GravityOps Forum uses a structured hierarchy to organize content and discussions. Understanding this hierarchy is essential for correctly setting up your forum and managing its content.
The Organizational Structure #
The plugin follows a four-level hierarchy:
- Boards: The top-level containers. Think of these as major categories or departments (e.g., “Product Support,” “Community Lounge,” “Developer Hub”).
- Forums: Sub-categories within a Board where actual discussions happen. Each Board can contain multiple Forums (e.g., within “Product Support,” you might have “Bug Reports” and “Feature Requests”).
- Topics: Individual discussion threads started by users. These are stored as entries in the Gravity Form assigned as a “Topic Form.”
- Replies: Responses to a specific Topic. These are stored as entries in the Gravity Form assigned as a “Reply Form.”
Content Creation and Management #
- Administrative Management: Boards and Forums are created and managed by administrators through the GravityOps Forum dashboard. This is where you define the structure, names, slugs, and descriptions.
- User Interaction: Topics and Replies are created by users on the front end of your site using standard Gravity Forms.
Relationships and IDs #
- Board ID: Every board has a unique numerical ID.
- Forum ID: Every forum has a unique numerical ID and is linked to a parent Board.
- Topic ID: This is the Gravity Forms Entry ID of the topic. Each Topic is linked to a Forum ID.
- Reply ID: This is the Gravity Forms Entry ID of the reply. Each Reply is linked to a parent Topic ID.
This hierarchical structure allows for precise control over where content is posted and who can access specific sections of the forum.
