Links not appearing since the last theme component update

[ToddZ]

Well shoot. I updated this component tonight to pick up the latest commit “Switch to new API to render into plugin outlet. (#37)” My one custom link disappeared, and I can’t get it to display again. I’ve uninstalled, reinstalled, restarted to no effect.

(3.2.0.beta2-dev - 76e5a939d4, Default theme)

[ToddZ]

Update: I deleted the new version, and installed from a zip file of the previous Sept. 7 commit.
Success – that version works, as before.

Interested to hear if anyone else has trouble as of the Oct. 11 commit.

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

Yes. Thank you for your report, I can repro.

Updating my theme component made my header links disappear as well:

[Arkshine]

The theme component uses a new API introduced 8 days ago, while 76e5a9 is from 2 weeks ago.

That’s why nothing is displayed. The API is not available.
You might want to upgrade Discourse to fix this issue if you can.

Lately, we see similar occurrences . Having a message in the dashboard to warn about the update would be nice, I think.

[ToddZ]

@Arkshine

The theme component uses a new API introduced 8 days ago, while 76e5a9 is from 2 weeks ago.

Interesting. I will learn from this, but I’m not surprised there are similar occurrences. It’s certainly an easy thing to stumble into.

The Admin Dashboard makes it look like I’m fully current:

(I’m not sure why I’m on a Beta – I simply did the official Docker install.)

If I go to the Upgrade tab, I do see an upgrade available. But it’s for v3.2.0.beta1 …which sounds older than 3.2.0.beta2..? What’s the significance of “-dev”? I can’t find any docs explaining the beta release progression/situation.

@Arkshine

Having a message in the dashboard to warn about the update would be nice, I think.

In general, should a component really be able to offer an update that isn’t compatible with the installed Discord release? That seems to invite this kind of confusion. I’d have expected behavior like Wordpress plugins, which will clearly indicate that they are holding back until you update your base installation.

[Moin]

@ToddZ

I can’t find any docs explaining the beta release progression/situation.

Understanding Discourse release channels

This guide explains the different types of Discourse releases and how different channels are used for updates. Required user level: All users Release channels Discourse has four primary release channels, each serving a different purpose: main, latest, release, and esr. The default channel used when installing a production version of Discourse is latest. Since November 2025, Discourse uses a date-based versioning scheme: YYYY.MM.PATCH (e.g., v2026.2.0). On …

As you can read there, you only get notified to update when there is a new milestone. If you were told to update after every commit, that would be several times a day.
When you notice a bug it’s always good to update first to check whether it was already fixed.

I also like Finding what version of Discourse you're using as an explanation how you can check your exact version on GitHub. Of coure as an admin you don’t need the html view.

Here is the explanation for -dev

From Discourse 3.2: adding -dev suffix to beta versions under active development

On tests-passed, starting with 3.2.0.beta1-dev, Discourse core version numbers will include a -dev suffix to indicate that they’re not the final ‘release’ versions of a beta. This suffix doesn’t appear in the UI, so this is a technicality which will have no impact on the vast majority of people. For the technical details, see below: In the beta series for Discourse 3.1 and below, our versioning strategy was to ‘release’ a beta, and then leave the version number in tests-passed exactly the sam…

[ToddZ]

Thanks for the links, @Moin – I’d checked release pages, Github, etc. but didn’t search deep enough here.

This clears up a lot of my questions in theory. But after reading…

“we’re starting the 3.2 development cycle with 3.2.0.beta1-dev . When that’s ready to be released, it will be stamped as 3.2.0.beta1 , and then we’ll followup immediately with another commit to start development of 3.2.0.beta2-dev .”

…I’m still not sure if I should “update” from beta2-dev to beta1.

I may just sit tight until a milestone notification.

[Heliosurge (Dan DeMontmorency)]

Check to see if Discourse/Docker has updates. I had a similar issue earlier this week. Updated a Customization > Theme component or 2 and had disolay issues related to thise components.

While no Discourse update showing in Dashboard both Docker snd Discourse had commits.

Once I updated Discourse thr components eork as they should.

[tgxworld (Alan Tan)]

It looks like there is a bug with our theme compatibility system. I have reverted my changes for now:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse-custom-header-links/pull/39