Question TreeK. Tree-Shell for Kunena Forum

Epigraphs.

This application became possible thanks to the presence of the "Reply" button in every Kunena post.

«Мы не можем ждать милостей от природы. Взять их у нее – наша задача».
                                                                                                        Иван Мичурин:

This work is dedicated to:
- the popular science forum "Consilium", which ceased to exist because of the high cost of a forum engine with tree structure;
- the Kunena developers, who have created and maintained this enormous system for at least 17 years, which is how long I have been using this forum on my two sites.

***
The question of using a tree structure in Kunena has been raised many times on this forum, including by me.

However, the problems of a post tree structure were deeper than the necessary algorithms and could not be solved without several serious changes in the Kunena interface. For example, a tree in which every row says the same kind of thing, "user replied to topic title", where only the user name is informative, does not make using a tree structure very attractive. 

 

And the fact that any forum participant can accidentally or intentionally rename the whole topic simply by writing anything in the subject of a reply to any post removes the question from discussion altogether.

***
This publication uses terminology generally accepted when discussing trees:
- child - a post created as a reply to another post or to the topic;
- parent - the post that was replied to.

 

The post tree is formed by the TreeK algorithm, which I specially developed and first used when creating the Topic to Article component for Kunena.
The theory of working with posts and the tree-building algorithm is a very interesting subject, but we will not dwell on it here.

The idea of TreeK is to use Kunena as the foundation, while adding on top of it the ability to see the logical, tree-like structure of the topic posts. This add-on is TreeK itself.

At the same time, Kunena remains fully available: topic creation, replies in a topic and to a post, post editing, administration, and so on.

The link between the foundation and the add-on is very simple: Kunena ⇄ TreeK.
The upper arrow in the ⇄ symbol means going to the tree.

From this point on, we will assume that Kunena and TreeK are installed in Joomla.

The number of replies in a topic (Replies) on the Recent Topics tab is clickable if it is greater than 0. 

 

Clicking this number opens the modal window of the post tree.
Another way to go from Kunena to the tree is to click the 🌳 symbol, which TreeK adds to all topic posts (screenshot).
Going from the tree back to Kunena is done by closing the tree window or by clicking the subject of the desired post in the tree.
  Отказ от ответственности.
1. Английский не является родным языком автора. Прошу прощения за неясные формулировки.
2. Изначально в данную публикацию вошли размышления о причинах, целях и философии разработки TreeK, теоретических и практических проблемах работы с древовидными структурами и даже о ситуации на рынке форумов с древовидной структурой. В целях экономии времени читателей форума данный материал был удален. Однако некоторые аспекты, например теоретические, могу опубликовать отдельно, если кому-то интересно. 

TreeK: a brief description
(Links to detailed instructions for working with the post tree and the modified Kunena interface are given below.)

The topic is presented in the window as a tree according to the following rules:
- each post is displayed as one row containing the post subject and, optionally, the author's name, creation time, and post index.
Additional useful information may be placed in and under the post row, for example symbols that help navigate the tree.

The latest post in the topic by creation time is shown in bold in the tree.

The way the tree is displayed is determined by the tree view settings. When the settings are changed, the tree view changes instantly. Registered users of the site can save individual tree display settings and, if desired, restore them in another session and even for other topics.

Since the "level" of each post is known (the distance from the root of the tree, a term explained in the theoretical part), this level is graphically expressed by the length of the indent from the left edge of the window. Literally, the indent of the post row from the left edge equals the "indent size" multiplied by the post level. There is also a setting that adds a grid to the window to show the tree structure more clearly.

The 💬 symbol, when hovered over, shows the beginning of the post text as a tooltip. All other TreeK buttons and symbols also have explanatory tooltips.

 

You can choose what is shown at the beginning of the post row in the tree: the post subject followed by the author, the author followed by the subject, or only the subject.

The display of the date and time, as well as the post index, can be enabled or disabled.

