Custom Discussion Board Plus List Template with Additional Content Type Columns

Discussion Board Plus for SharePoint enables users to customize the out-of-the-box SharePoint discussion boards to improve visibility and search with features such as sticky, ratings, mark as answer, mark as suggestion and search.

USE CASE:

Organizations require the ability to track information that is not included in a default Discussion Board. This can be accomplished by customizing the Discussion Board Plus list. You can customize a Discussion Board Plus list by adding additional Content Types that integrate custom columns, then save the list as a template for future use.

Please read this article carefully before customizing your Discussion Board Plus list template or making other modifications to the product.

Creating a New Site Content Type

1. In the top-level site of your site collection, click Site Actions > Site Settings. In the Galleries section, click Site content types.

1. On the Site Content Types page, click the Create link at the top of the page.

1. On the New Site Content Type page, enter the name and description of your custom Discussion Board Plus content type. In the Select parent content type from: drop-down list, select the Bamboo Solutions option. In the Parent Content Type: drop-down list, select BambooDiscussion. Click the OK button.

Customizing the New Content Type

1. Once you have created a new content type, go back to the Site Content Types page and click the name of your new content type in the Custom Content Types group.
2. Using the links in the Settings section, you can change the name, description, and parent group of the content type, change the settings of the content type, or delete the content type.

1. Using the links in the Columns section, you can add custom columns from existing lists or create new columns for your content type.

   

Adding the New Content Type to a Discussion Board Plus List

1. Create a new Discussion Board Plus list.
2. In List Settings, click Add from existing site content types in the Content Types section.

1. Using the Select site content types from: drop-down list, select Custom Content Types.
2. Click your custom content type and click the Add > button. Once your custom content type has been added, click the OK button.

1. In the List Settings page, click Change new button order and default content type in the Content Types section.
2. Using the Position from Top drop-down list, change your custom content type to position 1 and click the OK button.

1. In the List Settings page, click Flat in the Views section.

1. Scroll down and expand the Folders section. Click the radio button next to In folders of content type: and use the drop-down list to select your custom content type. Click OK to save this view.

1. Repeat the process for the Thread and Append views, and any custom views that may exist.

Saving the Custom Content as a Template

1. Now that your Discussion Board Plus list is configured to use your custom content type as its default view, you can save these settings as a template to use for future Discussion Board Plus lists.
2. In List Settings, click Save discussion board as template in the Permissions and Management section.

1. Enter the File Name, Template name, and Template description in the appropriate text boxes and click the OK button to save your template.
   Note: You can include any content that currently exists in this Discussion Board Plus list as part of your template by checking the Include Contentcheck box. Checking this box will duplicate all threads and attachments that exist at the time the template is created and will automatically create them in lists that use this template.

Note:You can use this template to create Discussion Board Plus lists that include custom views and content quickly and easily within the same site collection. This process will create a template that is only useable in the current site collection. You must repeat this process for any other site collections if you wish to use this template outside the current site collection.