Discussion Forum Doc

Introduction

To make discussion within a context and every logged in user can be participated.

Architecture Diagram

Hierarchy of discussions

The below diagram explains the category & topics created for a Course & Batch. The same can be used for any other types like Group, Quiz, etc.

Category → It is like a container( can hold Sub-containers, Topics)

Topic → This will be always added to the container(Category, Sub-Category). This is a discussion topic/thread created within the category. Users can participate in the topic/discussion.

Post → This will be always added to the Topic. This is the user response/reply given for the discussion topic/thread. The user is participating in the topic by posting.

Tech Stack

Nodebb

NodeBB is an open source project which can be forked on GitHub (Link). It have plugin support. We can create new plugins for our requirement and link to nodebb.

How to setup nodebb in local environment

Step:1

Clone the nodebb repo

git clone -b v1.18.x https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git nodebb

Step:2

Navigate to nodebb folder and do setup of nodebb using below command

./nodebb setup

While running the setup, nodebb will ask below question for initial setup.

>> URL used to access this NodeBB (http://localhost:4567) : Press Enter 
>> Please enter a NodeBB secret (44abfc50-3d6a-4e6c-a258-9f551f9faa5a) : Press Enter 
>> Would you like to submit anonymous plugin usage to nbbpm? (yes) : Press Enter 
>> Which database to use (mongo) : redis

Now configuring redis database:
>> Host IP or address of your Redis instance (127.0.0.1) : Press Enter 
>> Host port of your Redis instance (6379) : Press Enter 
>> Password of your Redis database : Press Enter 
>> Which database to use (0..n) (0) : 3 (redis db number)

Admin User details
>> Administrator username : admin 
>> Administrator email address : admin@test.com
>> Password : Your password
>> Confirm Password : Your password

Step:3

Now start the nodebb, Using below command.

./nodebb start

Step:4

Build the nodebb using the below command.

./nodebb build

Step:5

Open the browser with fallowing link http://localhost:4567

Use full commands

./nodebb log -> To see the logs
./nodebb status -> To check is nodebb running or not
./nodebb activate plugin-name -> To activate the plugin
./nodebb reset -p plugin-name -> To reset/disable the plugin
./nodebb stop -> To stop nodebb

Mandatory Plugins

We have built our own plugins based on our need. We need to enable those plugins.

Activating Plugins

In this plugins, We added our own apis. Like User login, Enable discussion, read discussion context, disable discussion, user read based on sunbird id …. etc.

To activate plugin. Use below command.

a. Using repo as a npm module.

npm install https://github.com/Sunbird-Ed/nodebb-plugin-sunbird-api.git
./nodebb activate nodebb-plugin-create-forum

b. Using from local

• clone the repo https://github.com/Sunbird-Ed/nodebb-plugin-sunbird-api.git`

• Execute command npm install

• Execute command npm link

• Go to nodebb terminal and execute command npm link nodebb-plugin-create-forum

• Execute command ./nodebb activate nodebb-plugin-create-forum

• And execute command ./nodebb build

Do the same thing for other plugin.

Write api plugin

This in an important plugin, By using this we can do all write operation in nodebb. Like create category/topic/post, updating topic/post, delete topic/post…..etc.

Install nodebb-plugin-write-api

1. Login to nodebb as a admin user.

2. Go to admin pannel.

3. Go to EXTEND => PLUGINS => FIND PLUGINS

4. Search for nodebb-plugin-write-api

5. Click on Install

6. Rebuild and restart nodebb.

7. Reload the admin panel.

8. Go to EXTEND => PLUGINS => INSTALLED

9. Search for nodebb-plugin-write-api

10. Click on Activate

11. Rebuild and restart nodebb.

What is Master token

To perform any write operations in nodebb we need write api plugin. And this plugin provides apis to do those write operations but If you want to use this apis we have to pass a master token (in request headers as Authorization token) and nodebb user id(add _uid as query param or with in request body ).

How to create master

1. Login to nodebb as a admin user.

2. Go to admin pannel.

3. Go to PLUGINS => WRITE API

4. Left side panel you can see MASTER TOKENS Section.

5. Click on CREATE TOKEN

Refer this link also: Nodebb Plugins

Discussion Middleware Setup

Step:1

Clone the discussion middleware repo from https://github.com/Sunbird-Ed/discussions-middleware.git

Step:2

Execute npm install command.

Step:3

add the environment variable in environmentHelper.js file.

let localEnvVariables = {
    NODEBB_SERVICE_URL: env.nodebb_service_url || 'http://localhost:4567', 
    Authorization:  env.authorization_token || 'd8402b15-1d5f-4d84-9fae-595ef805f287', // Your local nodebb Master token
    nodebb_api_slug: env.nodebb_api_slug || '/api'
}

Step:4

Run the discussion middleware using the command npm run start. Discussion-middleware will run on port 3002.

Discussion-UI setup along with demo application.

Step:1

Clone the discussion-ui repo from https://github.com/Sunbird-Ed/discussions-UI.git.

Step:2

Execute npm install command.

Step:3

Change the host in urlconfig.json file. Add below url.

host: 'http://localhost:3002'

Step:4

Build the discussion-ui library using npm run build-lib. This will generate a dist file along with assets. For every change in discussion-ui library you have to run build command.

Step:5

Run the demo application using the command npm run demo. This is a simple angular application which is used to test df-library in local.

Nodebb api documentation

We can see all discussion forum api here : Discussion forum apis