Feature suggestion: link back from topic to database

[Sonya*]

If you connect Pages with a forum for comments, the topics will always have a link back to the record. Please consider making the link optional.

There are several issues with this link:

• It is not editable: you cannot edit topics created automatically from records.
• It does not respect the template change: you can edit the template, but the changes are not considered while rebuilding.
• It does not respect permissions: if a user does not have a view permission for the record, the link is broken. E.g., database only for staff, topics for all.
• It sometime has ambigious wording, like view full person, view full movie, view full book. I know that I can change the language. But it is difficult to find a global one for all databases.
• It is not translatable: once saved in the post, it always uses the default language. No control for individual forums with other languages.
• It is redundant: I can create a field in the database and use Topic format to get a full control over the link. This way I can decide, whether to show or not, wording in individual database, exact position in the topic, formatting. This is also respected while rebuilding.

Just a small choice field, yes/not would be sufficient. Or at least add a CSS class in the template so that the link can be suppressed with display:none. 😉

Thank you!

Edited March 6 by Sonya*

[Sonya*]

Addition:

If you ever create topics from records and then disconnect and remove the connection, you will not be able to remove the link back from created topics. Producing a lot of 404 errors.

Edited May 13 by Sonya*

[Daniel F]

Can't you just edit the topic template 

 

That said, I think it would be better and more powerful instead of having a setting to enable/disable this, to move it the other CMS related templates, so that one can customize it for each database, jus like the form, listing, view templates.. 
Or if it could be removed at all and we could just add an editor field for the content to the "Forums" Settings tab.

[Sonya*]

4 minutes ago, Daniel F said:

Can't you just edit the topic template 

I can. But it works only until I rebuild the topics. Then the link is there again. Any changes made to this template are ignored. No control, unfortunately.

5 minutes ago, Daniel F said:

That said, I think it would be better and more powerful instead of having a setting to enable/disable this, to move it the other CMS related templates, so that one can customize it for each database, jus like the form, listing, view templates.. 

This. It would be enough to have the field:

• Add a link back to the record? (Yes/No)

This way, I would gain back a full control as admin. 🤞

 

[opentype]

Instead of patching these issues, the entire functionality should probably be reimagined. Having this forum posting to begin with comes from old 3.x days where everything was centered around the forums. Having the need to have a separate comment system for Pages comes from the fact that 4.x originally allowed people to just have Pages, but not Forums. With the new licensing system, these legacy options should be consolidated into one comment system without the need for any kind of syncing, cross-posting or any anything like that.