Is there a way to assign a github issue link to a topic that only moderators can see (or other specified groups). and hopefully be able to sort topics that have one linked to it. Where you can see it has one without even opening topic.
We often use whisper posts to add a link to the GHI the user is reporting but you have to know it is there and it could be in the middle of a very long topic with lots of posts.
I guess it does not need to be specific to Github. I imagine it like a user note, where there is that little note icon, but associated with a topic rather than a user
Using a staff notice on the first post rather than a whisper post would solve the problem of it being anywhere in the middle of a topic, however I don’t think that will help for sorting/visibility outside the topic.
It might be possible to use (create, probably) a theme component to make the presence of a staff notice visible in the topic lists but I suspect sorting would require a plugin.
Had not thought of using a staff notice because afaik they are publicly viewable. sorting is not really necessary I suppose. Will need to think on a theme component.
Ah you’re right, staff notices are publicly viewable - I had it in my head that they were notices for staff as opposed to staff-made notices.
The only thing I can think of that doesn’t involve creating a plugin for the purpose would be to use a tag group that is only visible to staff, e.g. with tags such as ghi-123. This would be a bit awkward to manage though as a staff member would need to go to the tag group and create a new tag before editing the topic to add the tag. You also won’t get a clickable link to the issue.
If you have multiple repositories that you need to reference issues for, you could create a tag group for each which require a parent tag, using tags like ghi-abc-123. Requiring a parent tag might not be a terrible idea even if you don’t have multiple repositories, just to hide all the ghi-xyz tags when tagging other topics. The parent tag(s) can also be in a staff-only tag group.
I think a custom plugin is going to provide the best experience here but depending on how many repositories you have, how often you’ll need to be assigning issues to topics and how closely Discourse is tied into your workflow, a tagging approach might be enough.
Will need to think on a theme component.