We're considering using OSQA for our Django-based project. How feasible would it be to integrate OSQA as a part of a page, almost like a comments section below a news article? Has anyone else done this?

I understand disqus / intensedebate is designed for this use case out of the box, but we prefer OSQAs design & functionality.

I'm a novice, so any assistance is appreciated.

asked 10 Apr '11, 16:56

gatsby32's gravatar image

gatsby32
1111
accept rate: 0%

edited 20 Apr '11, 09:21

rickross's gravatar image

rickross ♦♦
12.5k2914972

can somebody please provide more information? i'm quite confused about this and hoping for some direction. thanks in advance!

(20 Apr '11, 07:50) gatsby32

One way to do this would be to create a custom skin, and customise the template pages to call out to a routine that printed the rest of the page that enclosed the OSQA section. I think the rest of the page would have to be some combination of static HTML and Python-generated code. It's not a small job, though.

As the rest of your project is Django, that gives you an advantage, at least. If you can wrap the rest of the page up into a handful of Django routines, then you can just put those django tags into the templates of your custom OSQA skin. I'm a Django novice, so can't really get more specific than that.

So, in summary, I'd turn it around - embed the rest of your site into OSQA pages. It might seem a bit back-to-front, but given the complexity of OSQA, this might be the simplest. On the other hand, if your site is already a complex Django project, you've got a marriage of two complex systems, and I suspect that's going to be hard.

link

answered 20 Apr '11, 09:09

Andrew_S's gravatar image

Andrew_S ♦
5.6k45674
accept rate: 21%

I've created some time blogging site, advertizements site, forums etc. all form OSQA's code. Just renamed some models/templates/files/edited localizations etc. for example: questions to blogs or advertizements and so on. and answer to comment/review etc..

link

answered 10 Apr '11, 19:47

MechanisM's gravatar image

MechanisM
3061511
accept rate: 15%

edited 10 Apr '11, 19:48

MechanisM, can you provide a URL to a site which does this? I havent seen anyone else doing it.

(11 Apr '11, 10:37) gatsby32

Afaik, we resolved an outstanding issue that prevented OSQA from running on a subdirectory path (eg mysite.com/support) so you could have something else be the "main" application. Then you could access OSQA more from a data model perspective, grabbing just a handful of question threads and formatting them into a page widget in your main templates.

I dunno what the real value of this would be? Qato is massively more themeable than OSQA and also provides a rich, interactive API that lets you grab what you want and place it where you want. Maybe we'll even develop some Qato javascript widgets you could use as a direct drop-in on other pages (more like the Disqus strategy.)

OSQA is not where DZone will be doing these things. We built OSQA for our own use and shared it with everyone. Our principal focus for the the future, however, is clearly going to be Qato.

link

answered 20 Apr '11, 09:19

rickross's gravatar image

rickross ♦♦
12.5k2914972
accept rate: 46%

re subdirectory - when I tried beta3, there was still one or two bad links - I'm afraid that I don't recall which. And they may well be fixed in trunk now.

Re Qato javacsript widgets - that sounds really nice. And throws up some interesting ideas for revenue models too - as you say, the Disqus space - about how and where you get traffic driven from, by providing value-added services into a host site. A mutually beneficial exchange of features and audience.

(20 Apr '11, 09:34) Andrew_S ♦

@Andrew_S, could you please open a Jira issue with specific details of the links that still had problems. It was our belief that we had this subdir deployment completely operational, but maybe we missed something?

(20 Apr '11, 10:04) rickross ♦♦

I'm about to go offline for a week, but if I recall which links were problematic, I'll file a bug if I get time. And maybe catch you on Skype about 3 hours from now?

(20 Apr '11, 10:08) Andrew_S ♦
Your answer
toggle preview

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

  • *italic* or _italic_
  • **bold** or __bold__
  • link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
  • image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
  • numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
  • to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
  • basic HTML tags are also supported

Tags:

×45
×1
×1

Asked: 10 Apr '11, 16:56

Seen: 719 times

Last updated: 20 Apr '11, 10:08

powered by OSQA