Understanding DiscussionProvider

The Discussions channel is based on the DiscussionProvider, similar to the search channel’s JavaServer Pages^TM (JSP^TM) files. The discussion channel has a query portion and a display portion, and uses Desktop themes.

The DiscussionProvider:

• Uses the Desktop themes

• Is based on JSP technology

• Retrieves data from the back-end Search service using search tag libraries and API

Discussions and comments are stored as different Resource Descriptors (RDs) in the discussion database. The DiscussionProvider supports:

• A full view (using the Discussions channel) and an abbreviated view (using the DiscussionLite channel) that:

• Starts a new discussion from the discussion channel

• Posts replies to an existing discussion

• Starts a new discussion based on web documents from the search channel

• A Discussion List that:

  • Retrieves main posts sorted by last-modified date

  • Has pagination so users can access older discussion

• A discussion view that displays each discussion subtree. The main item is displayed in detail and the subtree is displayed below the main item. View discussion includes:

  • Several filters on the page. A document display can be based on filters such as document rating (irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read).

  • Display preference can be set to threaded or flat display.

  • Expansion threshold to help control displayed items in the subtree. The users can choose to expand only highly rated documents, or expand all or collapse all. Default value is collapse all. Expand all displays all the filtered comments, shows a description of the discussion, provides a menu for rating the discussion, and allows the user to post a reply.

  • Support to search within a discussion. The user also has the option to set these preferences through the channel edit page.

• Commenting and rating a discussion. For example, users can:

  • Add a comment on an existing discussion.

  • Rate all discussions and comments. User rating is not immediately visible. The rating calculation is based on an algorithm, and the rating for any comment goes up gradually. For example, a comment must be rated important three times before it is marked as important.

  • Searching all discussions and within a discussion. These functions are routed to the search provider. Users can also search by rating in Advance Search.

  • Subscriptions. Authenticated users can choose to subscribe to a particular discussion by selecting the subscribe link. The request is handled by the SubscriptionProvider.