SimpleDiscussion App

Description:

SimpleDiscussion is a Ruby on Rails gem designed to create forums seamlessly within Rails applications. It powers the GoRails Forum and comes with essential features like thread categorization, moderation tools, and the ability to mark threads as solved. The gem is compatible with Bootstrap v4 for styling and offers extensive customization options for controllers, views, and helpers.

Features:

• Forum Capabilities:

  • Thread creation and categorization.
  • Mark threads as solved.
  • Moderation support for threads and posts.

• Customization Options:

  • Ability to customize views, controllers, and helpers.
  • Out-of-the-box styling for Bootstrap v4.

• Notifications:

  • Email notifications for thread subscriptions.
  • Slack notifications for updates (configurable).

• User Integration:

  • Works with Rails User model to display names and manage users.
  • Optional moderator flag for enhanced permissions.

• Ease of Use:

  • Simple installation and usage with minimal configuration.

Requirements:

System Requirements

• Ruby on Rails application.
• A User model with a name method.

Library Requirements

• Add the gem to your application's Gemfile:

  ruby

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  gem 'simple_discussion'

• Install dependencies:

  bash

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  bundle

Instructions:

Installation

1. Install Migrations:

   bash

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   rails simple_discussion:install:migrations rails db:migrate

2. Update User Model:
   Include SimpleDiscussion::ForumUser in the User model and define the name method:

   ruby

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   class User < ActiveRecord::Base include SimpleDiscussion::ForumUser def name "#{first_name} #{last_name}" end end

3. Add Moderator Flag (Optional):

   bash

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   rails g migration AddModeratorToUsers moderator:boolean rails db:migrate

4. Configure Routes:
   Add the forum to your routes.rb:

   ruby

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   mount SimpleDiscussion::Engine => "/forum"

5. Include CSS:
   Add the following line to application.css:

   css

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   *= require simple_discussion

6. Add Navigation Link:
   Add a link to the forum in your app’s navigation:

   erb

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   <%= link_to "Forum", simple_discussion_path %>

Customization

• To customize views:

  bash

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  rails g simple_discussion:views

• To customize controllers:

  bash

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  rails g simple_discussion:controllers

• To customize helpers:

  bash

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  rails g simple_discussion:helpers

Notifications

• Configure email and Slack notifications in config/initializers/simple_discussion.rb:

  ruby

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  SimpleDiscussion.setup do |config| config.send_email_notifications = false # Default: true config.send_slack_notifications = false # Default: true end

• For Slack notifications, set simple_discussion_slack_url in config/secrets.yml.

Development Setup

• Install dependencies:

  bash

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  bin/setup

• Run tests:

  bash

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  rake test