TreeK has important options for showing post excerpts. The "text excerpt" setting displays a text fragment from the beginning of the post under the first post row, with a specified number of characters. The "screenshot excerpt" setting shows a fragment from the beginning of the post under the first post row as a screenshot with a specified height in pixels.

 

Additional symbols can be enabled in tree rows to help users navigate the tree more quickly.

TreeK can copy the topic tree to the clipboard in three export formats: BBCode, HTML (where subjects contain links to the posts of the exported tree), and Text.

Many users can work with the same topic at the same time, especially shortly after the topic is created. Working with a topic means simply reading its posts, replying to existing posts or editing them, studying the tree, and so on.
If a post is added to the topic while a user is working with the TreeK tree, an information message about this appears over the tree window no later than within one minute.

***
TreeK is based on the standard packages of the Kunena forum and the Aurelia template, but it changes some of their files and also connects a number of its own files, including language files that provide TreeK localization. These modified and additional files and their functions are combined in the TreekView part of the Treek package.

The interface changes required for working with topic post trees provide:
- freedom to assign post subjects and fixation of the topic title;
- clickability of the number of replies in a topic on the Recent Topics tab and of the 🌳 button in topic posts.

The other additions and changes in TreekView are not mandatory, but from the developer's point of view they make working with the forum a little faster.
(The developer could not resist implementing some of his own views on this matter, since he had to study the Kunena code in depth anyway.)

For example, the following features have been added.
The topic title is now protected: it is set once when the first post is created and never changes from the frontend. (And if a user really made a tragic mistake in the topic title and wrote "My Best Tupic" instead of "My Best Topic" in the first post, the kind site administrator and the database are always nearby.)

The reply form has been slightly changed. In particular, the subject field name Thema has been replaced with Subject, because it should describe the idea of this reply. The reply form title has been made understandable and shows whose post, and exactly which post, the user is replying to.

The subject of every reply now begins with an up arrow (⇑). This is a link to the parent post. Clicking ⇑ takes the user to the post that was replied to.

Instead of words requiring localization, such as "replied to", TreekView uses a simple, understandable, and quickly learned system of arrows listed below. Clickable arrows are buttons because they trigger certain actions. Arrows may be visible in reply forms (Reply and Quick Reply) and in post subjects.

As mentioned above, the subject of the post being created can be arbitrary text. But to speed up work with the forum, the concept of a suffix has been introduced.

Suffixes
When replying to a message, special text related to the subject of the parent post can be added to the reply subject.
In TreekView, this special text is called a suffix. Suffixes help automatically preserve the link between the reply subject and the parent post subject, and make the topic easier to read because they help show which post was replied to.

The use of suffixes looks as follows.
When the reply form is opened, information about the parent post subject is automatically added to the subject field in the form "⇒ Parent subject" (the "⇒" arrow is a replacement for "Reply to").

 

If the user does not add new text to the subject to clarify the meaning of the post, the suffix becomes the subject of the created post.
If new text is entered in the Subject field and the suffix is not completely removed, it becomes part of the post subject together with the new subject text.

New text is entered in the Subject field to the left of the suffix. The cursor is positioned automatically, and it is impossible to place it inside the suffix.
The suffix cannot be changed by editing. However, if the new post subject becomes so long that the combined length of the new text and the suffix exceeds the subject length set in Kunena, the end of the suffix is gradually pushed out of the line. If the user decides to shorten their text, for example by deleting the end of their text with Backspace, the pushed-out end of the suffix returns accordingly. If the suffix is partially pushed out, it is included in the post subject in shortened form.

The suffix can be removed at any time by clicking the ⇏ button located to the right of the word Subject. The ⇏ button then changes to ⇍.  Clicking ⇍ disables the addition of suffixes for the whole session.  After that, the ⇒ button appears next to the word Subject; clicking it restores the use of suffixes.
The site administrator can disable the use of suffixes entirely, although this is not recommended.

