How about rewriting the module to integrate into the audience targetting system (ATS) ?

It will work as follows, and please keep in mind that I don't program :).

  • When the module is activated, it will include the node type forum in the OG ATS. Not forgetting to remove it from the list in the OG administration so it cannot be manually removed from the ATS.
  • When a forum topic that is within a group's forum is created/edited, The audience checkboxes do not appear, and the relevant group is selected. The "public" checkbox also does not appear - group administrator can set whether the group's forums are public/private globally (as for individual topics/forums/containers, that sounds like step two).
  • I'd also make a way to not allow a group's forum or forum topic to be moved outside of it's group's container/forum.

This integration with the ATS gives the following advantages:

  • Integration into views is already there
  • Solves the issue of making forums public/private.

Comments

rconstantine’s picture

rconstantine commented

Uh, perhaps you're not aware that you can already use ATS with forum topics. It's just another content type and is in the general listings of that portion of the ATS settings. As it stands now, you can show/hide the audience selection checkboxes from the form. Showing and hiding the public checkbox is tied to that same setting. Also in the regular ATS settings is the ability to use ATS with the selected content types but hide the form so that the audience is automatically set to the current group. This is all here: admin/og/og under "Node authoring form".

This is all standard behavior and works now. So I'm not sure what you want to add to it.

The other feature request regarding making forums public has to do with bridging the gap between public nodes and being able to browse to the node (through the forums) without knowing the URL. Currently, marking a post as public only allows non-members to view the node if they arrive by means other than browsing the forums. This is what I will be adding in the near future, the ability to make forums publicly browse-able. Setting nodes as public or private will still be done in the regular ATS way unless there proves to be a problem with it.

So I'm marking this as a duplicate of the public forums request.

rconstantine’s picture

rconstantine commented
Status: Active » Closed (duplicate)
mightyiam’s picture

mightyiam commented

While the option to hide the audience checkboxes exists, group administrators always see the checkboxes. This is not wanted.

Also, this option is global for all content types, so if I wanted the checkboxes available for some, they would be available for the forums also, and that is not wanted because users can make a mess.

Thus, the integration with the ATS should be, as you programmers say, hard-coded. Just like I have explained.