Implement Forum subscription in Sitefinity 3.x

In this post I will show you how you can implement Forum subscription in Sitefinity. Instead of going each time to a given post you can just subscribe to the forum post and receive email notification once someone reply to you or you just want to stay informed about the progress of a post.

1. I created a database table where I will persist the subscriber - threadID data. You can use the code below to create the same table at your end.

    SET ANSI_NULLS ON  
 GO  
   
 SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON  
 GO  
   
 CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ForumSubscribers](  
     [ThreadID] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL,  
     [UserID] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL,  
     [UserEmail] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,  
  CONSTRAINT [PK_ForumSubscribers] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED   
 (  
     [ThreadID] ASC,  
     [UserID] ASC  
 )WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]  
 ) ON [PRIMARY]  
   
 GO  
  

2. I created a simple LINQ-SQL class called ForumSubscriptionDataContext

3. I modified templates below.

~/Sitefinity/ControlTemplates/Forums/SingleThread.ascx - this template list all post in a thread. Here I will add "subscribe" and unsubscribe links.

        <div class="sf_threadTitle">  
         <h1><asp:Literal runat="server" ID="threadTitle"></asp:Literal></h1>  
         <asp:LinkButton ID="deleteThreadButton" runat="server" Text="<%$Resources:DeleteThread %>"></asp:LinkButton>  
        <asp:LinkButton ID="subscribeBtn" runat="server" Text="Subscribe to this thread" ></asp:LinkButton>  
        <asp:LinkButton ID="UnSubscribeBtn" runat="server" Text="UnSubscribe to this thread" ></asp:LinkButton>  
     </div>  
  

Now I have to create a code behind of this template and subscribe for Click event of each link, so that I can execute our logic.

- Page_Load - subscribe for click events of our buttons.

- OnPreRender - here I am getting the thread ID from the QueryString. ForumSubscriptionDataContext class is used to manage the data from my custom tablet. Here OnPreRender I check whethet the current user is subscribed to this thread or not and show/hide Sibscribe and Unsibscribe links.

- UnSubscribeBtn_Click - remove the user from the datasource

- subscribeBtn_Click - add new subscriber to the datasource

    public partial class Sitefinity_ControlTemplates_Forums_SingleThread : System.Web.UI.UserControl  
 {  
     public void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)  
     {  
         // subscribe for click events of our buttons  
         this.subscribeBtn.Click += new EventHandler(subscribeBtn_Click);  
         this.UnSubscribeBtn.Click += new EventHandler(UnSubscribeBtn_Click);  
     }  
   
     // Here we have to check whether the user is subscribed to the forum or not   
     // and hide or show - subscribe and unsubscribe links  
     protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)  
     {  
         base.OnPreRender(e);  
         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["mode"]) && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["thread"]))  
         {  
             Guid ThreadID = new Guid(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["thread"].ToString());  
             ForumSubscriptionDataContext dataContext = new ForumSubscriptionDataContext();  
             //we are sure that this query it will only result in one record - the current user email. So we use   
             // SingleOrDefault(); Returns the only element of a sequence, or a default value if the sequence is empty;  
             //this method throws an exception if there is more than one element in the sequence.  
             var query = (from sub in dataContext.ForumSubscribers  
                          where sub.ThreadID == ThreadID  
                          select sub.UserEmail).SingleOrDefault();  
             if (query != null)  
             {  
                 subscribeBtn.Visible = false;  
                 UnSubscribeBtn.Visible = true;  
             }  
             else  
             {  
                 subscribeBtn.Visible = true;  
                 UnSubscribeBtn.Visible = false;  
   
