# Word Cloud plugin

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/word-cloud-plugin/210169>\
**Category:** Plugin\
**Created:** [November 25, 2021, 6:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/word-cloud-plugin/210169 "2021-11-25T18:08:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![merefield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/merefield/32/176214_2.png) [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2021, 6:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/word-cloud-plugin/210169/1 "2021-11-25T18:08:52Z")

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**Summary** : A Word Cloud that abstractly summarises the content of your site.

[![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/1/4/1443e6f47cf93767af96cf72a07ab12a0d2f08f6_2_690x365.png) ](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/1/4/1443e6f47cf93767af96cf72a07ab12a0d2f08f6_2_690x365.png)

🔗 **GitHub** : `https://github.com/merefield/discourse-word-cloud` [Word Cloud Plugin](https://github.com/merefield/discourse-word-cloud)

➡ **Install** : Follow the [plugin installation guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-a-plugin/19157).

### Features

Represents the posts of your community as a Word Cloud summary. The words are animated and if clicked will perform a simple word search.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/2/e/2eb0a277ab9565d6d72dc37d8d4c934ed7e09e99.png)

Get to it by hitting `Word Cloud` on the Hamburger menu or navigating to `yoursite.com/word_cloud` - NB you have to be logged in as a registered user to see it and it’s only on desktop.

To refresh data, Trigger the job:

[![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/1/7/17a59808caba348fdf1b03333da2b98ad561293c_2_690x90.png) ](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/1/7/17a59808caba348fdf1b03333da2b98ad561293c_2_690x90.png)

Otherwise this runs every hour.

### Interested in the data?

My intention was just to paint a picture.

If you want to see the data, just go to `yoursite.com/wordcloud.json`

### Configuration

Settings … so … many … settings:

- Restrict to specific Categories:

[![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/f/6/f67caecb3788adbf5df18bff1a117517a09740e3.png) ](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/f/6/f67caecb3788adbf5df18bff1a117517a09740e3.png)

- Word Cloud Ignore List (300 words by default, using a list I found [here](https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/assets/media/images/pdfs/SightWord_List_1-300.pdf)):

[![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/1/6/16c991ce611d58f5e087b22fcdd8273396413313_2_690x449.png) ](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/1/6/16c991ce611d58f5e087b22fcdd8273396413313_2_690x449.png)

NB Word stats are updated every hour now (which is probably still excessive, but for the time being makes it easier to checkout changes in Production as we go through a lot of initial code evolution).

NB#2 I’ve not yet considered other languages here beyond English (it’s certainly not tested). The current word manipulation may not work well in some languages. Suggestions & PR’s welcome.

If you select no Category (default) you get a scan of all forum Posts (PMs and all). If you add just one Category, word stats are restricted to that etc.

### Known issues

- Currently doesn’t support Safari. [This issue](https://github.com/merefield/discourse-word-cloud/issues/2) was introduced once I added responsiveness. I’m very busy these days, so if you can find a solution PR Accepted.

### TODO

- It may not support other languages. I’ve only tested English. PR Welcome.
- The menu item has localisation support, but if no-one has yet PR’d your localisation yet, please consider doing so or otherwise it will remain a key code …
- Add option to have it appear on the front screen above Topic Lists (much like the Discourse Tag Cloud Theme Component). PR Accepted.

## Creds

- The visualisation is based on [the awesome d3 library](https://d3js.org/)

- The work was inspired and guided by the feedback of the great people in this Topic: [Word cloud plugin for discourse?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/word-cloud-plugin-for-discourse/181161)

- thanks to @silvacarl for the suggestion and @tobiaseigen for all the useful feedback.

## Similar projects

If you like this you might also like my:

- [user network visualisation](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-network-visualisation/184189)
- [Discourse Tag Cloud](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-tag-cloud/218014)

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