ic_howto_forum.sdf

!init OPT_LOOK="icdevgroup"; OPT_STYLE="manual"
# $Id: ic_howto_forum.sdf,v 1.5 2004-05-05 15:22:30 jon Exp $

!define DOC_NAME "Interchange + Forum/Blog HOWTO"
!define DOC_TYPE ""
!define DOC_CODE "ic_howto_forum"
!define DOC_VERSION substr('$Revision: 1.5 $', 11, -2)
!define DOC_STATUS "Draft"
!define DOC_PROJECT "Interchange"
!define DOC_URL "http://www.icdevgroup.org/doc-4.9/ic_howto_forum.html"
!define DOC_OWNER "2002-2004 Mike Heins E<lt>{{EMAIL:mike.heins@perusion.net}}E<gt>"
!build_title

H1:Introduction

H2:Preamble

N:Copyright 2002-2004 Mike Heins <mike.heins@perusion.net> and Michael
Wilk <mwilk@steppenwolf.com>. Freely redistributable under terms of the GNU
General Public License.

H2:Purpose

N:The purpose of this document is to expose how to use Interchange 5.0's
forum and blog capability, enabled with the [forum ...] tag and a few
ancilliary files.

H2:Audience

N:Anyone who is using an Interchange catalog. This is not rocket science.

H2:Contact the authors

N:If you find any spelling errors, technical slip-ups, mistakes, subliminal 
messages, or if you wish to send feedback, critique, remarks, comments, or if
you wish to contribute examples, instructions for alternative platforms, 
chapters, or other material, please do so.       

N:The preferred method of submitting changes is in the form of a context
diff against the SDF source file (ic_howto_forum.sdf). Please address
your correspondence to:

N:Michael Wilk {{EMAIL:mwilk@steppenwolf.com}}
N:Mike Heins {{EMAIL:mike.heins@perusion.net}}

H2:What it does

N:Interchange forums allow your customers to comment on your products,
or allow you to sponsor discussion threads on an interchange catalog.
They maintain their content in a single database table named C<forum>.

H1: Component files of the forums

N:There are two directories to add to your foundation catalog -- C<include/forum>
and C<pages/forum>. You must add a database table definition, as well as a
database source file. You should add Variable support to the C<variable.txt>
database, and supporting metadata with help. Finally, you need to add
the C<forum.tag> file which contains the forum code.

If you build a C<foundation> catalog from the latest Interchange source,
all of these will be done already.

The files that are needed in the catalog directory:

!block example
	dbconf/default_db/forum.dbm
	dbconf/mysql/forum.mysql
	dbconf/pgsql/forum.pgsql
	include/forum/reply_form
	include/forum/submit_form
	pages/forum/reply.html
	pages/forum/display.html
	pages/forum/submit.html
	products/forum.txt
!endblock

The files that are needed in the Interchange software directory:

!block example
	code/UserTag/forum.tag
!endblock

Add the following lines to C<products/variable.txt> (change | to TAB):

!block example
FORUM_ANON_NAME|Anonymous Coward|Forums
FORUM_PRODUCTS|1|Forums
FORUM_EMAIL_NOTIFY|sales@yourcompany.com|Forums
!endblock

Add the following records to C<products/mv_metadata.asc> (shown in key: value
format, edit file to match with "te" or some other tool):

!block example
#
# This is a temporary file, automatically generated from the
# database file:
#
# /tmp/what.txt
#
# If you change anything in it, it will be converted back into the
# original format and will replace the original file.
#
code:variable::Variable::FORUM_EMAIL_NOTIFY
type:text
width:50
height:
field:
db:
name:
outboard:
options:
attribute:
label:Forum notify email
help:An email address to send copies of user comments on products.
lookup:
filter:
help_url:
pre_filter:
lookup_exclude:
prepend:
append:
display_filter:
default:
extended:
#
code:variable::Variable::FORUM_ANON_NAME
type:text
width:20
height:
field:
db:
name:
outboard:
options:
attribute:
label:Forum Anonymous Name
help:Name to use when a user posts anonymously to a forum
lookup:
filter:
help_url:
pre_filter:
lookup_exclude:
prepend:
append:
display_filter:
default:
extended:
#
code:variable::Variable::FORUM_PRODUCTS
type:yesno
width:
height:
field:
db:
name:
outboard:
options:
attribute:
label:Enable Product Forums
help:This enables user comments on products in the flypage.
lookup:
filter:
help_url:
pre_filter:
lookup_exclude:
prepend:
append:
display_filter:
default:
extended:
!endblock

Add the following block to pages/flypage.html:

!block example
        [if variable FORUM_PRODUCTS]
          <tr>
                <td>
                        [forum top="[item-code]" display_page="forum/display" /]
                        <p>
                        [page href="forum/reply"
                                        form="
                                                product=1
                                                mv_arg=[item-code]
                                        "
                        ]Comment on this product.</A>
                        </p>
                </td>
          </tr>
        [/if]
!endblock

This would normally go at the end of the table displaying the product,
but you can place and edit to suit.

Again, all of this is provided if you have installed from the latest
Interchange 4.9.4 or higher.

H1: The [forum] ITL Tag

The C<[forum]> tag is what provides the capability. It uses the forum
table and follows tree-like threads in that table.

It has one required parameter, C<top>. That gives the id of the 
message that is the top of the thread to display.

