There are two use cases for Synapse Discussion Forum:
- A discussion forum for each project where collaborators can share thoughts and comments.
- A Synapse Q&A forum where Synapse technical support answers general questions about Synapse.
In this document, we show the design of the first use case and state the differences for the second use case.
Permissions
Any user with project's Can Read permission will be able to read comments.
Any user with project's Can Comment permission will be able to create a new thread and comments on other's thread. These users can edit their comments, add and remove tags from threads they created.
Any project Admin, in addition to above actions, can also remove threads, comments, and tags in the project. They can also pin a thread so that it appears before other threads.
UI Mockup
Empty Discussion - Can Read
Users who have Read permission to a project will see this if the project does not have any discussion yet.
Empty Discussion - Can Comment
Users with Comment permission will be able to create a new topic or a new question in the discussion tab. The difference between a topic and a Q&A is that users can vote for an answer in a Q&A. Answers will be ordered by number of votes.
Discussion - Can Read
Users with Read permission will see something similar to this. They are not able to write comments yet but can request Comment permission.
When they click on the expand icon on the bottom right of the topic, they can read more about the comments.
Discussion - Can Comment
This is Kim's view. Since she is the owner of the topic, she will be able to edit her comment.
For users with Comment permission, the expand view will give them the choice to write their comment to the topic they are viewing.
Discussion - Admin View
Admin can enter Admin Mode. In the Admin Mode, the admin can choose topic(s) and comment(s) to perform actions to.
For a topic, the admin can add/remove tags, delete topic, and pin/unpin topic. When a topic is pinned, it appears on top of the discussion board. When it is unpinned, it will be order chronologically.
For a comment, the admin can delete it.
When the admin finishes moderating, he/she can exit the Admin Mode to see how the discussion look with the changes that he/she made.
Topic with answers - Can Read
For a topic, comments will be paginated and appear in the order they are written. Users can click Load more to read more comments.
Q&A with answers - Can Read
For Q&A, comments will be paginated and ordered by number of votes it received.
Users with Read permission cannot vote. Users with Comment permission can vote.
New Topic Editor
When user clicks on New Topic or New Q&A, this widget will pop up.
To add a tag to the topic, author can simply write #<tag> in the comment body, or use the look up tool to look for existing tags in the project.
Users can press Enter or click Add to add a tag from the look up tool to their topic.
New Comment
