I have been messing about trying to get a different look to other sites and have built a Facebook style topic modal. It seems to load quicker for me and seems to be more fluent on desktop. What are your thoughts? Link to test is https://www.carptalk-online.co.uk/ (only works on Desktop)

Just wanted to say a big thank you to @Don for getting this modal working. I’d been struggling with it for a while and had tried a few different approaches, but Don managed to put together a solution that actually works properly. Really appreciate you taking the time to build it and share it — it’s exactly what I was trying to achieve and has saved me a lot of head scratching. Thanks again, Don. Really grateful for the help. :raising_hands: [image] Topic Preview Modal Theme component information_source Summary Topic Preview Modal – open and interact with topics without leaving the topic list eyeglasses Preview Theme Creator hammer_and_wrench Repository GitHub - VaperinaDEV/discourse-topic-preview-modal: Open a topic directly from the topic list in a native Discourse modal, read and interact with the topic, and then continue browsing the list without navigating away from it. · GitHub question Install Guide How to install a theme or theme component …

Yeah thats the next thing i need to look into but i have been pondering over this, does it matter? That’s the same as Facebook behaves, the direct link goes to the actual post, if clicked while browsing modal opens.

Nice concept, are you able to maintain a consistent connection with message bus for new messages while loading older messages?

Yes, because the modal loads the normal Discourse topic application inside an iframe rather than rendering a custom copy of the topic. The iframe establishes its own MessageBus connection and Discourse continues handling the post stream normally, including loading older posts and receiving newly published posts. The parent page also remains active behind it, so technically there are two Discourse instances and two MessageBus connections while the modal is open. That works, although it is slightly heavier than a fully native implementation. Closing the modal removes the iframe and its connection.

[image] Damian_Boon: Yeah thats the next thing i need to look into but i have been pondering over this, does it matter? That’s the same as Facebook behaves I don’t know if it matters, and I don’t use facebook :stuck_out_tongue: I was just surprised that clicking your link didn’t show the topic in a modal, when you posted it precisely to show it worked in a modal.

My original post was a link to the homepage, did you click my response to Kris testing the topics haha. Hows it going anyway not seen you in a while

After more testing, i have used the non js version that google sees and it loads instantly in the modal, if i can somehow use the contents of that it would make this rapid

在电脑端看起来非常不错，在移动端的加载速度有点缓慢，点击后只能看到一个无内容的页面和右上角的关闭按钮，似乎需要面对一个空白页面等待很久。

This is what i’m working on now :slight_smile: At the minute its just a concept I want to make reality. However on my device it does load in 2 seconds on mobile with the discourse spinner loading icon so not sure whats happening. Probably because the server is in london UK with no CDN as of yet

[image] Damian_Boon: 因为服务器位于英国伦敦那确实距离是太远了，所以网络需要时间传输

Facebook-style Topic Modal - Is it better?

Development

Damian_Boon (Damian Boon) July 29, 2026, 11:48am 14

Just finished the mobile version and am happy with the way it all works, next is to find a better way of doing this and get the load speed down. Has anyone got any suggestions?

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Facebook-style Topic Modal - Is it better?

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