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.

[JonSidneyB]

Originally Posted by FighterO'Foo

Probably the simplest mod I've ever installed. Uploaded the product and it worked straight away, no messing about. Brilliant stuff.

What version of vB are you using?

[daveaite]

Originally Posted by JonSidneyB

What version of vB are you using?

Definitely not the one were using :P (4.05)

[Videx]

Originally Posted by daveaite

Definitely not the one were using :P (4.05)

Nothing drives me crazy quite so much as when, in the middle of a hundred people pointing out problems someone jumps in with a quick "Thanks!" or "Works perfect!", then says nothing else. I mean, did they bother reading the dozens of posts before theirs detailing all the problems? Who knows? The guy might have installed it on 405 and just doesn't yet have any idea it's not working.

[JonSidneyB]

I messaged him. He is using it with 4.0.3

I will give it a try. If this works well on 4.0.3 I will delay 4.0.6 until a fix using this is ready for it.

[JonSidneyB]

I have it on my forum now and love it. This is fantastic. I am going to read this and see if I can find away to preserve the comments that existed before I loaded this.

I am on 4.0.3 however

[sticky]

Originally Posted by Videx

There's a huge problem with that strategy. Namely, that tons of bugs have been fixed in later versions. While this mod is a convenience, it's by no means a necessity.

I sure wish the author would mark it as 'reusable code' if they aren't going to update it themselves. Not that I've seen anyone else clamoring for the opportunity.

You don't think it is a necessity, I do.

If they are going to have a CMS and comments, this is the way it should function. I won't upgrade unless this works with newer versions. Not having this is a bug in my opinion.

[rossco_2005]

Originally Posted by Carnage-

just looked at http://www.iphonemodding.com/forum/c...h-Make-It-Work (the thread you screenshotted) in my browser (FF3.6.7, winxp) I can view the comments fine.

I think I may be close to finding the source of the other problems with this mod; I went into the source code and compared it side by side with vb 4.0.3 Where once there was this:

vb_Search_Indexcontroller_Queue::indexQueue('vBForum', 'Post', 'index', $msgid);

There is now this:

			if (isset($vbulletin->options['vbcmsforumid']) AND $foruminfo['forumid'] == $vbulletin->options['vbcmsforumid'])
			{
				vb_Search_Indexcontroller_Queue::indexQueue('vBCms', 'CmsComment', 'index', $msgid);
			}
			else
			{
				vb_Search_Indexcontroller_Queue::indexQueue('vBForum', 'Post', 'index', $msgid);
			}

It seems that there is an intention to separate forum posts and CMS comments even further as they are now different content types. I'm sure that this is the root of the issues with this mod, however I've yet to figure out what its doing to cause them.

This bug is affecting me too.
One plugin for this ("clear cache") is setting the vbcmsforumid to the id of the current forum, so that check you quoted thinks that this is the cms forum and that the comment should be indexed as a comment rather than post.
Haven't found a fix yet though. I just disabled the "clear cache" plugin, not sure what that will cause but it's better than having no posts indexed.

[Videx]

I wouldn't waste a lot of time trying to fix it because it's being changed again in 406.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Videx

I wouldn't waste a lot of time trying to fix it because it's being changed again in 406.

Yeah... "code, recode, revert code" seems to be vB policy of late... it's a joy.

[C.Birch]

I have a problem, when i set a forum to be used for the user comments, normal members are not able to view the forum they get 'Invalid Forum specified'.

Admin can see it fine, have checked forum settings and soon its removed from being the comments forum, users can see the forum.

Any ideas?