             }  
         }  
     }  
     /// <summary>  
     /// remove an user from the database  
     /// </summary>  
     /// <param name="sender"></param>  
     /// <param name="e"></param>  
     void UnSubscribeBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)  
     {  
         Guid ThreadID = new Guid(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["thread"].ToString());  
         string uName = Telerik.Security.UserManager.GetCurrentUserName();  
         MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(uName);  
         Guid userID = new Guid(user.ProviderUserKey.ToString());  
         string eMail = user.Email;  
         ForumSubscriptionDataContext dataContext = new ForumSubscriptionDataContext();  
         var query = from sub in dataContext.ForumSubscribers  
                     where sub.ThreadID == ThreadID && sub.UserID == userID  
                     select sub;  
         var record = query.First<ForumSubscriber>();  
         dataContext.ForumSubscribers.DeleteOnSubmit(record);  
         dataContext.SubmitChanges();  
         subscriptionMessage.Text = "<span style=background-color:Red;>YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UNSUBSCRIBED</span>";  
     }  
     /// <summary>  
     /// add user to the datbase  
     /// </summary>  
     /// <param name="sender"></param>  
     /// <param name="e"></param>  
     void subscribeBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)  
     {  
         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["mode"]) && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["thread"]))  
         {  
             // get the thread ID.  
             Guid ThreadID = new Guid(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["thread"].ToString());  
             string uName = Telerik.Security.UserManager.GetCurrentUserName();  
             MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(uName);  
             Guid userID = new Guid(user.ProviderUserKey.ToString());  
             string eMail = user.Email;  
             // subscribe this user   
             ForumSubscriptionDataContext dataContext = new ForumSubscriptionDataContext();  
             ForumSubscriber newSubscriber = new ForumSubscriber();  
             newSubscriber.ThreadID = ThreadID;  
             newSubscriber.UserID = userID;  
             newSubscriber.UserEmail = eMail;  
             dataContext.ForumSubscribers.InsertOnSubmit(newSubscriber);  
             dataContext.SubmitChanges();  
             subscriptionMessage.Text = "<span style=background-color:Green;>YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY SUBSCRIBED</span>";  
         }  
     }  
 }  
   
  

~/Sitefinity/ControlTemplates/Forums/EditPost.ascx - I use this template to get the newly added content and all previous posts and send an emil to the subscribed user. Here I created a code behind of the template and on Page_Load I subscribed for save button click.

    using System;  
 using System.Collections.Generic;  
 using System.Linq;  
 using System.Data.Linq;  
 using System.Web;  
 using System.Web.UI;  
 using System.Web.UI.WebControls;  
 using Telerik.Forums.WebControls;  
 using Telerik.Forums;  
 using Telerik.Security;  
 using System.Web.Security;  
 using Telerik.Web.UI;  
 using System.Net.Mail;  
 using System.Collections;  
 using Telerik.Forums.Data;  
   
 public partial class Sitefinity_ControlTemplates_Forums_EditPost : System.Web.UI.UserControl  
 {  
     protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)  
     {  
         this.saveButton.Click += new EventHandler(saveButton_Click);  
     }  
   
     void saveButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)  
     {  
         if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["mode"]) && !String.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["thread"]))  
         {  
             // get the thread ID.  
             Guid ThreadID = new Guid(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["thread"].ToString());  
             ForumSubscriptionDataContext dataContext = new ForumSubscriptionDataContext();  
             string uri = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.ToString();  
             // get our subscriber  
             var query = from sub in dataContext.ForumSubscribers  
                         where sub.ThreadID == ThreadID  
                         select sub.UserEmail;  
             // send email to our subscriber that there is a new post  
             foreach (var email in query)  
             {  
                 MailMessage message = new MailMessage("yourhost@here.com", email);  
                 message.IsBodyHtml = true;  
                 message.Body = "<b>ThreadConversation</b>:" + tbQuote.Content + "<b>LastReply is:</b>" + editor.Content + "<br />" + "<i>Click the link below to reply</i>" + "<p>" + uri;  
                 message.From = new MailAddress("yourhost@here.com");  
                 message.Sender = new MailAddress("yourhost@here.com");  
                 SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();  
                 client.Send(message);  
             }  
             dataContext.Dispose();  
         }  
     }  
 }  
   
  

By Ivan Dimitrov on 05 Jan 2010 in Core Sitefinity All Blog Posts

2 comments

SaQ
01 Jan 2010

well.. its really good.
but in sitefinity version i am using, 3.7
there is no "threadID" in the querystring... :-(
what should i do??
Ivan Dimitrov
13 Jan 2010

I get back to you in our forums where you opened a request

Implement Forum subscription in Sitefinity 3.x

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