Convert Thread(s) to Showcase

As per thread title, Admins and Moderators that have the FORUM MODERATOR PERMISSION 'Showcase: Convert Thread to Showcase' can now convert a discussion thread into a Showcase Item. This can be done via Thread Tools or Inline Moderation for Bulk converting.

As mentioned, the PERMISSION is under the Forum Moderator Permissions, not under showcase permissions. The reason for this is so you can set this permission on a NODE by NODE basis (via Node Permissions).




For Converting an individual thread to a showcase item, there is an option in the Thread Tools dropdown "Convert Thread to Showcase". This option is only available IF the Thread can be converted.

The Convert process creates a new showcase item with the Data within the First Post of the thread (Message Content and Attachments). As you can see here, there are 2 IMAGE attachments (only images get converted).



Clicking on the "Convert Thread to Showcase will then launch an overlay in which you need to select a Showcase Category to create the Item in.

NOTE: If the existing Thread is associated with a POLL, there will be a WARNING alerting you to this. In this example, the existing thread is associated to a Poll. You can STILL convert, however, the poll will lose its association with the thread.




Once the conversion is complete, you will be taken to the new Showcase Item. As you can see here, the Showcase Item's title is the Thread Title, the date is the date the thread was created. The 2 image attachments were converted over and rebuilt to showcase thumbnail specifications and the thread is now associated with the Showcase Item.


Here you can see that the Thread is now associated with the Showcase Item and that the first post was converted to the standard first post message that is created for Auto Created Showcase Threads



As mentioned, you can also BULK Convert several threads to showcase at once via the inline-moderation function. As you can see here, I've selected 8 threads for conversion, however, 3 of them are already associated with Showcase Items (as identified by the new "Showcase" banner on the thread list). We obviously can't convert a thread that is already associated with a showcase item, so lets see what happens when we try...



As you can see, the overlay pops up just like in the single action. You select a category to convert the threads into. However, there is a "Can not convert" area. This will list any threads you have marked to convert that can not be converted. Only threads that do not have a discussion_type set or are associated with a Poll can be converted. The discussion_type is displayed in case the thread listing does not clearly display that the thread is associated with a specific discussion_type.



If none selected threads can not be converted, the system will throw an error telling you that.

 

Each Category has an option to auto create a thread in a specific forum. You need to set this for each category or no discussion thread will be created.





NOTE: If you have Existing Showcase Items without a thread, you can manually create a new thread and edit the showcase item and add the THREAD ID to the showcase Item to associate them together.

 

Let me know how it works out for you. I converted a lot (over 1000)

 

no, it only uses any attachments that are part of the first post. Showcase doesn't have any architecture to handle scraping of images and uploading them from a remote source. I may look into that when XF 2.x comes out.