Support Forum

Moving posts to another (existing) topic, splitting topics

NV nv1962
nv1962
Member

Within a thread (topic) posts can already be moved to a different forum: that's handy if a post raising a particular issue needs to be moved to a more appropriate forum.

However, it'd be really neat if another type of “topic shaping” could be implemented: by allowing posts within a topic to be moved to a different, already existing thread / topic.

That's handy, for example, when someone inadvertently (incorrectly) opens a new topic with a post (eliciting subsequent responses) that really should have been added to an already existing one. There's presently – to my knowledge – no way to “fix” that, other than simply locking the new one (and perhaps manually adding an advisement to continue replying in the “old” topic).

Just an idea. Smile

PS: I'd let either the post date/time decide where exactly in the existing topic the moved post would go, i.e. in the event someone added replies to the existing ones, so that the posts are in chronological order, or simply put them in the old topic in the place corresponding to the time of the edit, i.e. to avoid “interjecting” within an existing exchange. Both (either one) of these approaches would work fine for me.

Um… If it turns out that it's already possible to move a post to a different topic… Um, my apologies; I simply couldn't find that.

30 Answers

New Answer

MP Mr Papa
Mr Papa
Member

as you have indicated, you can either move the entire topic to another forum or pick a post and move it to a new thread… but you cannot split the topic… we have it on our to do list and will be adding it in a future release

MP Mr Papa
Mr Papa
Member

np… unsure yet about 4.1 as its not too far from feature freeze, but who knows…

MY My
My
Member

Just wanted to add myself to the request list for this one 🙂

JI jim
jim
Member

Glad to see this is on the list! Any chance this made it into 4.1?

YS Yellow Swordfish
Yellow Swordfish
Member

Afraid not. But lots of other good stuff did.

CC ccc
ccc
Member

Splitting topics is also my biggest wish, maybe for 4.2?? 🙂

YS Yellow Swordfish
Yellow Swordfish
Member

Afraid it didn’t make 4.2 but it is still on the roadmap.
Sorry!

UN
Unknown
Member

Please add me in the list of people eagerly waiting for this feature to be implemented.

 

Also since it’s not going to make in 4.2 release as well can I get some kind of guidance here if I want to implement it on my own may be using sf-hook-template.php.

MP Mr Papa
Mr Papa
Member

its on the list (as you mentioned)… 4.3 will be tough since its primarily a wp 3.0 compatibility release, but we shall see..

I dont believe there is a way to use the hooks to do this…

best bet would be to do it the db itself or write another script/plugin…

UN
Unknown
Member

Thanks a lot for your quick reply Mr Papa.

 

Alright writing a plugin to SPF might not be a bad idea. Although I don’t know at present the structure of SPF plugins. Is there an example somewhere in downloaded files?

 

I have taken a look at wp_sf tables and looks like it is quite doable (at least in theory).

 

Here is how I am thinking of doing it.

  1. Through sf-hook-template.php at the top of every post provide a link “Move this post to another topic” if current user is admin (not sure if I can check current user’s access level in hooks file though).
  2. Display a separate form (if current user has admin access) with 2 drop-downs: Forums and Topics
  3. Topic drop-down will be populated based on selected Forum from drop-down 1
  4. Once admin selects a Forum and Topic and clicks on Confirm button concerned post will be moved through a SQL query. In SQL I believe I just need to update topic_id field of a post row in wp_sfposts table.

Regards.

MP Mr Papa
Mr Papa
Member

the mechanics are not hard. in fact, andy and I were just discussing it…

so you only want to move a single post to new topic? we are discussing two options: moving post to new topic or moving post and all posts that follow to new topic…

you will need to update both the topic and the post involved.

UN
Unknown
Member

Right now I just want to move a single topic to an existing topic.

 

Thanks.