This is a complete forum display for a product:

!block example
        [forum top="[item-code]" /]
!endblock

You will see something like that in the snip from C<pages/flypage.html>
above.

You can pass many more parameters to the C<[forum]> tag. Some of them
are:

LI1: display-page

By default, the [forum ...] tag uses the current page to link to
to re-display the forum at another level. Normally this works fine,
but on a product flypage it will not work. You must pass in a different
page.

!block example
        [forum top="[item-code]" display-page="forum/display" /]
!endblock

LI1: show-level

By default, C<[forum]> only displays the text of top-level replies to
the current thread. If you want to display more levels, set 
the C<show-level> parameter to 1 or higher:

!block example
        [forum top="[data session arg]" show-level=3 /]
!endblock

The above will show the first four levels of replies, with links to any
further down the tree.

LI1: scrub-score

If you want to moderate certain comments so that their text won't be shown,
you can set the scrub-score parameter to -1 and then set the C<score>
field in the message's database record to -1. By default, it is linked
to with a message:

!block example
  <A HREF="{DISPLAY_URL}">One message beneath your threshold</A>
!endblock

If you want to totally disable the appearance of the link and message,
set the C<scrub-template> to something:

!block example
        [forum top=THREAD
                   scrub-score="-1"
               scrub-template="<!-- killed! -->"
        /]
!endblock

LI1: show-score

By default, if a message has a score of two or higher, it's text will
be shown no matter what level of display it is on. You can set that
threshold with this paramter.

LI1: template

You can set the template that displays replies
with this parameter. You can also pass this as the container text
for the C<[forum]> tag, i.e.:

!block example
        [forum top="[data session arg]"]
        <table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 width="65%">
                  <tr>
                        <td class=contentbar1>
                                <A HREF="{DISPLAY_URL}"><b>{SUBJECT}</b></A>
                                by <b>{USERINFO}</b>
                                on {DATE}
                        </td>
                        <td class=contentbar1 align=right>
                                &#91;
                                        <A HREF="{REPLY_URL}"><b>Reply</b></A>
                                &#93;
                        </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                        <td colspan=2>
                        {COMMENT}
                        </td>
                  </tr>
                </table>
        [/forum]
!endblock

See C<pages/forum/display.html> for an example.

LI1: header-template

You can set the header template that displays the top-level message
with this parameter. See C<pages/forum/display.html> for an example.

LI1: link-template

You can set the template that displays the links to messages that are
not shown with this parameter. See C<pages/forum/display.html> for an example.

LI1: scrub-template

The template for a message that has a score lower than C<scrub-score>.
See C<pages/forum/display.html> for an example.

LI1: threshold-message

The message displayed in the default C<scrub-template> when a message
is scrubbed. If you set the C<scrub-template> yourself, it is ignored.

LI1: display-page

The page linked to with {DISPLAY_URL}. Default is the current
page. See B<Templating> below.

LI1: reply-page

The page linked to with {REPLY_URL}.  Default is C<forum/reply.html>.
See B<Templating> below.

LI1: submit-page

The page linked to with {SUBMIT_URL}. Default is C<forum/submit.html>.
See B<Templating> below.

LI1: date-format

The format for the date provided with {DATE}. Default is C<%B %e, %Y @%H:%M>,
which provides a date like C<October 5, 2002 @21:19>. 

H1: Templating

All of the C<[forum]> display mechanisms are templated. You can pass
four templates -- C<template>, C<header-template>, C<link-template>, 
and C<scrub-template>.

They use the substitution style found in Interchange's C<attr-list> ITL tag.

The following values are available for templating:

!block example
 ADDITIONAL    Additional text normally only used at the top level
 COMMENT       Text of the message
 CREATED       Created date in ISO format
 DATE          Date the comment was made
 DISPLAY_URL   URL to display the forum with a new starting point
 FORUM_APPEND  End indent </UL> tags for item (automatic, don't use)
 FORUM_PREPEND Begin indent <UL> tags for item (automatic, don't use)
 MOD_TIME      Modified date in ISO format
 PARENT_URL    URL to call the parent of the comment
 REASON        Text indicating reason for scoring
 REPLY_URL     URL to reply to the commetn
 SCORE         Score of the article
 SUBJECT       Subject of the message
 SUBMIT_URL    URL to submit a new top-level thread
 TOP_URL       URL to call the top level of the thread (if not at top)
 USERINFO      User information based on login status and anonymity
!endblock

You can see how the above are used by examining the
file C<pages/forum/display.html> and playing around with the
provided templates.

H2: Templating rules

H3: E<lbrace>KEY}

Inserts the value of the KEY for the reference. In a database query, this
is the column name.

H3: E<lbrace>KEY|fallback string}

Displays the value of {KEY} or if it is zero or blank, the fallback string (i.e., default).

H3: E<lbrace>KEY true string}

Displays C<true string> if the value of {KEY} is non-blank, non-zero,
or displays nothing if the key is false.

H3: E<lbrace>KEY?} true text {/KEY?}

Displays C<true text> if the value of {KEY} is non-blank, non-zero, and nothing
otherwise.

H3: E<lbrace>KEY:} false text {/KEY:}

Displays C<false text> if the value of {KEY} is blank or zero, and nothing
otherwise.

N:Copyright 2002-2004 Mike Heins <mike.heins@perusion.net> and Michael
Wilk <mwilk@steppenwolf.com>. Freely redistributable under terms of the GNU
General Public License.