WordPress plugin feature request!
Forgive me if this is not the right venue to make suggestions! But it would be fabulous if two seemingly simple options/features were added.
First, instead of showing the comment form ( and forum comments ) under a wordpress post, it would be great to just have add a straightforward link to that forum thread, instead, after the post.
Second, would it be possible to make it so Wordpress immediately creates the thread in the forums when a post is published in Wordpress? As it is, someone has to comment at the wordpress side in order for the Vanilla discussion to generate.
I figure these two features go hand-in-hand -- the first requires the second (as it would mean there's no commenting form on the wordpress side, just the link to go to a forum thread that would have to exist)
Comments
You are basically asking for a different product. If you are linking to discussion, there is no embedding involved.
If I were making this plugin I would do it a totally different way that is is currently done.
grep is your friend.
The idea of the WordPress plugin is that it makes it super simple to use our generic Vanilla Comments widget, which works on any webpage, anywhere. While I agree your suggestions would create a tighter integration, it's at odds with the whole architecture, as @x00 points out. It would be a total rewrite for a WordPress-specific integration, which also would increase our support overhead.
I've experimented with tighter WordPress integration in my Glue plugins, but that does more than what you're looking for. Theoretically that functionality could be spun off as a separate plugin, tho.
Me personally I would do it with the Vanilla API, or light entry point Vanilla API, and use wordpress hooks. I think using an API is more satisfactory, than scraping, but understand why it was done this way at the time. I think push rather than pull is the way to go.
grep is your friend.
Thank you, @x00 and @Linc!
So the better bet would be to make a new plugin for Wordpress that uses the Vanilla API to create a discussion thread when posting in Wordpress? As in, wordpress pushes to vanilla (and the only thing it needs to get back from it is the URL of the created thread)
That is how I would do it.
grep is your friend.
It looks like there's no API on the open source release of 2.1 -- I would have to switch to 2.2 and Kasper's API application, is that right? ( https://github.com/kasperisager/vanilla-api )
For something as simple as this (just create a discussion and return its URL) I guess a little standalone shim script in a wordpress plugin, hitting a vanilla database directly, might be a better bet?
You need to create a secure entry point.
grep is your friend.
What about creating a cron job?
Creating a cron job defeats the point of a push based system. Cron job relate to pull based systems. You could do a pull based system by force loading the frameworks, it is middleware though, not an integral solution.
I wouldn't enter directly into to the database, becuase you would not update counts, do any prepossessing and whatever else is related to posts. You would need to make use of the models, and create at entry point using the framework.
Not everything can be done without programming knowledge. If you are going to do it you need to do it is a safe/sane way.
grep is your friend.
I think this is likely beyond me. Perhaps we can pay someone to make what we need.