Right Sidebar Blocks

:discourse2: Summary Right Sidebar Blocks shows a sidebar to the right of topic lists with a configurable list of blocks.
:eyeglasses: Preview Preview on Discourse Theme Creator
:hammer_and_wrench: Repository Link https://github.com/discourse/discourse-right-sidebar-blocks
:open_book: New to Discourse Themes? Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes

Install this theme component

Features

The component includes a few blocks you can display in the sidebar:

  • popular-tags
  • top-contributors
  • recent-replies
  • category-topics
  • custom-html
  • category-list
  • subcategory-list
  • upcoming-events-list*
  • minimal-gamification-leaderboard**

:information_source: The user directory must be enabled for the Top Contributors list to be populated. If your list is blank, search enable user directory in your admin settings to make sure it’s enabled.

* Only available when used with the Calendar plugin.
** Only available when used with the Gamification plugin.

You can also use other Ember components as blocks, you just need to use the correct name. For example, core includes a signup-cta Ember component, and you can use it in the sidebar as is. Note that you can’t use components that expect a set of parameters, but you can build your own Ember component in a separate theme and reference it just by its name in the sidebar’s blocks setting.

You can control some features for the provided blocks via parameters.

name description default value available for
count limits number of results varies number all except custom-html
excerptLimit limits length of each reply excerpt 150 number recent-replies
id category id category id (category-list uses comma-separated) category-topics, category-list
content contents to display html custom-html
scopeToCategory only shows in category or subcategory X category id popular-tags
excludedTags list of excluded tags tagnames popular-tags
displayInSpecificCategories list of categories to show the widget all comma-separated numbers popular-tags
id leaderboard id number minimal-gamification-leaderboard
tag which tag to display tag name tag-topics
period time period of top topics weekly all, yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily top-topics
title title of the block varies string tag-topics, category-list, top-contributors
excludedGroupNames Excludes specified groups Group names top-contributors
order Orders the contributors String (likes_received or likes_given) top-contributors
period Time period for top contributors yearly all, yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily top-contributors
upcomingDays Events started before the provided value 180 number upcoming-events-list
timeFormat Format of event date / time LT momentjs format upcoming-events-list

Settings

Name Description
blocks
show in routes Advanced users only: limit sidebar to the selected routes.
Examples: discovery.latest, discovery.unread, discovery.new, discovery.top, tag.show, “c/category-slug” (for categories), “tag/sample-tag” (for tags).
When empty, the sidebar is shown on all list routes.

blocks: choose the blocks to display and adjust their ordering

show_in_routes: decide on which topic list routes to display the sidebar. By default, it will show it on all discovery routes except for /categories.

Translation Default
top_contributors.heading Top contributors
top_contributors.view_all View all
popular_tags.heading Popular tags
popular_tags.view_all View all
recent_replies.heading Recent replies
subcategory_list.heading Subcategories
top_topics.heading Top topics
category_list.heading Categories

Screenshots

Note that the component comes with only very basic styling, the assumption is that admins using the component will add their own styling in their own theme.

Interactions

When used in conjunction with the Discourse Calendar plugin, you can add a sidebar block for your upcoming events. The block name is upcoming-events-list, and the date format can be customized following this syntax (for example, MMMM D, YYYY ).


:discourse2: Hosted by us? Theme components are available to use on our Standard, Business, and Enterprise plans.

Last edited by @nat 2025-12-18T19:03:59Z

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