Checking if a Topic is sync’d with a Pages Record

[Dreadknux]

Hi, I’m looking to see if there is some built-in IPS code that allows me to check if a topic in a row is synced/connected to a Pages record.

The use case I’m thinking of, is something like, on a Forum’s topic list:

IF topic row is of a topic that has a connection to a Pages record (comments/topic replies are sync’d), THEN display [HTML]

I’d also like to be able to pull a Topic’s original post content and display it somewhere else when using Copy to Database so that the original topic content isn’t lost when the Page Record and Topic is sync’d up… but I’m guessing that’s more of a Feature Request to make and that’s not something I can currently do in v4?

Thanks for the assistance as always!

[opentype]

12 hours ago, Dreadknux said:

Hi, I’m looking to see if there is some built-in IPS code that allows me to check if a topic in a row is synced/connected to a Pages record.

I think the topic itself doesn’t “know” anything about the Pages connection. That connection is stored in the table of the cms database. So you have to use a manual query to check if the current topic ID is present across any of your cms databases. Might not be a good idea. 

[Daniel F]

33 minutes ago, opentype said:

think the topic itself doesn’t “know” anything about the Pages connection. That connection is stored in the table of the cms database. So you have to use a manual query to check if the current topic ID is present across any of your cms databases.

Correct.

The reference is only stored in the cms_custom_database_x database tables inside the record_topicid field.

[Dreadknux]

I see. I thought as much, thanks @opentype and @Daniel F - I'm guessing this is a symptom of just how the Copy to Database feature has been coded/locked in for V4? Bit of a shame, but I can work with it for now.

Hopefully this is something that is re-built/re-imagined for IPS V5, I would like to be able to integrate the Topic/Pages thing a little better than I've been able to so far with V4.

[Daniel F]

I have a custom, not public released app, which allows one to cross-reference all the content suite wide.
Like show images from a gallery album in the topic or pages database record sidebar or header, link to records or downloads files from a topic (which will show the featured image in the sidebar)

 

It's coded way too limited for my own needs, I may release it for v5 because it's going to require a complete rewrite then.

[Dreadknux]

Oh my, that sounds wonderful @Daniel F! One of the things stopping me from investing in Gallery is a (seemingly, I only have context via Trial versions of the Suite) inability to x-ref Gallery albums with Pages records (so I could, for example, have a "Wiki" Page that can connect to a "Related Gallery" that would output thumbnails from that gallery in-page), similar to how I can x-ref different Pages Database with one another.

Regarding Topic/Pages in particular, I'd love to be able to have Topics "know" if a Pages record is connected to it so I could try and do things like;

• Add a Meta block linking to the Record within the Topic (not like the "Read Full Article" link that currently exists, more like a block inserted between posts that could include a template/record image etc)
• Allow for automatically 'credit' the original Topic Author before new author/content sync (I have a custom field in Pages that allows me to search for members that allows me to do this manually but it's a bit unwieldy)
• Open up for automatic rewards via the Achievements system
• 'Lift' the original topic post and "place" it elsewhere so that the original post content can be saved even if the Pages content overwrites it in sync (I'm thinking like an inserted mini-post block between the OP and first reply in the topic, similar to the Topic Summary block)

I think a lot of people would appreciate (and thank) you sharing that app for V5, even if it was a paid extension or something, as I think it would go some way to integrating a lot of my content a lot more closely (a big part of my site feedback I heard earlier this year was they didn't know when certain Events were happening, likely because it feels like the different IPS apps are separate worlds in a way). 😀

[opentype]

1 hour ago, Dreadknux said:

inability to x-ref Gallery albums with Pages records (so I could, for example, have a "Wiki" Page that can connect to a "Related Gallery" that would output thumbnails from that gallery in-page), similar to how I can x-ref different Pages Database with one another.

Yeah, that should be a stock option. Not just Gallery, but pretty much any content type could be available as custom field in a Pages database.