Adding preview text to cms widget

[RichieBoy67]

The main thing I have been trying to accomplish using the Vbulletin cms seems like it should be simple and included but after spending days trying I have yet to find a solution. All I want to do is show forum posts on the main page without having to promote them to an article. To me it makes no sense to have a thread copied to another section when the post or thread itself can be displayed just like Vbadvanced has always done it.

I figured an easy way of accomplishing this would be to create a recent threads or recent posts widget. The problem I am having with this is that it does not show the entire post. Is there a way to increase the amount of preview test?

I am also open to any other methods of getting a forum post to display nicely in the main section of the cms without having it promoted into an article.

Thanks

--------------- Added [DATE]1358433370[/DATE] at [TIME]1358433370[/TIME] ---------------

Guys, I cannot understand how nobody else has this issue. It just send so obvious that adding some good forum threads to the home page would be a good thing. The only way to do this currently is to use minimal sidebar widgets or to promote a thread. These are both really inefficient ways of doing this.
I just cannot believe that the best forum script in the world does not even have a basic feature to display a post in the primary content area.

Is there anyone here who can help me with this?

[Videx]

We've got "Recent Forum Posts" in a sidebar on our CMS homepage (http://www.shannondale.org/) from some mod or other here. That won't work? I guess not from your description.

But if my own opinion counts, I think you may be agonizing for no reason. Your CMS isn't supposed to be a forum; at most it should only direct viewers there. Also remember many mobile users won't ever see it anyway - especially those using Tapatalk. Forumrunner, or readers like Google Currents.

[Lynne]

I am picturing a widget on the site with a ton of post text in it... Who wants to read a long post in a 240px wide space? If that is not what you are saying you want, then please show a mockup of what you want. And, you realize you can always create a php article and place it first in your section and then just have the article grab the latest thread and post it - is that what you are wanting to do?

[RichieBoy67]

Originally Posted by Videx

We've got "Recent Forum Posts" in a sidebar on our CMS homepage (http://www.shannondale.org/) from some mod or other here. That won't work? I guess not from your description.

But if my own opinion counts, I think you may be agonizing for no reason. Your CMS isn't supposed to be a forum; at most it should only direct viewers there. Also remember many mobile users won't ever see it anyway - especially those using Tapatalk. Forumrunner, or readers like Google Currents.

The idea is to have some posts on the main page to get maximum visibility but doing this buy some other means then promoting to an article.

Is it your advice not to promote posts?

--------------- Added [DATE]1358840068[/DATE] at [TIME]1358840068[/TIME] ---------------

The widget was just an idea of how to accomplish this.

[Videx]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

Is it your advice not to promote posts?

That's not what I said. I was just trying to figure out what you were trying to do.

Oh, and here's that Recent Threads widget I use: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=236404

[RichieBoy67]

up
sorry about that, was on a mobile and thought i was replying to another thread i had created on this.up the issue with that widget is that it shows no preview text out very little.