Using Discourse in a web app

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Using Discourse in a web app

jack2 is a web developer seeking to create a web app where users can discuss a document using Discourse. The desired UI includes a main area for the document and separate sections for creating topics to discuss parts of the document.

blake suggests creating a topic with the document linked or uploaded in the first post and recommends setting up a Discourse instance on a Digital Ocean droplet to test the use case.

joebuhlig proposes embedding a topic on the document page using JavaScript, which would require users to click into the comments to reply.

jack2 shares a prototype and is interested in pursuing the iframe idea further. He asks if anyone has embedded a topic list instead of a comment list and inquires about using categories as unique identifiers for document sub-parts to filter topics. Specifically, he wonders if it’s possible to hide unnecessary banners and buttons to display a clean topic list.

1

I am a web developer, new to Discourse. I would like to create a web app where users could discuss a document.
The UI would look like this:

  • a main area showing the document,
  • other areas/windows/tabs where users could create topics to discuss parts of the document.
    Does it sound feasible with Discourse? If it does, how could this be done?
2

You could probably just create a topic where the first post is a link or an uploaded document.

I would recommend setting up a discourse on a digital ocean droplet and trying out your use case.

discourse/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub

3

Another option would be to look into embedding a topic on your document page. It would require the user to click into the comments to leave a reply but that’s no different than any other commenting structure.

4

@blake, @joebuhlig, thanks a lot.

I have created a prototype to showcase the idea. I am in the process of simplifying the UX, re-engineering the whole stuff and planning for version 1.

I would like to pursue the iframe idea further :

Has anyone embedded a topic list instead of a comment list? What if I use categories as unique identifiers for document sub-parts? I could then use the appropriate url (for example : https://mydiscourse.com/c/document-sub-part-id) to show only the relevant topics. But will it then be easy to hide all the unnecessary banners and buttons to show only a clean topic list ?