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[tl] Thread Symbiotics [Paid] 1.0.2

No permission to buy ($21.38)

truonglv

Well-known member
truonglv submitted a new resource:

[tl] Thread Symbiotics - An enhancement of thread redirects.

Description: Make more threads which link to an existing thread.

Symbiotic threads work like the current thread redirect but with few differences:
  • Symbiotic threads is permanently redirects
  • Symbiotic threads have last post info and display as normal threads in thread list.
  • One existing thread can have more symbiotic
  • Automatically update symbiotic thread stats when the source thread updated.

Read more about this resource...
 
This allows for one thread to appear in many forums with very little give away from what forum it originated.
Any thread updates bump the symbiotic thread up in the regular sort by post date.
The symbiotic thread acts like a regular thread even though it originates elsewhere.

It follows sticky thread behavior.

1. Admin/Moderator or any privileged User selects "Thread symbiotic"
Screen Shot 2021-02-20 at 16.29.18.png
2. Admin/Moderator or any privileged User selects target forums.
Screen Shot 2021-02-20 at 16.29.41.png

3. This thread now appears in the target forums and behaves like a regular thread does in those target forums. Last Post and View counts all sync up.

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The difference to the XF native Copy/Move thread is that the symbiotic thread is camouflage, does not have the redirect icon. Follows regular sort by last post rules unlike the XF copy/Move where the redirect slowly falls down in sort ranking.

Application for me is for site wide threads that are relevant to multiple forums.

It's in production for a few days now on a XF2.2 forum without any error or glitches.
Sorry there is no demo link.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, I see.

You basically display a copy of a thread somewhere else and they are synchronized with each other. So if there is a new reply in the original thread, that reply is also displayed in the symbiotic thread.
How about if there is a reply on the symbiotic threads? Does that update all the other symbiotic threads including the original one?
 
Ah I see. There is no copy at all. Just redirects to original thread.

This idea is interesting. So basically one can create 1 sticky thread and display it on all nodes without needing to duplicate it.
 
I love this.

The only thing that could make this even more interesting is if the thread creator has the option to select multiple forums at the point of post creation.

I presume then there's only one canonical thread that shows up in What'sNew?
 
I love this.

The only thing that could make this even more interesting is if the thread creator has the option to select multiple forums at the point of post creation.

I presume then there's only one canonical thread that shows up in What'sNew?
Its possible.
The permission of Symbiotic Thread is based on user-group permission.

In my case only moderators have that power however you could give permission to any group.

There are no double posts on the “Whats new” page.
 
truonglv submitted a new resource:

[tl] Thread Symbiotics - An enhancement of thread redirects.



Read more about this resource...
This allows for one thread to appear in many forums with very little give away from what forum it originated.
Any thread updates bump the symbiotic thread up in the regular sort by post date.
The symbiotic thread acts like a regular thread even though it originates elsewhere.

It follows sticky thread behavior.

1. Admin/Moderator or any privileged User selects "Thread symbiotic"
View attachment 246871
2. Admin/Moderator or any privileged User selects target forums.
View attachment 246872

3. This thread now appears in the target forums and behaves like a regular thread does in those target forums. Last Post and View counts all sync up.

----
The difference to the XF native Copy/Move thread is that the symbiotic thread is camouflage, does not have the redirect icon. Follows regular sort by last post rules unlike the XF copy/Move where the redirect slowly falls down in sort ranking.

Application for me is for site wide threads that are relevant to multiple forums.

It's in production for a few days now on a XF2.2 forum without any error or glitches.
Sorry there is no demo link.

This looks like exactly what I had suggested a long time ago, I need to discuss this addon with my staff....

 
While I'm at it, I should point out this particular request:

One other "nice" feature to be included would be some type of breadcrumb indicator showing what Forums the Thread is shared in.

I don't see this in your implementation screenshots, is there any indication for members viewing the thread, that it's shared among multiple forums?
 
I am the original client and @truonglv built it.

My original spec called for the sym thread to be camouflage and appear to be like a regular thread.

However having an indicator is probably easy to add. I am not the owner of this add-on just heavily invested.

Perhaps one could use a prefix right now for all symbiotic links. Perhaps a font awesome type icon?
 
Great update, so I just have one question after starting a discussion with my staff members, do the symbiotic threads show in the "What's New" and latest threads? We are assuming they do not, or are toggleable, because only the "original thread" really needs to show in most cases.

We wouldn't want to link 5 forums to a thread, and then make a single new post updating the thread, and have 1 main thread and 5 symbiotic threads all showing updated on the "New Posts Widget" on the homepage, that would seem abusive to the system.
 
Do the symbiotic threads show in the "What's New" and latest threads? We are assuming they do not

I think there is only one thread as you suspected so one one "what's new" listing. Good idea to get clarification 👍

I'm trying to think up a name for this addon that will make its function self explanatory to potential addon purchasers.

Ideas:

Multiple forums thread
One thread, multiple forums
Multi-forum thread

This seems like a great way to get an announcement out to many forums easily on a forum where members often stick to their own forum (for instance a sports forum). It is especially helpful for those forums where there are so many "irrelevant" posts that the What's new function becomes somewhat useless (on a sports forum I mostly want to know about my team, and not the other 30 teams, and some general sports information) ... the problem being that the other 29 team specific threads flood out the general sports threads. The answer in a forum is to manually go to the general sports information forums (not use what's new).

Reddit has a very useful way of handling this. It allows me to see the Newest threads in my frequent subs yet default to Hot (Popular) or Top posts for less frequently visited subs (forums).
 
We wouldn't want to link 5 forums to a thread, and then make a single new post updating the thread, and have 1 main thread and 5 symbiotic threads all showing updated on the "New Posts Widget" on the homepage, that would seem abusive to the system.
Just the main thread show in that place.
 
A symbiotic slave thread (to use the 1master, many slave analogy) does not show up in whats new. The one master shows up. The multiple slaves do not. Only one instance.
 
Ok, so this add-on has been working well for a few weeks now.

Had a discussion with my staff this week, and we wanted to expand it's use, and today I discovered a possible issue, or maybe it's just me and how I did it....

It seems like Article Forums can't be setup with Slave Article forums...

In our case, we have a Biography forum with 16,000+ threads, but we wanted to grab a selection of them and feature them in one forum that happens to discuss one specific person: Abraham Lincoln. This little sub forum would have his entire family listed as well as his full Presidential Cabinet. This would permit us to have access to them in both places without duplicates!

But, we use Articles for our Bios, and we wanted to continue using the "Articles" type in the new sub forum node, but were forced to switch to the "General Discussion Type with Articles allowed" and while this works, we can't use our custom Bio Forum article listing style that we've designed for Biographies....

Is this something that could be corrected?
 
Yes the original specs was for traditional forum type threads. We ignored articles so no clue what to does.


I will PM you regarding articles...I have questions not related to this add-on.
 
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