Miscellaneous Hacks - [CMS] Use original thread for comments

As of 4.1.11 this functionality is included in vbulletin. So you no longer need this mod.

What does this do?
This is a really simple hack that sets the thread for article comments to be the original thread for any thread that is promoted to an article.

What can I use it for?
This mod has two major uses:

1. If you have a wealth of information in your forums and you want to promote it into articles, this mod allows you to retain the rest of the thread as comments in the cms while adding any new comments as replies to the thread; essentially allowing it to function as both a forum thread and a CMS article.

2. If you want to use multiple fourms for CMS comments. This is a fairly none obvious use case, but probably a popular one. If you have three sections in your cms (for example) and want each section to feed into its own forum, the current cms dosn't allow you to do this. With this mod installed, you can. Instead of creating your new article directly in the cms create it in the forum you wish to use for comments. Write your article as the first post of the thread and promote it to a cms article. Fill out the extra information needed (eg publish date) and save. Comments will be saved into the original thread, in the forum you created it in.

Installation Vb 4.0.1 and later
1. Import product

Uninstallation
1. Disable the plugin "set thread id"

Full uninstallation
1. Move threads that have been promoted to articles into the vbcms comments forum.
2. COPY the threads back to their original forums
3. Remove product

Steps 1 and 2 are needed to retain cache functions on the comments threads. Without them new comments will not appear on the article.

Changelog

• 4.0-0.1 a2
  • Fixed bug causing original thread to be delete when the article was deleted
• 4.0-0.1 a1
  • Initial release

Notes

• I believe this is the first mod for the CMS (not including addon widgets/content types)
• Removing this product entirly will cause issues with the cache on any articles using the original thread. Follow the uninstall steps to remove functionallity while retaining the ability to comment on these articles this mod has altered.
• [S] Although its compatible with vbulletin 4.0 Rc 4, a bug in RC 4 and 4.0.0 Gold prevents it from acctually working. I have provided a replacement hooks_vbcms.xml file which corrects the issue in the interim.[/S] (fixed in vb4.0.1)
• [s]Deleting an article will remove the associated original thread This is considered a bug in this product and will hopefully be fixed with the next release. [/s] (fixed)
• The above bug has been fixed, however pending this request: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/proje...?issueid=34188 Thread tags for the original thread will still be removed. There is /nothing/ I can do about that until the issue listed is resolved. (this has been marked as fixed in 4.0.2; will update further when i've tested that its fixed.)
• [S]If you hard delete the original thread without first removing the article you will be affected by this bug: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/proje...?issueid=34187 the fix I posted to that issue needs to be applied BEFORE deleting the original thread. After more research, this only becomes an issue if you promote a thread more than once. If you've done this, you can fix the error by clearing the CMS cache.[/S] (fixed in 4.0.1)

As of 4.1.11 this functionality is included in vbulletin. So you no longer need this mod.

[buontaiviem]

Got big problem. When del article then it also del thread on Forum. I lost some threads for it
And comment from article is error Unicode font

[Carnage]

Will fix the deleting problem asap; however there seems to be a lack of useful hooks for it.

Can you give me more details about the second problem?

[mmcguire]

Installed on my test forum and it works great. Thanks!!

[RadioErewan]

Would like to say "GREAT"!

[buontaiviem]

Originally Posted by Carnage-

Will fix the deleting problem asap; however there seems to be a lack of useful hooks for it.

Can you give me more details about the second problem?

I got second problem when i tested at my site. Now i testing at localhost, it run fine.
I will try again at my site after you fixed deleting problem.

[dihuta]

Reserved for future use.
Thanks!

[Carnage]

I've made a reasonable attempt to fix the deleting problem which has proved sucessful on my dev board. However you will still lose some data (thread tags) pending the hook I used being moved to a more sensible place.

Read the notes section for the other minor known issues. (and their fixes)

[shadowedsoul]

This will be AMAZINGLY useful. It's honestly the way comments for promoted threads should act in the CMS.

[Carnage]

This will be AMAZINGLY useful. It's honestly the way comments for promoted threads should act in the CMS.

I agree, which is why I made this mod. The only issue that I see is if you promote a post that isn't the first post in a thread - in that instance, the entire thread will be used for comments which might not be entirly relevant.