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.

[Carnage]

Linkage please? That's almost like claiming it will be added in vb5.

http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBIV-952

Originally Posted by jira email

Allen Lin updated VBIV-952:
---------------------------

Fix Version/s: 4.2
(was: Product Backlog)

> > CMS - post promoted to article splits discussion
> > ------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Key: VBIV-952
> > URL: http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBIV-952
> > Project: vBulletin 4
> > Issue Type: Improvement Request
> > Components: CMS
> > Affects Versions: 4.0.0 Beta 3
> > Reporter: RadioErewan
> > Assignee: Zoltan Szalay
> > Priority: Major
> > Fix For: 4.2
> >
> > Attachments: product-imhotek_useoriginalthread 4.0-0.1 a2.xml
> >
> >
> > Promotion of post to article splits discussion. New thread is started. No way of merging threads (a lot of errors occur then).
> > Having discussions split is issue in the roots of forum software. Promoted post splits discussion. It needs double admin attention, it breaks thread, users start to talk about same things in two places. Even commenting capabilities of cms article are limited. So it is wrong.
> > Article comments should be linked with promoted post. No new thread started, if article is promoted post. Article comments should be displayed under article and as forum thread.

[karlm]

Originally Posted by Carnage-

This mod has been planned to be put into vbulletin for version 4.2 thanks to everyone who voted.

Congrats on perhaps the most useful functional plugin programmed. I can't believe this wasn't as standard from 4.0.0.

[Robbed]

Does it work with 4.08? If we do use it will we have problems when vb includes it in 4.2

[mmacrypt]

I just upgraded to 0.8 and it's working fine for me for what that's worth.

[Juggernaut]

I am using it with 4.0.8

[thunderclap82]

I'm having an interesting problem. When we post a regular Article it lists the article twice in the What's New? listing. Once with Article: in front of it, and a second time without that. Yet both posts point to the CMS article.

Any idea why this is happening?

I should add: I updated to 4.0.8 but it broke my theme, so I downgraded back to 4.0.7.

[Carnage]

it's possible that the comments thread in the comments forum is coming up and the article itself is coming up. I don't think that this mod is specifically responsible: check the settings for your default comments forum.

[carrlos]

Carnage-, is it me or are all threads promoted to articles absent from the "New Forum Posts" and "Forum Threads" sidebar blocks when using this mod? And subsequent comments? Solution?

[Carnage]

I can't say I've noticed that happening but it could be because the system is now treating those threads as cms content... do they appear in recent cms comments blocks etc?

[carrlos]

Yes, they do. Do you have a work-around? My users like the sidebar blocks (which I have temporarily removed) and have asked for them to come back.