Making WordPress.org

Opened 18 months ago

Last modified 18 months ago

#6525 new enhancement

Add context to support forum topic URI

Reported by: starbuck's profile Starbuck Owned by:
Milestone: Priority: normal
Component: Support Forums Keywords:
Cc:

Description

Problem: We cannot identify the context of a support post until we open it.

Example 1 - Context for Plugin Support

Live random example of problem:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/many-to-many-relationship-help-please/
Challenge: Guess whether that's related to core, ACF, MetaBox, or some other plugin.
Open the link to see:
"Support » Plugin: WP Data Access » Many To Many Relationship (Help, please)"

Suggestion 1: Add the plugin slug to the links of all plugin support topic URIs.

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/name/slug
Redirect if required to the current https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slug
If the URI matches support\/plugin\/(.*)\/(.*)$ rewrite to support/topic/$2.

Example 2 - Context for Core Forums

Live random example of problem:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-establishing-a-database-connection-1035/
Challenge: Of the 1035 examples of that slug, what is the context of this discussion? Is it about a plugin? Core? What aspect of core?
Open the link to see:
"Support » Installing WordPress » Error establishing a database connection"
If it seemed obvious that this was about core, consider:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-establishing-a-database-connection-1034/
That's a request with the exact same topic name that leads to a plugin:
"Support » Plugin: Page Builder by SiteOrigin » Error establishing a database connection"

Suggestion 2: Add the label "forum" and the section to the URI.

Existing forum link for the above thread:
https://wordpress.org/support/forum/installation/
New thread link:
https://wordpress.org/support/forum/installation/error-establishing-a-database-connection-1035/
Now it's obvious that this discussion applies to core and not a plugin, which can eliminate page loads of data that's not relevant to current research.
To implement:
Rewrite support\/forum\/(.*)\/(.*)$ to support/topic/$2.

Example 3 - Context for Theme Forums

Live random example of problem:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-padding-7/
Challenge: Of the 7 examples of that slug, what is the context of this discussion? Is it about a plugin? Core? What aspect of core? A theme?
Open the link to see:
"Support » Theme: Twenty Twenty-Two » Remove Padding"
The other six requests with the exact same topic name lead to other themes and plugins.

Suggestion 3: Add the label "theme" and the theme name to the URI.

Existing forum link for the above thread:
https://wordpress.org/support/theme/twentytwentytwo/
New thread link:
https://wordpress.org/support/theme/twentytwentytwo/remove-padding-7/
Now it's obvious that this discussion applies to a specific theme.
To implement:
Rewrite support\/theme\/(.*)\/(.*)$ to support/topic/$2.

Combining the suggestions

Rewrite support\/(forum|plugin|theme)\/(.*)\/(.*)$ to support/topic/$2.

Currently all links matching that pattern lead to a 404.

Notes

Anchor links in URIs must not be broken - the dollar-sign $ terminator in the regex above might not be valid.
Example: support/plugin/name/slug#anchor
Modify rewrite with something like:
support\/(forum|plugin|theme)\/(.*)\/(.*)(|#(.*))$ > support/topic/$2$4

Implementation requires changes in many places on this site to insert more metadata into links.

Consider adding a user profile toggle to allow opt-in for new functionality. This can also be used to facilitate debugging before full production.

The suggested implementation details are secondary and only intended to be helpful. The primary request is to solve the problem where we have no context with "support/topic/slug".
Another implementation, perhaps easier though less elegant, might be to display links with a querystring, based on a user profile opt-in toggle. Example:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slug?context=forum+installation
or
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slug?context=theme+twentytwentytwo
or:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slug?forum=installation
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slug?theme=twentytwentytwo
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slug?plugin=akismet
Again, the query string isn't intended to influence processing, it's there for human consumption. This querystring solution won't help with wp.org SEO. I'm thinking more context in the URI path would help with searches on wp.org and from outside.

Change History (4)

#1 @Otto42
18 months ago

#6526 was marked as a duplicate.

#2 @dd32
18 months ago

See #6079 for discussion related to adding the Forum (or Plugin/Theme name) to the URL for topics

#3 @Starbuck
18 months ago

#6526 is not a duplicate. It's a carefully crafted ticket that explicitly describes a different problem.

RE #6079, I would accept that this could be a dupe, though perhaps a more extensively documented one. :)

I missed that ticket and might have added this as a +1 to that.
I request that this remain open as an enhancement request. 6079 is currently marked as a defect, and I disagree with that assessment. I wouldn't want this ticket flagged as dupe and then closed because That ticket isn't tagged appropriately. Let's see how both of these go, just in case, and I'll be happy to close this if that one gets moved into a milestone.

Thoughts?
TY!

This ticket was mentioned in Slack in #forums by dd32. View the logs.


18 months ago

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