I need a theme to promote some hidden categories

AI-generated summary

The user needs a custom theme to promote some hidden categories on their Discourse homepage without making their contents visible. The requirements include:

  • Displaying select hidden categories on the homepage and /categories page, even to non-logged-in users, without showing their topics
  • Restricting access to these categories based on group membership
  • Redirecting users without the correct group membership to a custom page explaining why they don’t have access
  • Manually configuring category names and descriptions

The user’s budget is £250 (approximately $302 USD) and needs the task completed before January 31, 2023. Moin suggested a possible solution in this discussion, which Richie thinks might be relevant.

What would you like done?

Further to a discussion a number of years ago, I think I need a theme creating.

My Discourse has a number of hidden categories. Here is a selection of some of them:

I wish some of my hidden categories to be made visible on the homepage of my Discourse (but not all of them) so people can see they exist - but they can’t get in them.

They should be made visible to anyone who views the /categories page, including people not logged in.

The topics within the category should NOT be leaked. If someone views the /latest page they simply won’t see the categories.

(Which means this plugin is not suitable for me: Discourse Category Lockdown)

If users have the correct group membership it should naturally let them in to that category.

If user do not have the correct group membership then the category link should not be clickable, or, it should redirect them to a common page which will explain why they do not have access: https://example.com/pub/some-page-url-here-with-details

To keep things simple, I am happy to manually type in the category names and the descriptions in to a config file or some settings, or enter some manual HTML or something similar.

Can this be achieved with a theme?

Have I explained my requirements in enough detail? Do you have enough information here? Do you have any questions?

When do you need it done?

Must be complete before 31 January 2023.

What is your budget, in $ USD that you can offer for this task?

My budget is GBP£250 - Which at the current exchange rate is USD$302 or EUR€285. There might be some small flexibility in this.

3 Likes

Maybe Category Previews is what you are looking for

7 Likes

It may well be, thanks @Moin

2 Likes