[BETA] BoltBB Extension for Bolt

BoltBB is a simple discussion forum extension for Bolt.

The base install has templates that you can adapt for your own theme, and is base off Bolt's base-2014 theme.

Dependencies

BoltBB requires the following Bolt extensions to be installed and configured:

• Client Login - bolt/clientlogin
• Members - bolt/members

Please see the documentation for each of those for more information on configuring them for your site.

Initial Set Up

Defining Forums

The first step is to edit your app/config/extensions/BoltBB.yml file and define the forums you want to use.

An example would be:

forums:
  kittens:
    title: Kittens Forum
    description: A place to discuss kittens and how cute they are
  puppies:
    title: Puppies Forum
    description: Puppie-piles and dog biscuits

Contenttypes

Second step it to define the contenttypes used for topics and replies.

Navigate to Extras/BoltBB in the admin panel and you will notice a list of available buttons in the right sidebar.

Click the 'Setup Contenttypes' button. This will check your contenttypes.yml file for existing contentypes, and add them if not found.

NOTE: This button will disappear once they are added.

Tables

Now you need to update Bolt's database to add missing tables for BoltBB to function.

Navigate to Configuration/Check database and Bolt will tell you what tables are missing, you just need to do a normal update.

Creating Forum Records

The final stage of the initial set up is to add the forum records to the database table.

Navigate to Extras/BoltBB and on the right sidebar, under Forum Setup click the 'Sync Table' button.

Base Template

BoltBB will work out-of-the-box at this point if you're using the base-2014 theme, or one that has a _header.twig, _footer.twig and _aside.twig.

To override this, you simply need to create a file called boltbb.twig in your theme's directory and include the following block statement where you want the forums rendered:

{% block forums %}
{% endblock forums %}

NOTE: The file name for the base template can be set in your BoltBB.yml file:

templates:
  parent: boltbb.twig

Individual Templates (optional)

You can override the individual Twig templates for the following:

• Forums
  • Index page (defaults to boltbb_index.twig)
  • Forum (defaults to boltbb_forum.twig)
  • Topic (defaults to boltbb_topic.twig)
• Email notification
  • Subject lines (defaults to boltbb_email_subject.twig)
  • Email body (defaults to boltbb_email_body.twig)
• Navigation breadcrumbs (defaults to boltbb_breadcrumbs.twig)

You can copy these files to your theme directory and edit them to better match your desired layout.

For the forums templates, at a minimum you should ensure the following exists in any new custom twig files you create:

• To inherit the boltbb.twig template

{% extends twigparent %}

• The block that layout will be rendered in by Twig

{% block forums %}
   <!-- Your HTML & Twig here -->
{% endblock forums %}

NOTE: To use different names, and/or subdirectories in your theme directory, see the templates: section in your BoltBB.yml file.

Complete!

You should now be able to access your forums at http://example.com/forums

Managing Forums

Currently there are two options for forums: * open - Forum is open for new topics * closed - Forum is closed to new topics & replies

The impact of these states are handled in their associated Twig template files.

To change the state of a forum, navigate to Extras/BoltBB in the admin panel, select the forum(s) you want to change and click either the 'Open Selected Forum', or 'Close Selected Forum' button in the 'Maintenance' section in the right sidebar.

Managing Topics

Both topics and relies are normal Bolt contenttypes, and as such you can edit them in the same manner as any content in Bolt.

Specific record properties that can be changed in the record editor for a particular topic:

• State
  • open - Topic is open for further replies
  • closed - Topic is closed to new replies
• Visibility
  • normal - Topic will show up in 'newest first' date order in the specific forum
  • pinned - Topic will always show at the top of the forum
  • global - Topic will show at the top of all forums, analogous to a global notice