the [[[legal:terms of use]]].

Some general information about the site.

Install using Package Installer

Package Installer has been taken down.

leiger 15 Aug 2009 11:11

I think you should use http://forum-template.wikidot.com as the reference, not opensource-template :) The forum template is designed just for a forum, whereas the open source option has other things that wouldn't make sense for this package..

By the way, I got a bit excited when I saw you created this page :P Would be great to have an installer-compatible way of adding the new forum system to a site. (could be used for the community site, as there seems to be plans to replace the current forum there)

---

~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Re:

tsangk 15 Aug 2009 11:13

Fixed. Now testing installer

---

Kenneth Tsang (@jxeeno)

tsangk 15 Aug 2009 11:24

Installer Works!

---

Kenneth Tsang (@jxeeno)

Re: installer works!

leiger 15 Aug 2009 11:26

Awesome. Will try it myself as well =)

---

~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Re: installer works!

leiger 15 Aug 2009 11:34

May I make another suggestion? Like I mentioned for one of the other templates, the "visit your wiki" link takes me to the start page of my wiki when it's done.

Would it be better for it to take the user to the section:_admin page instead?

---

~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Errors on section:_start

leiger 15 Aug 2009 11:37

Getting all kinds of errors about section:Announcements not existing. Might be a good idea to add that to the package as well? :)

---

~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Re: Errors on section:_start

tsangk 15 Aug 2009 12:24

Ok.

---

Kenneth Tsang (@jxeeno)

Re: Errors on section:_start

leiger 15 Aug 2009 12:35

Strange, I think the announcements category is hard coded into it somehow, I tried copying it page-source by page-source from forum-template.wikidot.com and ended up with an annoying "section:Announcements does not exist" message again.

---

edit: Yes, the section:_start page has it hard-coded in:

[[include section:_summary | name=Announcements | shade=#eeeeee]]

---

~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Last edited on 15 Aug 2009 12:38 by leiger Show more

Re: Errors on section:_start

tsangk 17 Aug 2009 06:51

Fixed. Should Work Now….

---

Kenneth Tsang (@jxeeno)

pieterh 23 Aug 2009 15:06

@tsangk, looks interesting but where on earth is the code?

---

Portfolio

tsangk 24 Aug 2009 05:50

It is uploaded as a file as "source.pkg"

---

Kenneth Tsang (@jxeeno)

Huh

Ss_Sins_Insight 26 Sep 2009 02:42

thank you so much for making this, this is what i've been wanting for a long time now

what does the nav:section-side do?

Last edited on 26 Sep 2009 02:42 by Ss_Sins_Insight Show more

leiger 26 Sep 2009 03:13

Ss_Sins_Insight wrote:
what does the nav:section-side do?

Basically, it's another list of sections, so that you can easily move from section to section. All of the times I've made copies of the forum lately, I've left this part out as I don't like it very much. It's not necessary for the forum to work.

If you go to this page: http://forum.wikidot.com/section:Announcements, look at the sidebar. There is a list of Sections there. Basically, that is all it does.

You need to go to Site Manager and manually make the nav:section-side appear for the section category if you want it to work.

---

~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Re:thank you

Ss_Sins_Insight 26 Sep 2009 03:26

thank you, i may incorporate it into my forum

Last edited on 26 Sep 2009 03:28 by Ss_Sins_Insight Show more

autonumber "thread"

appliquetion 12 Nov 2009 14:12

It may be my inexperience with packages like this… but I didn't see a note that told me to auto number the "thread" category when i installed this. So my threads in the sections would not work till I figured that out.

This might be unique to my situation or be something everyone needs to do so I thought i would mention it. I love this forum though.. thank you for making it.

---

………… Apple ………… Email Me

Last edited on 12 Nov 2009 14:12 by appliquetion Show more

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