The Forum & Community add-on adds a full-featured community forum to your Larapen site — threaded discussions, nested replies, upvote/downvote voting, best answer selection, and content moderation.
Pricing: This is a paid add-on, available from the Larapen Marketplace.
Key Features
- Threaded discussions — Categorized threads with translatable titles and content. Pin, feature, lock, or close threads from the admin panel.
- Nested replies — Two-level reply threading with parent/child relationships. Users can reply directly to other replies.
- Voting system — Upvote and downvote threads and replies via AJAX. Toggle votes on/off. Self-voting prevention.
- Best answer — Thread authors and admins can mark a reply as the best answer. Solved threads are highlighted in listings.
- Content moderation — User reporting with configurable auto-hide threshold (1–50 reports). Admin dashboard for reviewing, hiding, and dismissing reported content.
- Approval workflow — Optional admin approval required before new threads and replies appear publicly.
- Access control — Configure guest viewing, guest thread creation, and guest reply permissions independently.
- Categories — Organize discussions into categories managed from the admin panel.
- Email notifications — Configurable alerts for new threads, replies, nested replies, best answer selections, and content reports.
- CAPTCHA support — Optional CAPTCHA verification when creating threads or posting replies.
- Envato integration — Optional purchase-gated forum access via the Envato add-on (require a verified purchase to create threads in specific categories).
Admin Panel
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Threads | List, search, filter, create, and edit threads. Pin, feature, lock, or close threads. Bulk actions available. |
| Categories | Manage forum categories with translatable names and descriptions. |
| Reported Replies | Review user-reported content. Approve, hide, or dismiss reports. Auto-hide threshold configurable. |
| Settings | Configure access control (guest permissions), voting, best answer, moderation (approval, reporting, auto-hide threshold), notifications, display (threads/replies per page), and CAPTCHA. |
Front-end
- Forum listing page with all threads, category filtering, search, pagination, and pinned/featured thread indicators.
- Thread detail page with full content, nested replies, voting buttons, best answer badge, and reply form.
- Thread creation form with category selection, title, and content editor.
- Reply form with nested reply support (reply to a specific reply).
- Voting via AJAX with real-time score updates.
- Content reporting form for flagging inappropriate threads or replies.
- Search functionality across thread titles and content.
Configuration
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Guests can view | Yes | Allow non-logged-in visitors to browse threads. |
| Guests can create | No | Allow non-logged-in visitors to start new threads. |
| Guests can reply | No | Allow non-logged-in visitors to post replies. |
| Voting enabled | Yes | Enable upvote/downvote on threads and replies. |
| Best answer enabled | Yes | Enable best answer selection on threads. |
| Require approval | No | New threads and replies require admin approval. |
| Allow reporting | Yes | Users can flag inappropriate replies for review. |
| Auto-hide threshold | 5 | Auto-hide a reply after this many reports (1–50). |
| Threads per page | 15 | Number of threads on the forum listing page. |
| Replies per page | 20 | Number of replies per page on thread detail. |
| CAPTCHA enabled | No | Require CAPTCHA when creating threads or posting replies. |
Dependencies
None — the Forum add-on works independently. The optional Envato Market Integration add-on enables purchase-gated forum access for specific categories.
Ideal for
- Product support forums for software vendors.
- Community knowledge bases with voting and best answers.
- Internal team discussion spaces.
- Customer communities with moderated discussions.