This article...
- Details the primary functions of Discussion widgets for enhancing community engagement.
- Lists and explains key discussion widgets, including Thread Digest, Thread View, Moderation Approval, and Post Message.
Higher Logic provides dozens of widgets that you can use to:
- modernize the look of your community pages,
- enhance the usefulness of your site, and
- increase member engagement.
In this article, we'll focus on widgets associated to our Discussions module.
Access the widgets
You'll be able to add, edit, and remove widgets when editing one of your community's pages. To edit a page:
- Navigate to the page you want to update and click Edit Page on the Admin Toolbar (or right click for a new tab). Alternatively, you can click Edit Navigation to access the CMS and your community's complete page list, from which you can access and edit any page.
- Editing a page is accomplished with Page Designer. Click the Build tab and scroll down to the Widget section.
- Use the Category dropdown and/or the search field to more quickly find a specific widget.
- Widgets are grouped and accessible from their own category in the dropdown.
- Select the All category to view the complete list of widgets; click Discussion to view the widgets discussed in this article.
Discussion widgets
Each of the widgets in the Discussion category is described in its associated section below.
Discussion Thread View
When clicking to view a discussion post, users are navigated to the post's details page, which is powered by the Discussion Thread View widget. This is a default widget included on the Topic Thread page, located in the CMS and editable with Page Designer, and will not function if added to any other page.
NOTE: The easiest way to access the Topic Thread page is to navigate to a discussion post and then click Edit Page in the Admin Toolbar.
This widget displays the author's post, along with any associated replies from other users. In addition, it provides additional features like the ability to recommend posts, reply to them, and manage them with options like editing, removing, and pinning.
Many of the widget's features can be turned on or off when editing it with Page Designer (see image above), like the ability to edit posts, close threads, display recommends, etc.
Example
Options
You can configure the Discussion Thread View widget via the following options:
Show Sort By Filter?: Use this option to show or hide the sort control for the thread. When it is shown, users can change how replies are ordered within the thread.
Show Make Best Answer Option?: Use this option to let Super Admins, Community Admins, and the thread’s original poster mark a reply as the best answer. This is useful when you want to highlight the most helpful reply in a discussion thread.
Show Edit Option?: Use this option to show or hide the Edit option for Super Admins, Community Admins, and the post creator. Enable it when you want those users to be able to revise discussion content directly from the thread view.
Hide Edited By Line?: Use this option to hide the Edited By line that appears when a discussion post has been edited. Enable it when you do not want edited-status details shown on the thread page.
Show Blog This Option?: Use this option to show or hide the Blog This action in the thread’s actions menu. Enable it when you want users to have access to that content-sharing action from the discussion thread view.
Show Close Thread Option?: Use this option to let Super Admins and Community Admins close a discussion thread. A closed thread remains visible, but users cannot add new replies until an admin reopens it.
Show Recommends?: Use this option to show or hide the Recommend button and recommendation count for each post. Enable it when you want users to be able to recommend discussion posts and see how many recommendations each post has received.
Show List of Recommenders?: Use this option to let users open a list of the people who recommended a post when they click the recommendation count. Disable it if you want to show the count without exposing the list of recommenders.
Post Message
When creating a discussion or question post, users are navigated to the Post a Message page, which is powered by the Post Message widget. This is a default widget included on the default Post a Message page, located in the CMS and editable with Page Designer. However, you can add it to custom pages, if needed.
NOTE: The easiest way to access the default Post a Message page is to create a discussion or question and then click Edit Page in the Admin Toolbar.
This widget displays the post-creation form, shown below, allowing users to select a community to post to (if not already within a specific community) and type their message. By default, this widget allows you to post a message, as well as schedule a post or save it as a draft.
Example
Options
You can configure the Post Message widget via the following options:
Community: Use this option to set the default community for the post form. If the widget is used in a community context, the current community is typically applied automatically; otherwise, users can choose from the communities they have permission to post to.
Enables Save as Draft: Use this option to let users save a post as a draft so they can finish and publish it later. Enable it when you want users to be able to pause their work instead of posting immediately.
Hide the Content Preview Toggle?: Use this option to show or hide the control that lets users turn automatic link previews on or off while composing a post. Link previews can pull in an image and promotional text from a pasted webpage URL.
Print Message
The Print Message widget displays a message in a format that is optimized for printing. It removes all HTML, formatting, buttons, etc. and simply presents a message's text, as shown below.
NOTE: This widget must be placed on the Topic Thread page for it to function. The easiest way to access the Topic Thread page is to navigate to a discussion post and then click Edit Page in the Admin Toolbar.
Example
Options
This widget has no configurable options.