Discourse Doc Categories

[nathank (Nathan Kershaw)]

@nat

bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar

Just did this - it gave a slightly odd error but seemed to run okay:

root@spokes-web-only:/var/www/discourse# bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar
fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at ‘/var/www/discourse’
To add an exception for this directory, call:

    git config --global --add safe.directory /var/www/discourse

Processing category #21 - Ask the Candidates
⮑ Created 3 sections and 55 links

Processing category #21 - Ask the Candidates
⮑ Created 3 sections and 55 links

Is that as it should be?

And do we have to change how we interact with the index topic, or is that all unchanged?

[nat (Natalie T)]

@nathank

Is that as it should be?

Yes, that is correct and there is nothing else that needs to be done

@nathank

is that all unchanged

Yes again.

In the near future () we would be working on improving features such as easy sorting, rearranging, updating with perhaps a dedicated UI. I do not expect there to be any more manual tasks that self-hosters will have to do.

[Sailor]

@nat

our most recent update

Can you please clarify to which plugin version and/or commit this applies?

I’m running Discourse 3.6.0.beta1-dev and not showing any plugin updates available for Documentation Categories, the plugin being version 0.0.1 with commit ba90a37.

[nat (Natalie T)]

@Sailor

commit ba90a37

The changes are about 7 commits newer.

The changes come in the same version of Discourse 3.6.0.beta1-dev. Ideally the next time you update Discourse itself, you should get those changes as well.

Generally, I do not recommend just updating the plugin only, but rather use the typical upgrade methods through the UI or ./launcher rebuild app.

[cmdntd]

Doc Menu (on the left) can not display at the latest version of discourse (3.6.0.beta2)

Could you check this again?

[Moin]

For me it still works here on Meta.

Did you rebuild the index as described here?

Discourse Doc Categories

Updates for self-hosters For self-hosters using this plugin, our most recent update would require a manual rebuild of the index. This would involve running this rake task: bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar # if running the task above fails due to NoDatabaseError, # run with the following for typical self-hosted setups sudo -E -u discourse bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar If you are not able to run this rake task, you may go to each documentation categor…

[cmdntd]

@nat

sudo -E -u discourse bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar

Thank you, it is ok with this:

sudo -E -u discourse bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar

[caue-pareto (cpareto)]

Hi everyone,

I tried to install it now, but it seems that this plugin is not compatible with the version of Discourse we are using, 3.5.2.

Can you confirm compatibility? I am getting this error:

November 5, 2025, 06:55
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-doc-categories/lib/doc_categories/initializers/add_category_extensions.rb:19:in `apply': undefined method `register_category_update_param_with_callback' for an instance of Plugin::Instance (NoMethodError)
discourse
November 5, 2025, 06:55
** INCOMPATIBLE PLUGIN **
discourse
November 5, 2025, 06:55
You are unable to start Discourse due to errors in the plugin at
discourse
November 5, 2025, 06:55
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-doc-categories
discourse
November 5, 2025, 06:55
Please try removing this plugin and rebuilding again!

[nat (Natalie T)]

Hey, you’ll need to update your Discourse instance first as the method indicated is only on a more recent version.

[caue-pareto (cpareto)]

Does the image discourse/discourse:3.5.2 have this updated code? Because I am using it and I see that it was updated 10 hours ago

[nat (Natalie T)]

3.5.2 will not have compatibility, you’ll see security updates, but not new features. You’ll need 3.6.0.beta1 minimally.

[soeren-1]

Do you know of any issue with 3.6.0.beta3-latest? The plugin doesn’t work since our recent update from 3.6.0.beta1.

[pacharanero (Marcus Baw)]

@soeren-1

The plugin doesn’t work since our recent update from 3.6.0.beta1.

Did you run the rake task as described here?

Discourse Doc Categories

Updates for self-hosters For self-hosters using this plugin, our most recent update would require a manual rebuild of the index. This would involve running this rake task: bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar # if running the task above fails due to NoDatabaseError, # run with the following for typical self-hosted setups sudo -E -u discourse bundle exec rake doc_categories:build_sidebar If you are not able to run this rake task, you may go to each documentation categor…

There is an alternative (remove Index Topic in Category Settings, click save, and re-add) if you can’t do the Rake task.

[jordanjay29]

@pacharanero

There is an alternative (remove Index Topic in Category Settings, click save, and re-add) if you can’t do the Rake task.

This has been what I need to do every time since adding a link to the index with a static name in the prescribed format:

* A Link Text: https://meta.discourse.org/t/an-example-link/

Otherwise the category sidebar links don’t parse into their titles and remain as full urls. This is on the latest Discourse (2025.12.0-latest as of commit 5817b6c).

[pacharanero (Marcus Baw)]

@jordanjay29

sidebar links don’t parse into their titles and remain as full urls

I have noticed this happens occasionally as well. Refreshing the page does seem to fix it.

(This is different to the plugin not working at all, which is what happens if you haven’t done the rake task or cycled the Index Topic, same thing happened to me on a forum I’d forgotten to do)

[jordanjay29]

@pacharanero

Refreshing the page does seem to fix it.

It did not here. Only the rake or category settings adjustment I quoted above.

[soeren-1]

Thank you, I’ll and provide a feedback

[soeren-1]

@pacharanero

There is an alternative (remove Index Topic in Category Settings, click save, and re-add) if you can’t do the Rake task.

It worked, thank you very much !

[nat (Natalie T)]

We had a recent update that may fix this. Do write back and let us know if it still exists.