Forum requirements

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#1 21. October 2017 - 17:58
Sandro
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Forum requirements

So posting and commenting is working, thanks Eko.

The software behind this integrated forum is called Harmony. The features are listed here: https://www.drupal.org/node/2233303

To get this usable, we (imho) need:

  • Something for formatting, either a WYSIWYG editor, or some common tags like BBCode;
  • a simple way for attaching/embedding images ("The ability to upload an image right there in the post. Click browse and select", https://groups.drupal.org/node/408323#comment-1149423);
  • Full-text search - 'Harmony' has an integration with Search API, but we're using Apache Solr for full-text searches.

Also mentioned in Harmony - What's the most important feature for you? (harmony_* modules to make after core):

  • "The ability to merge threads. Many times two or even three separate users will start a thread on the same subject and they will get a reply or two. It can get very confusing for the rest of the members. Which one do they respond to? Which one did they reply to? etc." (@rayorg)
  • "Notifications. You want to be able to subscribe to a particular thread and get an email or Private Message, depending on which option you chose, whenever a new post is made to that thread. Many times people will forget or lose the thread they asked a question in. A notification is very handy." (@rayorg)

I am probably missing a lot, but for starters, I think image attaching/embedding and a simple editor would be crucial.

Sandro

22. October 2017 - 20:26
Eko
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Modules

* Image attachments to forum post added.
* BUEditor added.
* Smiley input filter added.

24. October 2017 - 5:27
Sandro
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Moved back to D7 core forum

Hi,

I think 'Harmony' as suggested by Eko has the more modern architecture, but currently has just too many limitations:

* It's based on entities, so it does not integrate into Apache Solr's full text search,
* it does not build proper breadcrumbs,
* views arguments can not work as there is no nid, and
* the overview page is confusing.

Thusly I moved back to D7 core forum with the

The content has been moved also; threads are now regular nodes with a nid, and replies are comments.

So now we have breadcrumbs, search integration, and view arguments work.

However, the forum overview page is borked. It's supposed to look like this:

Harmony_core has messed with this, so as it seems it can not be restored. As a workaround I'm using the forum structure. The tabs (active topics etc.) work fine.

Image attachments are added to the forum post node where it works fine; on comments it does not work. Workarounds might be 'comment_upload' or 'nodecomment' (both are very dated approaches we used about a decade ago).

Let's get back to work…

Sandro

24. October 2017 - 19:49
Sandro
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Quick status updates

Hi,

some things are working, others don't.

* Signatures - signature_forum has a bug, so signatures sometimes show up on top of the post. Undesirable, so module removed.
* User avatars - Automatic scaling of profile pictures does not work reliably, and settings from imagecache_profiles are ignored.

Attaching and embedding images works, but it is neither very user friendly nor nice looking. Supposed to be simpler methods like insert seem not to work at all, imce works partially, but is not really usable.

What appears to work nicely:

* Activity stats - author_pane
* Pre-filled comment subjects - comment_subject

Still needs some more testing:

* Comment notifications - comment_notify
* Private messaging - privatemsg

For now not looking into stuff like user points or user badges.

Sandro

24. October 2017 - 23:53
Sandro
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Re: Forum requirements

Hi,

* new: limited the default input format for forum posts to a filtered subset of HTML and some markdown.
* disabled IP address tracking as that's privacy related data.

Sandro

4. November 2017 - 1:33
Sandro
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Re: Forum requirements

Changelog:

  • Markdown disabled; I'll take a closer look later if I want to re-enable it.
  • Image attaching and image inserting with a pre-defined image style is now working.

Sandro

18. December 2017 - 1:06 (Reply to #6)
Sandro
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Re: Forum requirements

Some minor changes:

  • The thread listing page now mentions the (sub-)forum where the posting was made.
  • For the forum requirements, I added 'comment_mover'. This module allows to rip out postings from one thread and move them into another thread. The drawback is that the module does not leave a shadow copy of the moved posting on it's original place, meaning that the thread's consistency might become somehow garbled.

Sandro

22. December 2017 - 19:39 (Reply to #7)
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Re: Forum requirements

Changelog:

  • Added the possibility to attach a video to forum threads and comments. Allowed file formats: mp4 and mov (I can add others, if required). Maximum filesize limited to 64 MB per file.

Sandro