Browse Forums Custom Sort Order Questions

Question

1. Using the Forums - Browse Forums widget, I'm seeing that when I select the Custom order in Sort Order, it only shows me the first 50 forums in the query results. Is this intentionally limited and/or is there a setting/override to expand the query? 
 I'm looking to only enable about 15 forums, but some of the ones I want to see are at the end of the alphabet... 
 2. Newly added forums appear to be disabled by default when custom order is selected and while I understand the logic of not wanting to change a display that's already been configured, is there a method to enable new forums to display when created without having to go in and edit the widget every time? 
 I've got a Forums - Browse Forums widget that just lists every forum on the site at the home page, but there has been a request to reorder the forums list in a custom order. While custom order would seem to solve that requirement, new forums are added in sections that not everyone sees, but when they have the permission to see, it should appear in the main list too. I'd like to try to avoid giving the users who are creating new forum applications in sub groups the ability to edit the site home page. Complicating things further, we allow custom user theming on the home page and I don't want to have to revert people's customization for the widget to see new forums every time they are added.

Ben Tiedt · Accepted Answer

For Option B: 
 
 In Widget Studio, find the Browse Forums widget and from the "Widget Actions" button, create a copy. 
 In the widget copy,
 
 Edit the Configuration and remove the XML nodes defining the configuration options with IDs "group", "groupAndSubGroups", and "forumSelection" -- these won't be used anymore because the widget will have a hard-coded list of forums to include. 
 In list.vm, 
 
 Remove this code (which reads the groupAndSubGroups configuration): #set ($showSubGroups = $core_v2_widget.GetBoolValue('groupAndSubGroups', false)) 
 Remove this code (which applies the groupAndSubGroups configuration to the query... note that this is part of the line that defines the $query variable): IncludeSubGroups=$showSubGroups, 
 Remove this code (which reads and applies the group configuration to the forum listing query): #set($group = false)
#set($group = $core_v2_utility.ParseInt($core_v2_page.ParseQueryString($core_v2_widget.GetCustomValue('group', '')).Value('Group')))
#if ($group > 0)
	$query.Add('GroupId', $group)
#else
	$query.Add('GroupId', $core_v2_group.Current.Id.ToString())
#end 
 Remove this code (which reads the forumSelection configuration and applies it to the forum listing query): #if($sortBy == 'ApplicationIdsOrder')
 #set($forumSelection = false)
 #set ($forumSelection = $core_v2_widget.GetCustomValue('forumSelection', ''))
 #if ($forumSelection && $forumSelection.Length > 0)
 #set($forumSelection = $core_v2_utility.Join(',', $core_v2_page.ParseQueryString($forumSelection).Values('forum')))
 $query.Add('ApplicationIds', $forumSelection)
 #end
#end 
 After the $query variable is defined, you can add the following line to add a location for you to specify applications by their ID to be used by the forum listing query: $query.Add('ApplicationIds', 'ID1,ID2,ID3') 
 In the line you just added, specify the comma-separated list of the Application IDs from forums that you want included in the widget. You can get these IDs by going to Manage Forum > Forum Options, scrolling to the bottom of that panel and clicking 'View Identifiers'. You'll want the "Application Identifier" for each forum you want to include in the result.

Save the new widget and add it to your homepage. 
 
 Option C is a bit more involved and would be easier to implement once we release the updated implementation of the configuration property template. When that is done, the page size and loading logic will be embedded in the browse forums widget and will be easier to adjust.

Browse Forums Custom Sort Order Questions

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