The posts in the plugin category and so on always have a table at the top, showing some metadata. I am wondering, is this simply a markdown table in the post template or is there a feature/plugin to prompt the user for this metadata? Here is an example of what I mean: [image] I tried searching for it, but sadly I can only find results for TOC generation which is something different. So any hint as to how these tables are called (if they are a feature) would be appreciated :sparkles:

It is a markdown table. It is part of the topic template. |||| |-|-|-| | :information_source: | **Summary** | ADD SHORT SUMMARY | :eyeglasses:|**Preview**| PREVIEW_LINK | | :hammer_and_wrench:|**Repository**| REPOSITORY_LINK | | :question:|**Install Guide**|[How to install a theme or theme component](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-install-a-theme-or-theme-component/63682)| | :open_book:|**New to Discourse Themes?**| [Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beginners-guide-to-using-discourse-themes/91966) Short description... Screenshots... Detailed description...

Maybe Table Builder can help your users to post a table

I’ve seen that one, but I don’t think it’s useful for pre-defined stuff. Basically I want to create a topic template with a table on top, but only show a few input fields to the user plus the usual free-text post. Kinda like issue templates on GitHub (example) where the user is prompted for some fields. But yeah if it’s not built in, then that’s fine. I think I can come up with a plugin or other solution. So thanks for confirming I’m not reinventing the wheel here :smiley:

And disclaimer: if they are using desktop, mouse and/or keyboard, because otherwise it is close to annoying trick.

I don’t know whether it is possible to fill a table with a Discourse template.

That looks super useful, thanks for the link! I’ll play around with that, otherwise I’ll just make a plugin to add some custom fields to the topic model.

The new templates are designed for exactly your use case. You shouldn’t need a plugin. The caveat being that the formatting of the post seems to be fairly limited and is created as plain markdown so subsequent edits see the raw markdown.

Yeah I’ve just tried the form templates and found them to be a bit limiting. I want a form thing in addition to the normal post text, because I want users to still be able to format their text using the default WYSIWYG markdown editor. And the form templates only support basic text boxes, so no fancy editing. I basically only want one or two required fields, and then the normal post editor. (I do understand that I have a quite specific requirement, and this is not meant as bashing form templates! They are super useful in itself and I might use them for another thing even, just for this usecase I find them to not be what I want)

[image] Winston Yallow: the default WYSIWYG markdown editor Don’t mean to be annoying but I wouldn’t describe the default editor as “WYSIWYG”. In fact the lack of that has been a subject of much debate … but I digress

Sorry, it may have been the wrong word then. I only used it to differentiate between the markdown editor with formatting support, and the bare bones textareas of the form templates. The markdown editor is simple enough for people that aren’t used to it since it has a toolbar, while the bare bones textareas don’t make it obvious how to style your text. Plus the form templates don’t seem to provide a preview while the markdown editor does. So yeah, WYSIWYG may have been the wrong word, what I meant is the default markdown editor that has a preview to show what you get.

[image] Winston Yallow: And the form templates only support basic text boxes, so no fancy editing. Yeah it would be good to have optional markdown capability within them?

Are the tables on top of some posts markdown or a feature?

Product Support

merefield (Robert) November 17, 2023, 7:29am 20

You might also consider:

Topic		Replies	Views
Where is the table icon in the editor? Feature completed	9	1740	August 15, 2022
Visual form entry topic templates? Feature completed	17	3991	October 16, 2023
Introducing Form Templates Announcements feedback , new-feature , form-templates	41	9809	September 22, 2026
Topic Templates Feature	34	15818	August 11, 2015
Adding a table to your post using markdown Using Discourse tutorial	26	34876	June 9, 2025

Are the tables on top of some posts markdown or a feature?

Related topics