Extension:LiquidThreads

User documentation
To activate LiquidThreads on a specific page on a wiki where LiquidThreads is opt-in, add the following to the page's source code:

. To deactivate LiquidThreads on a specific page on a wiki where LiquidThreads is opt-out add the following to the page's source code:


 *  and
 *  page.

Comprehensive user documentation will be developed when LiquidThreads has a finalised (or remotely stable) interface.

Rationale
Wiki discussion pages have some advantages over web and Usenet forums: But web forums offer many more advantages over the MediaWiki talk page model: LiquidThreads aims to unite the advantages of both forum types, and to add some unique discussion features to boot.
 * They allow use of the entire wiki syntax, from images to links to transclusions.
 * It is possible to refactor entire discussion pages.
 * Threads can be displayed in different views: flat, nested, sorted by date, subject, etc.
 * The user only needs to click a "Reply" button or link in order to respond to a comment. Manual indentation is not required. Quotations from the source comment can be inserted automatically.
 * Comments are automatically signed and dated.
 * Avatars are possible (but not yet created).
 * The user can watch individual threads or be notified about responses in threads.
 * Comments and threads can be displayed individually, without the surrounding page.
 * Old comments are archived automatically and invisibly, with permanent links easily available.
 * Search for author, subject, date, etc. is possible
 * Individual threads can have categories.
 * It is relatively easy to manage related discussions in a subject-specific forum, whereas MediaWiki talk pages always follow the "one discussion page per subject page" model.
 * There can be restrictions on which users can edit other users' posts.

Installation
Prerequisites: LiquidThreads currently requires the WikiEditor extension to be already installed. See task 38654. To be able to properly search threads, must also be installed from Wikimedia's operations/debs/lucene-search-2.git repository.

Some individuals may not have command prompt access. However, if you have access through phpMyAdmin, substitute these steps for step #4 above:
 * Installing without command prompt access


 * 1) Download lqt.sql.
 * 2) In phpMyAdmin, click the database you're using for mediawiki along the left side
 * 3) On the next screen, click the "SQL" tab at the top.
 * 4) At "Location of the text file", choose one of the files, select compression "None", and click the bottom "Go" button.
 * If your phpMyAdmin screen has only a text field and no text file chooser, click the "SQL" button in the left-side column, under the phpMyAdmin logo, and click the "import files" tab in the new window that opens.
 * If you encounter the error message, abbreviate line 35 of lqt.sql to   (in other words, remove  ). Remove the new tables and import the file again.
 * If your database uses table prefixes, you have to add them manually. You can do so after the new tables have been created.

Configuration
This is the default configuration of the extension. You can override such values in LocalSettings.php:

API
API documentation