Right Sidebar Blocks

[TheDarkWizard]

We’ve figured it out by slightly changing the design we wanted. We might still submit a QoL PR when we release the site, but it dropped off the priority list for now. We are full steam ahead on finishing our plugin, which is our #1 concern right now.

[pinder99 (Pushpender Singh)]

@pmusaraj custom footer disappear when using this plugin , any solution ?

[Arkshine]

@polyzium, @pinder99

I made a PR to fix this issue. Hopefully, this will be accepted!

DEV: Resolve a compatibility issue in core with CustomHtml component

[TQI]

Hi Carlo, We have the same problem. The images we place using the After Header section of the HTML in the default theme disappear when the plugin is enabled.
Were you able to figure out a workaround?

[pmusaraj (Penar Musaraj)]

Thanks @Arkshine, that fix is now merged.

[Arkshine]

Thanks Penar!

@TQI Please update; the fix should fix your issue as well.

[TQI]

Yes, it does fix our problem. Thank you very much!

[annetters (Annette A.)]

For the custom-html block:

1. Is inserting HTML into the input box the only way of inserting HTML? If so, is it possible to make it a textarea to make it easier to insert big blocks of code.
2. Is there a way to insert custom HTML by pointing to an independent HTML file that lives in a theme?

[Monikas (JustMonika)]

Can I put pictures in it?

[bryce (Bryce Huhtala)]

@annetters

Is there a way to insert custom HTML by pointing to an independent HTML file that lives in a theme?

If you’re using the component with a custom theme, you could create a .hbs file in javascripts/discourse/components/ with the desired HTML, then instead of custom-html for the block use the name of a file (without the .hbs).

Edit: If anyone is wondering why we’d use .hbs instead of .html here, this method would create a custom Ember.js component that Right Sidebar Blocks can locate by name and use as one of the blocks. .hbs is a handlebars file. Handlebars is a “templating” language used by Ember.js that looks like HTML but lets you do things like inserting dynamic data, only showing an element based on a condition, or showing several copies of the same content filled with different data. If that sounds like fun, the Beginner’s guide to developing Discourse Themes goes into how to use hadlebars and Ember components in Discourse Themes.

[annetters (Annette A.)]

Just to confirm, would it look something like this? With the field saying foo but not foo.hbs and no params.

[bryce (Bryce Huhtala)]

@annetters

Just to confirm, would it look something like this? With the field saying foo but not foo.hbs and no params

Yeah, that looks correct!

[annetters (Annette A.)]

That worked! Thanks!

[annetters (Annette A.)]

Is there a way to display the sidebar in categories and show stats specific to that category? (like total number of topics in the Cats category)

[bloomexperiment (Tracey)]

This is awesome. I think it would be great if this theme component could also show a sidebar for bookmarks.

It would be handy to see the top <5 bookmarks with reminders that are upcoming, for example. That would be a good overview of what you have coming up.

Another handy one would be drafts – show the top <5 most recent drafts. I often forget about my drafts.

I can see that we could build our own blocks – might investigate if I get the chance.

@pmusaraj

You can also use other Ember components as blocks, you just need to use the correct name. For example, core includes a signup-cta Ember component, and you can use it in the sidebar as is. Note that you can’t use components that expect a set of parameters, but you can build your own Ember component in a separate theme and reference it just by its name in the sidebar’s blocks setting.