If the parent's Subject already has the form "⇒ Reply to post", the child's suffix will become "⇒ ⇒ Reply to post", with two ⇒ ⇒ arrows. These two arrows remain in suffixes regardless of which generation in a chain of posts with suffix-only subjects the given post belongs to.

The administrator can change the arrow symbols in the language file, for example replacing "⇒" with "→".

(Adding no more than two ⇒ arrows gives us a reason to discuss the theory of working with posts; and where, if not on this forum, should theory be discussed?
The situation with posts in a topic can, forgive me, be compared with the situation among people. Just as in life someone dies, and someone divorces and takes the children with them, so in a topic a post can be deleted, and some part of a topic can be moderated and moved to another topic. This leads to important consequences for the TreeK tree-building algorithm, but, as stated above, we will not go into theory here.)

Let us note a few more interface changes that, in the developer's view, make the user's work with Kunena slightly faster.

Attachments

In post creation and editing forms (screenshots), there is an Attachments block. Although it is used relatively rarely, when an attachment really needs to be inserted into or removed from a message, users still have to spend time scrolling past this block every time.
In TreekView, the Attachments block is collapsed by default. Instead of the full block, the existing word Attachments is shown, followed in parentheses by the number of attachments if there are any, and then by the expansion symbol for this block: a black filled triangle ▼. This triangle has a tooltip: "Open attachments block". Clicking ▼ opens the Attachments block, and the user sees what is currently visible in the block.
The arrow then changes to ▲, with the tooltip: "Close attachments block". Clicking ▲ collapses the block.

 


The Action menu in a post.
The developer considered the drop-down Action "menu" at the bottom of a post to be another factor slowing work down.
TreekView restores a view that once existed in Kunena, where each option - Reply, Quote, and Edit - has its own button.

Some other small interface details have also been changed, for example the reply form title has been changed from <h1> to <h5>. 

An apology for the Kunena team

I have been using Kunena for 17 years, starting with Kunena 1.0.
But only after diving into the structure of the Kunena code and database while working on the topic2article component, and now on TreeK, did I understand what enormous work the Kunena team has done and continues to do!

I want to emphasize that my interventions in the Kunena code contain not the slightest underestimation of the work done by the creators of the forum code.

There was a time when I wondered why the Kunena team did not respond to my appeals. But now, after diving into the depths of the code, I understand that the point is not the complexity of the changes (the code change is often minor), but probably the fear of breaking backward compatibility, the difficulties of coordination, and so on.

An equally important role, when the issue is not an obvious problem interfering with forum operation, is probably played by the absence of a strongly expressed need from users. For example, under my post Option " User can specify their own title for their post "  there is not a single post of support and only one Thank You. Why should developers suffer when there is no demand?

And yet Kunena, as stated on the official site, rests on a very small number of truly active developers - xillibit and a few others. As a site administrator, I long ago singled out Rich, who has saved me many times, and even added my gratitude to him in my Signature.

With such limited resources, priorities are set naturally: first compatibility with new Joomla versions (this is the main task: fail to do it, and the extension is dead), then security, then bugs involving data loss or incorrect forum operation. UI issues, especially such a subtle point as "a post subject must not override the topic title", do not break the site, so they remain in the queue.

In addition, most users who notice such things are not developers and do not suspect that things could be done differently. And developers who could fix the problem area, while not breaking anything, rarely use the forum actively and do not feel the pain. It so happened that I am both a user and a former chief developer and manager of a large project, and therefore, after retiring, I decided to intervene.

From this reasoning I want to draw the following conclusion: the Kunena team, whose work we - thousands of administrators and, through us, millions of site users - benefit from, lives with a constant sense of responsibility, under pressure and in hard work. Therefore, it deserves serious financial support. Donate to Kunena, meine Damen und Herren.

