Although you’re likely already familiar with what a modern forum can do, here’s a sampling of what users and administrators can do with Liferay DXP’s Message Boards app.
Users can:
- Start and reply to threads
- Mark a thread as a question and select an answer from the replies.
- Subscribe to threads
- Author posts in BBCode or with the standard WYSIWYG editor
- Assign thread priority (e.g., sticky, announcement, etc.)
- Attach files to a thread
- Rate a thread (e.g., like/dislike)
- And more
Administrators can:
- Organize threads into categories and subcategories
- Scope a message board to a page, a Site, or the entire portal.
- Publish threads via RSS
- Rank users by the number of messages they post and assign labels to these rankings (e.g., novice, legend, etc.)
- Create and modify thread priorities (e.g., sticky, announcement, etc.)
- Configure email notifications for thread activity
- And more
As you can see, there’s something for everyone!
The Message Boards app also integrates with the rest of Liferay DXP’s features. In many web sites, it’s obvious that there’s no link between the main Site and the message boards. In some cases, users are even required to register twice: once for the main Site and once for the message boards. Sometimes it’s even three times: once for the Site, once for the message boards, and once for the shopping cart. By providing a message boards app along with all of the other apps and widgets, Liferay DXP provides a unique, integrated approach to building Sites. Administrators can concentrate on building their Site while the integration work is done for them.
Figure 1: The Message Boards widget lets you explore its categories, interact with message threads, and post new messages.
Figure 2: A thread's view displays author information and thread content, for the thread and all replies to the thread.