Enabling Embeddable Forum Threads

This feature is an enhancement introduced for Community Server Evolution 1.0 SP1. If you are using Community Server Evolution 1.0, this feature is not supported.

Embeddable forum threads allow you to embed a Community Server Evolution-hosted discussion within an external Web site. The following example describes how to enable comments for an external page in which the comments are actually stored in a Community Server Evolution forum thread.

Procedure

  1.  Navigate to Control Panel > Forum Administration > Forums. The list of forums displays in the workspace.

  2.  Click Edit for the forum that will store threads created by the external page. The Basic page displays.

  3.  Select the Embed page.

  4.  Do the following:

• Click Yes to enable embedding for this forum.

• Specify the external domains where you plan to embed the forum thread in the Allowed Domains field. By default, only pages on the local Community Server instance are allowed to create posts using the embedded forum threads script.

• Specify the users who can embed forum threads in external Web pages in the Create New Threads As text field.

The thread starter will display in Community Server Evolution after a user logged in to the remote site publishes a comment about the page. The thread then identifies the user who enabled the embedded forum thread, discussions topic, remote page name, and the page URL, as well as the user who commented.

The thread starter user is designated as Anonymous unless you manually add new users. All replies to the forum thread are made by users logged in to the remote Web site.

• Copy the script from the Embed Code field. Community Server Evolution generates java script that must be placed in the external page. The external page will then generate all of the necessary controls/code needed to post in your Community Server Evolution instance. The embedded code provides a number of options for customizing the behavior of the embedded forum. Click here for additional information.

  5.  Click Save.

  6.  Add the script you copied from the Embed Code field into the source of the page on the external site where the embedded forum thread is placed.

  7.  Save the source file.  

When you refresh the external page, users will see the page elements generated by the embedded forum threads script.

Unregistered users or users who are not logged in will be prompted to register or login:

When the user adds a comment, it displays immediately unless moderation is required. If Community Server Evolution identifies the comment as spam, a spam message displays.

Users can also reply to comments, report abuse, or access the user's profile.

If you then go back to the thread on your Community Server Evolution forums, you will see the comments listed as you would in any forum thread. The following example shows the example thread in Community Server Evolution.