Change homepage to tag?

Development

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around changing the homepage of BlenderArtists.org to a tag, specifically the ‘Featured Art’ gallery. bartv wants to test this change to better engage the community with graphics on the homepage. JammyDodger suggests a theme component using JavaScript code to achieve this. pfaffman recommends using the “Custom Homepage for Groups” theme component for a more straightforward solution.

However, bartv encounters issues with the implementation, specifically with the topics selector and logo click behavior. pfaffman explains that this is due to the preload store needing to be invalidated. bartv considers using pfaffman’s theme component, which can set a default homepage for everyone, not just groups. pfaffman confirms that the theme component can be used to set a default homepage, including different defaults for mobile devices.

1

We run a graphics/design oriented community on BlenderArtists.org. One thing that’s been in the back of my mind is that we should have graphics on our homepage to better engage our audience, and not rows of text. The issue with that has always been the discoverability of the other, non-art related categories.

Now that we have the new sidebar in place, I think that issue may have been solved and I’d like to start testing the impact of changing our homepage to our ‘Featured Art’ gallery, which is just a tag: Topics tagged featured . Is there a way to switch our homepage to that URL instead of the usual categories/latest view?

2

My dev skills are fledgling, but I think you can do it by adding a theme component with this in the header:

<script type="text/discourse-plugin" version="0.8">
  const { setDefaultHomepage } = require('discourse/lib/utilities');
  setDefaultHomepage("/tag/featured");
</script>

(Adapted from How to make Docs page the default homepage - #2 by keegan :slight_smile:)

3

I think that’ll do it, but Custom Homepage for Groups would do it if you want a plug and play option. (It’s rare that I create a useful theme component, so I’m always surprised when this one comes in handy)

4

Hmm, it works, but not entirely:

  1. When visiting https://blenderartists.org the topics selector correctly displays the featured tag, however the displayed topics are not featured.

image

  1. After this, clicking on the ‘BlenderArtists.org’ logo in the top-left changes nothing in these settings, but the topics update to correctly show only featured topics.

Any idea why?

5

Yeah. I forgot about that. You need to invalidate the preload store and have it loose the right topics. There’s an example in my theme component.

6

Ah perhaps I should try your TC then :slight_smile: Does it only work on groups, or can I set up a default homepage for everybody too?

7

Ah, that’s a shame. I thought I’d done a clever. :slight_smile:

8

It was clever! I was elated when I figured out how to do that.it used to work, or works in most conditions? And then I took two days trying to solve the preloadStore issue.

Yes, @bartv, if memory serves, you can set a default and I think even a different default for mobile (?!) .