In my posts Option "User can specify their own title for their post" and "It is necessary to prohibit the possibility of changing topic", I raised questions about the effect of a custom subject in a new post on the subjects of previous posts and on the topic title as a whole. I even followed the advice given at the time: "You can always post a feature request in the appropriate category". Before this publication, I checked the current state of the issue. Both a reply to a post and a reply in a topic with custom subjects in Kunena 7.0.5 change the topic title.

I previously tried to explain to myself the lack of a solution to this issue over a long period by the fact that, in a flat scheme for displaying posts, subjects do not play a significant role. Perhaps also by the fact that the importance of real discussions on forums with many participants and posts is underestimated by developers.

As shown above, TreeK corrects the situation with post subjects and the topic title. I would be glad if the corresponding few files with the proposed changes were accepted by the Kunena team and included in the Kunena code, of course after thorough testing. Possibly, including a number of other proposed changes in Kunena would also be useful.

If my proposal is accepted, I will be proud to have made at least a small contribution to this wonderful open-source application - Kunena.

If, for some reason, these overrides are not implemented in Kunena, they will be offered as an addition to TreeK.

***

Special THANKS.

At the final stage of working on TreeK, I encountered a problem that was completely incomprehensible and far from my experience: the inability to reliably install and enable the TreeK template as the default template in Kunena. I spent a great deal of time overcoming this obstacle. A specialist in templates from 9themestore voluntarily helped me. I express my great gratitude to him!  Сайт шаблонов Kunena 9themestore.com, судя по всему, связан с экосистемой Kunena, поскольку информация о нем размещена непосредственно в разделе «Шаблоны Kunena». 

The TreeK documentation includes an Administrator's guide.
Here we will briefly present its main points.

Installation, uninstallation, localization, and maintenance of TreeK

The add-on is implemented as a package that includes an AJAX plugin for building the tree structure of a Kunena topic, the Treek template for Kunena, which is based on the Aurelia template, a number of modified Kunena files, and TreeK's own files.
TreeK is installed in the standard Joomla way, as installation of the pkg_treek.zip package.
If TreeK is installed successfully, a message shown in the screenshot is displayed in the administration panel.

 

In Extensions: Manage, three related TreeK entries appear:
- TreeK Package
- Treek - Add-on for Kunena Forum Plugin
- TreeK Kunena Integration File.

When TreeK is installed, the #__treek_user_parameters table is created in the site database to store individual user TreeK parameters, for example plugin parameters.

As indicated in the information lines of the successful installation message in the figure, the site administrator must perform two additional manual actions.
1. Enable the Treek - Add-on for Kunena Forum plugin using Joomla tools.
2. In Kunena Forum: Templates, set the Treek template as Default.

During installation, TreeK makes backup copies of the Kunena and Aurelia template files it changes, then installs its adapted files and adds the necessary language fragments.

Uninstallation is performed using Joomla tools: in Extensions: Manage, select the TreeK Package row and perform the Uninstall action.

It is important that, at the moment of removal, the Treek template is not in the "default" status; otherwise, TreeK removal is blocked (a warning message will be shown) until Kunena is switched to another template, for example Aurelia.

When TreeK is removed, it restores the original Kunena and Aurelia template files from backup copies. The settings table is also removed when the package is uninstalled. No traces of TreeK remain on the site.

TreeK uses its own package language files, the AJAX plugin language files, and small language additions to Kunena. For each language, only those fragments are added for which a corresponding language file already exists in the installed Kunena.

Before installation, it is recommended to make a backup copy of the site and database, especially if Kunena is used on a production forum.
Especially cautious administrators can test installation and uninstallation on a local server, and can also enable debugging in the plugin.

After installation, check that the TreeK plugin is enabled, the TreeK template is set as the default, the post tree opens in a topic, user settings are saved, and the reply-to-post form works correctly.

***

TreeK is designed for Joomla 6 and Kunena 7. Before this publication, it was tested on Joomla 6.1.1 and Kunena 7.0.5. It seems that TreeK also works on other Joomla 6 and Kunena 7 builds, but this has not been thoroughly tested. TreeK works on smartphones, although deep testing has not been performed.

