Kanban Board

:discourse2: Summary Kanban Board allows you to display and organise topics using a kanban board interface.
:eyeglasses: Preview Preview on Discourse Theme Creator
:hammer_and_wrench: Repository Link https://github.com/discourse/discourse-kanban-theme
:open_book: New to Discourse Themes? Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes

Install this theme component

:discourse2: Hosted by us? Theme components are available to use on our Standard, Business, and Enterprise plans.

Summary

The Kanban Board theme component transforms how you organize and visualize your forum topics. It provides a drag-and-drop interface that lets you move topics between different columns representing categories, tags, or user assignments, making it ideal for project management, workflow visualization, and content organization.

Features

Multiple organization modes

The Kanban Board offers three different modes to organize your topics:

  1. Categories mode: Organize topics by their assigned categories
  2. Tags mode: Organize topics by their assigned tags
  3. Assignment mode: Organize topics by the users they’re assigned to

You can drag topics between lists to automatically change the corresponding attributes:

Performance optimized

Lists are “lazy-loaded,” which means the component only loads content as needed. This ensures reasonable performance even when dealing with large numbers of categories or topics.

Setup and configuration

Default board mode selection

The default board mode will be automatically determined using these criteria:

  • If this is the top level, use categories mode
  • If this is a category, and there are sub-categories, use categories mode
  • Otherwise, use tags mode. (Lists built from ‘top tags’ list)

Changing the board mode

You can change the board mode using the filter button on the left, and configuration changes will be reflected in the URL. Users can bookmark their favorite configuration in their browser.

Settings

Site administrators can customize the default settings of the theme component through the theme’s settings:

Setting Description
Display categories A list of categories where the “Board” button should appear. If left blank, it will be shown everywhere. Use @ to denote the top level view.
Default modes Override the default board mode for each category. Use the syntax category:mode:params. For example, support:assigned:david,sam,joffrey. Use @ to denote the top level view. Use @untagged to display an untagged column.
Default view A list of categories where the “Board” is the default view. (Note: Does not yet support the top level default view)
Require confirmation Display a confirmation modal before making changes to a topic’s tags/category
Show tags Show tags on topic cards
Card style Determine the visual style of topic cards (currently “detailed” is available)
Show topic thumbnail Display the topic thumbnail at the bottom of the card
Show activity indicators Display an indicator of a card’s activity. Different styles will be applied if the topic has been bumped more than 7 days ago or more than 20 days ago

Defaults for each setting are shown below:

Text customizations

Administrators can customize the text labels used throughout the Kanban board interface. The following text elements can be customized:

Translation Default Description
no_topics no topics Displayed when a column has no topics
confirm_change_tags Remove ‘#%{remove}’ and add ‘#%{add}’ to ‘%{title}’? Confirmation message when changing tags
confirm_close Close topic ‘%{title}’? Confirmation when closing a topic
confirm_open Reopen topic ‘%{title}’? Confirmation when reopening a topic
confirm_change_category Move topic ‘%{title}’? Confirmation when changing a topic’s category
menu_label Board Text for the board navigation menu item
copy_link Copy link to clipboard Tooltip for copying a link
configure Configure kanban board Text for configuration button
fullscreen Toggle fullscreen Text for fullscreen toggle button
no_lists No Kanban lists configured… Shown when no lists are configured
controls Kanban Board Controls Header for controls section
last_post_by Last post by Label for last poster information
modal.title Configure Kanban Title of configuration modal
modal.tags_placeholder Tags to display… Placeholder for tags input field
modal.categories_placeholder Categories to display… Placeholder for categories input field
modal.usernames_placeholder Users to display… Placeholder for users input field
modal.apply Apply Text for apply button
modal.mode Board Mode Label for board mode selector
modal.lists Lists Label for lists configuration section

Tips for effective use

Setting up tag columns

For the most intuitive setup in tags mode, organize your tags in a tag group with “only one tag from this group” enabled. This ensures topics can only have one status tag, making the kanban board function like a traditional workflow board.

Controlling column order in tags mode

You can specify the exact order of columns using the default modes setting. For example, specifying roadmap:tags:discovery,design,build,testing will display columns in that specific order:

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the kanban board on mobile devices?

The drag-and-drop functionality currently doesn’t work on mobile devices because they don’t support HTML5 drag and drop. You can still view the board on mobile, but you won’t be able to move cards between columns.

Why does the board tab disappear after I set it up?

If the board tab disappears after initial configuration, you may need to ensure you’ve correctly entered the category names in the theme settings. Be sure to use the exact category slug (with underscores rather than dashes if applicable) and configure both parent categories and subcategories separately.

How do I limit which tags are shown site-wide?

You can configure which tags appear in the tags mode using the default modes setting. Specify exactly which tags should appear as columns to prevent all tags from showing up.

How do I change the card appearance?

You can customize the appearance of cards using several settings:

  • Use the “Card style” setting to select the display format
  • Enable or disable tags on cards with the “Show tags” option
  • Add thumbnails to cards with “Show topic thumbnail” setting
  • Add visual activity indicators with “Show activity indicators” setting

pr-welcome features:

  • make the lists more configurable. e.g. allow administrators to define a combination of assignment, tags, and categories in one display

  • Add support for dragging cards on mobile devices. Unfortunately, they don’t support html drag and drop


Last edited by @SaraDev 2025-06-02T22:44:54Z

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