How to extend the Discourse sidebar?

[AstonJ]

Are there any guides or how-tos here that show you how to extend the built-in sidebar?

For instance, to widen it slightly then show the latest 5 topics out of our news section? Or maybe show upcoming events?

It’s great that we have a sidebar but it is underutilised at the moment - would be great to to extend it and help make each Discourse forum different.

[Arkshine]

That’s not exactly what you want, but you might be interested in this component. It doesn’t extend the sidebar but adds a new one on the right, and you can see the latest replies.

Right Sidebar Blocks

Summary Right Sidebar Blocks shows a sidebar to the right of topic lists with a configurable list of blocks. It’s a refactor of the sidebar blocks plugin. Repository Link https://github.com/discourse/discourse-right-sidebar-blocks New to Discourse Themes? Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes Install this theme component The component includes a few blocks you can display in the sidebar: popular-tags top-contributors recent…

[AstonJ]

Thanks @Arkshine I saw that but I generally try to avoid large plugins as they can sometimes be a pain when it comes to upgrading the core product (however it’s good to see that one is an official plug-in and so I’ll definitely check it out in more details).

I’m also not sure we need a sidebar on the right as we already have one on the left. I think slightly widening the existing one and adding more to it makes better sense, as it’s fairly redundant atm unless you have a lot of chat DMs or chatrooms you use.

[Lilly]

There are now plugin outlets you can use in the sidebar, so it’s conceivable that a theme component could use them to perhaps achieve what you desire.

A plugin outlet on top of the sidebar

Last week we discussed this some more internally and ended up where the consensus was that there’s no way around adding outlets at the moment — so now we have: before-sidebar-section and after-sidebar-sections available as outlets If the need is to add a custom section of links that mirrors the layout of existing link sections, the recommendation is to still use the API so we can maintain compatibility if the sidebar changes in the future. If this part of Discourse were to change again (no cur…

[Firepup650 (Firepup Sixfifty)]

@AstonJ

generally try to avoid large plugins as they can sometimes be a pain

Just a note, that’s not a plugin, only a theme component, so it’s probably less-likely to cause issues when updating.

[merefield (Robert)]

You might need some developer assistance but this is feature rich:

Discourse Bars (a sidebar framework)

Overview A Theme Component that allows you to lay out Components (“widgets*”) on top and side bars Specify a set of “widgets” distinctly for Route and Position. Supports setups for each of: discovery[1], topic, tag[2], category[2:1] OR categories[2:2]. “Bars” can be either: top, left, right OR alternative right location. Each bar can be collapsed or dismissed (refresh browser to reset dismiss). Handles the Official Sidebar, but if you intend you use a Bars Left Sidebar, the Dropdo…

[Lilly]

@AstonJ

but I generally try to avoid large plugins as they can sometimes be a pain when it comes to upgrading the core product

Discourse is built on open source code so that plugin and theme components are how you “extend” the core features to suit your own forum’s needs.

[AstonJ]

Thanks everyone.

What about adding an iFrame or an image at the bottom? It’s been a while since I looked at Discourse theming, but surely that should be easy enough to do?