# Embedding full threads - possible?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-full-threads-possible/360386
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [April 4, 2025, 9:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-full-threads-possible/360386 "2025-04-04T09:31:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@doron1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/doron1)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2025, 9:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-full-threads-possible/360386/1 "2025-04-04T09:31:29Z")
Hi folks,
We are relatively new to discourse dev, so this might be off. We couldn’t find an exact answer to this in our searches.
We are developing a web site with various types of content. As part of this, we want to have threaded comment streams for items uploaded by our users. So, just for example, assume a user uploads content about their car, - the content will be on our site, and there’ll be an optional discussion/comment stream on that item, allowing engagement by other users.
We have Discourse installed and running, with SSO and all. We embed a related Discourse comment within an iframe. We get the top comment, and the well-known button “Continue Discussion” which takes us out of the site and into the Discourse server.
Is there anything we can do to have an entire threaded discussion, starting with the top comment, inside our iframe (or otherwise inside our pages)? So that users can continue a the discussion inside the uploaded content page. Is this even doable with Discourse?
Thanks for any pointers.
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### Author:  [@Andrew\_Rowe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Andrew_Rowe)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-full-threads-possible/360386/2 "2025-04-20T14:17:13Z")
I have similar goals, I have a web site with various types of content and I self host a Discourse instance so I can have a forum for interacting with users and building a community. I also wanted to embed parts of Discourse into my other site. The [standard method](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embed-discourse-comments-on-another-website-via-javascript/31963) Discourse provides is really easy and looked cool but wasn’t quite what I desired.
The first problem is that if someone wants to comment, they have to login to Discourse (or you must allow anonymous comments and that leads to other problems/complexities) There seems to be some ongoing debate here on meta as to if Discourse should try to accommodate better interaction with CMS (content management systems) or introduce features to make it more of a CMS itself.
> [@Which CMS for Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/which-cms-for-discourse/98985/2):
>
> While just about any CMS can work well with Discourse through use of [embeds](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-discourse-comments-via-javascript/31963) and [our API](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-api-documentation/22706), our most mature CMS integration by far is with WordPress:
Plenty of folks use Discourse for blogs, marketplace/e-store, e-magazine, video/picture gallery and so on.
My first strategy for embedding parts of Discourse into my website was to customize the look of my forum as best I could, first starting out, then mimic the style on my other site. The idea is to blend the two together so a user does really notice the content is coming from two different servers. Discourse actually provides tons of ways to tailor the look of the interface that even non-techie folks can handle.
Once I got to know Discourse a little better I figured out a few methods for embedding cool chunks of discourse into my other site
> [@Embed a list of Discourse topics onto an external site](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embed-a-list-of-discourse-topics-onto-an-external-site/293709/28):
>
> Since I didn’t get any hints I figured I’d answer a few of my own questions for anyone who looks just for reference YES, self hosted [official install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-discourse-in-production-with-the-official-supported-instructions/142537?silent=true) included the REST API Got hints from [api example thread](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-rest-api-comprehensive-examples/274354) how to make cURL calls from the terminal. Once the cURL commands worked I used this website to convert the command line version to PHP My other server runs PHP as backend and I make ajax calls from web page to function on the server. The Discourse spits out json and javascript it built fo…
I’m still learning and have some more ideas but also have looked a Wordpress and Ghost
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### Author:  [@doron1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/doron1)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-full-threads-possible/360386/3 "2025-04-20T16:08:32Z")
Thanks for your comments!
We went through similar thought processes and experiments.
What we ended up doing (well, still working on it so jury’s out re quality of final result) is ditch the web embedding direction altogether and use the Discourse API to include full Discourse discussions inside our pages. This allows us to shape it exactly like we want, look-n-feel wise and much more. More work, absolutely, but it appears as if the final result is going to be worth it.
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### Author:  [@Andrew\_Rowe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Andrew_Rowe)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-full-threads-possible/360386/4 "2025-04-20T16:37:48Z")
As described in that post, my other server has PHP backend. I got the API working using cURL then [this really cool website](https://hasdata.com/curl-to-php-converter) to convert my working cURL to a PHP module which the website can call using javascript ajax calls.
Here is my upcoming events calendar on my discourse instance
And here it is on my other server
pretty close huh?
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-full-threads-possible/360386/5 "2026-04-01T18:44:21Z")
This is now possible
> [@Embed Discourse as a full comment system on your site](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embed-discourse-as-a-full-comment-system-on-your-site/399743):
>
> Discourse’s [embedding system](https://meta.discourse.org/t/embedding-discourse-comments-via-javascript/31963) lets you show topic comments on external sites via an iframe — but until now, the experience was read-only. Visitors had to click through to your Discourse site to reply, like, or interact with the discussion. We’ve added full app mode for embeds, which loads the complete Discourse application inside the iframe. Your visitors can reply, like, quote, and interact with topics without ever leaving your blog or website. How to enable it Navigate to A…