]po[ Forum

The ]po[ forum package allows for threaded discussions associated to projects, companies, users and other business objects, effectively converting ]po[ into a online collaboration platform.

All forum items are indexed by the full-text search engine, allowing for quick retrieval.

The “Speech Act” Metaphor

The Forum Module is based on the notion of so called “speech acts”. Speech acts are elements of the human language that capture how we communication with other persons based on different types of sentences or utterances that we can make. Certain speech acts are mapped to “Topic Types” in ]project-open[. Each type is designed to support a particular communication model. The following table gives a brief overview about the different types and provides a recommendation on how to use them.  

Discussions Containers

Normally all discussions happen as part of a

• projects.

All members of the project can see discussions of the project, as long as they have access permissions to the discussion (see below). However, forum discussions are also available for other objects including

• customers and providers,
  
• users and
  
• configuration items.
  

Forum Permissions

The permissions of the forum package are controlled by a number of privileges. Administrators can use these permissions to separate customers from staff and from providers, while project managers may act as discussions moderators:

• add_topic_public
  Allows the user group to create global messages (normally reserved for administrators)
  
• add_topic_group
  Add essages for the entire project or discussion container
  
• add_topic_staff
  Messages to staff members of the project
  
• add_topic_client
  Messages to the clients of the project
  
• add_topic_noncli
  Message to non-clients of the project
  
• add_topic_pm
  Message to the project manager only

Typically, customers only get the "add_topic_pm" permission and freelancer "add_topic_noncli". However, these permission are configurable, so that they can be adapted to less rigid environments.

Permissions on Discussion Threads

Forum discussions can form threads when people reply to an initial topic. In this case all permissions and notifications are inherited from the topmost partent topic.

Notifications

The forum package allows to notify other users for every update or creation of a new reply.

Forum Fields

• Owner (creator/ client)
• Responsible (responsible for overall resolution)
• Asignee (resolving partial aspects)
• Priority
• Due date
• % Completed
• Owner requires update reports (all, major, none)
• Privacy Scope (private, project, public)

References

Related Object Types

• Forum Topic Object Type

Tutorials

• Forum User Guide 

Package Documentation

Procedure Files

tcl/intranet-backup-procs.tcl		Definitions for the intranet module
tcl/intranet-forum-procs.tcl		The intranet forum provides a unified aprearance of Tasks, Incidents, News & Discussions (TIND)

Procedures

im_forum_component		Creates a HTML table showing a table of "Discussion Topics" of various types.
im_forum_create_bar		Returns rendered HTML table with icons for creating new forum elements
im_forum_full_screen_component		Creates a HTML table with the threaded discussions used for tickets
im_forum_handle_options		Dispatch request to the proper service contract implmentation
im_forum_handle_options1		Handle AJAX CORS "pre-flight" request for headers.
im_forum_is_task_or_incident		Returns 1 if it's a "Task" or "Incident"
im_forum_navbar		Returns rendered HTML code for a horizontal sub-navigation bar for /intranet-forum/.
im_forum_notification_select		Return a formatted HTML select box with the notification options for a im_forum_topic.
im_forum_potential_asignees		Return a key-value list of all persons to whom the current user may assign his task or issue.
im_forum_render_thread		Returns a formatted HTML representing the child postings of the specified topic.
im_forum_render_tind		Render the rows of a single TIND
im_forum_scope_html		Returns a formatted HTML "scope"
im_forum_scope_select		Returns a formatted HTML "scope" select, according to user permissions.
im_forum_topic_alert_user		Returns 1/0 to indicate whether the specific user wants to be informed about a specific event
im_forum_topic_status_select		Returns an html select box named $select_name and defaulted to $default with a list of all stati for Tasks and Incidents
im_forum_topic_type_select		Returns an html select box named $select_name and defaulted to $default with a list of all topic types (task, incident, news, ...)
im_import_forum_topics		Import the forum_topics file
im_package_forum_id		Returns the package id of the intranet-forum module
im_topic_status_id_accepted
im_topic_status_id_assigned
im_topic_status_id_closed
im_topic_status_id_needs_clarify
im_topic_status_id_open
im_topic_status_id_rejected
im_topic_type_id_discussion
im_topic_type_id_incident
im_topic_type_id_reply
im_topic_type_id_task

SQL Files

sql/common/intranet-forum-common.sql
sql/postgresql/intranet-forum-create.sql
sql/postgresql/intranet-forum-drop.sql
sql/postgresql/upgrade/upgrade-5.0.0.0.4-5.0.0.0.5.sql
sql/postgresql/upgrade/upgrade-5.0.2.3.5-5.0.2.3.6.sql

Content Pages