It is assumed that, when Joomla and Kunena are updated, TreeK will be tested on new versions and updated accordingly if necessary.

 

A special site, treek.support, has been created to support and maintain TreeK.

It contains up-to-date information about TreeK and provides useful tools for current and potential users.

The main guide for the TreeK end user are a slideshow ,a forum topic  and an article , all of which provide the same amount of information and demonstrate methods of working with Kunena topic post trees using examples.

In addition, text descriptions of TreeK and TreekView are published on the site.

The forum has sections for questions, comments, and suggestions to the TreeK developer, and for questions to the site administrator.

TreeK and TreekView can be tested on treek.support in several ways.

In the specially created small topic Example of tree (link), you can immediately try all TreeK options: create a tree, play with settings, and even export the tree.

For a deeper introduction to TreeK and TreekView, you can use the "sandbox" (link). Registered users of treek.support can create their own topics in the sandbox with any desired post tree structure and practice on them. Of course, other registered users can write posts in other people's topics, as happens on real Kunena forums, and in this way also become familiar with TreekView and TreeK. Naturally, all trees in the sandbox are also available to unregistered users.

***

The information about TreeK in this thread is intended primarily for administrators using Kunena. It is published here in shortened form so as not to overload readers during their first introduction to TreeK, but it contains all essential information. This information should be enough for the administration of any site to evaluate whether TreeK will be useful for that site.

Once again, I emphasize that detailed information on working with the post tree and the modified Kunena interface is available on treek.support.

***

The next planned steps in TreeK development are:
- publication of a detailed TreeK description for administrators;
- publication of a brief TreeK and TreekView guide for end users, that is forum users;
- resolving GitHub-related issues;
- publication of the add-on on JED.

I hope to do this within a couple of weeks. This time has been deliberately chosen as a pause before opening access to TreeK, in order to have an opportunity to receive feedback and comments on this development. If errors or other problems are discovered during testing of TreeK and TreekView, I will make every effort to fix them.

***

 

TreeK is available to download and use in two editions. Free vs Pro

The addon TreeK for the Kunen forum, which allows forum users to work with topic post trees, has been published on Github  and is registered on JED (Joomla Extensions Directory).

TreeK is published in two editions:

• TreeK Free: a usable free edition with the topic tree, basic settings, post text teaser, text export, and parent-post navigation.
• TreeK Pro: adds workflow and comfort features such as screenshot teaser, flat view, comfort symbols, BBCode/HTML export, topic monitoring, and extended forum-view controls. TreeK Pro is a paid extension and costs 20 €.

Free vs ProTreeK Free is intended to be a real working edition, not a demo.
TreeK Pro adds comfort, export, monitoring, and forum-view workflow features.

The meaning of all TreeK options and the ways to use them are described in more detail on this project site.

TreeK Pro can be fully tested on this site, for example in the forum topic  Example of tree . 

Free

• Open the post tree from a Kunena topic and from the topics list.
• Display the post tree.
• Highlight the latest and active rows.
• Use the tree settings window.
• Grid lines for reading structure.
• Post text as tooltip.
• Start row with Subject + Author or Subject.
• Show date and time.
• Show post index.
• Text teaser.
• Text export.
• Jump from the tree back to the Kunena topic.
• Parent-post navigation in the forum view.

Pro options may be shown in the Free user interface as locked preview items, but executable Pro features are not shipped in the Free package.

Pro

• Draggable settings window.
• Tooltips for TreeK buttons and symbols.
• Start row with Author + Subject.
• Screenshot teaser.
• Flat list view.
• Comfort symbols for navigation and highlighting.
• Save and restore settings.
• Export tree as BBCode.
• Export tree as HTML.
• Topic monitoring notice when a post is added.
• Comfort form header.
• Subject suffixes.
• Collapsed attachments.
• Inline action buttons.

Detailed information about TreeK can be found on the dedicated website treek.support .