User Projects Extension — For Creator Communities

SergeyTS

I have an idea for an extension that adds user projects — displayed on a separate page and linked to specific forum user(s). This extension is meant to be universal and can be used, for example, on a writers' forum where people share their books, or a game development community where everyone can showcase their game, or any other creator community. Therefore, the extension should be as flexible as possible.

I'm not skilled in extension development, or programming in general, but I can describe the concept in detail. I'd be grateful if someone decides to implement something like this.

Features

Projects displayed as cards: with or without an image.
Tags/categories: can be assigned to projects.
Custom parameters: in varying quantities, with different value types (e.g., genre, age rating, release date, and so on).
Search and filters: at the top of the page — a search bar across all projects, category filters, and an "Add Project" button.
Submission form: clicking "Add Project" opens a form to fill out. Projects can be published immediately or submitted for moderation (admin approval/rejection).
Configurable permissions: for publishing projects.
FoF Badges integration: a badge is awarded after publishing a project.
User profile integration: a dedicated tab for the user's projects, plus a featured project in the profile header.
Featured project display: an icon of the project's main tag next to the username, with a tooltip showing the project name on hover.

What's displayed on a project card

Image (optional)
Project author (user avatar and nickname, with a link to their profile)
Tags / categories
Project parameters (some required, some optional)
Description with a character limit
One or more buttons/links at the bottom

Flexible button system

Admin can choose how many buttons (links) can/should be added when creating a project.
Buttons can be restricted by domain. For example: only YouTube channel links, only forum page links, or only links to a book platform. Or several specific resources.
Custom button labels can be set, or standard labels can be assigned per button type.
Example: A book could have multiple buttons: "Read Excerpt", "Buy" (external store link), "Discuss on Forum".

Project detail page (when opening a project)

All essential project data from the card at the top
Text with support for forum discussion formatting
Buttons/links from the project card
Separate comments aren't necessary — a forum discussion link can be used as one of the buttons
Likes/reactions — optional, can be added

I put together a small visual mockup with the help of DeepSeek AI to show roughly what it might look like, and hosted it on my forum — https://forum.worldbuilding.su/p/projects-demo

Yes, this is somewhat similar to the blog extension, but it serves a different purpose and has its own unique features.

If you have your own ideas or additions, feel free to share them here. Some features may seem excessive — I'm not insisting on implementing all of them, but I hope I've conveyed the overall concept.

ernestdefoe

I assume you want this for Flarum 2?

SergeyTS

ernestdefoe Yes, I use 2.0 myself and I think this version is more relevant now.

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS I agree. I was gonna say if you wanted it for 1.x I wouldn't do it but would have you a 2.x version ready for when you did update.

SergeyTS

@ernestdefoe Hi, is there any progress on the extension development? I have some suggestions regarding version 1.0.2, but first, I think it's worth waiting for a stable public release. Or should I post them now?

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS yeah go ahead and give them to me and I'll work on getting them added this weekend.

SergeyTS

ernestdefoe Thank you! Here are my suggestions:

The ability to restrict individual parameters and buttons to specific tags. For example: the "Read excerpt" button and the "Genre" parameter could only be available for the "Books" tag.
How I see it: when creating or editing a button/parameter, you can select which tags they will be available for.
The ability to give different badges depending on the tag of the project added by the user. For example: I've added book project and got the writer badge, but if I've added game project I got a developer badge.
I would change the position of the featured project badge so that it is not placed alongside user groups, but next to the primary badge (for reference — the .PrimaryBadge class in the FoF Badges extension).
And it'd be nice to open the linked project when clicking that badge near the nickname.
A "Min/Max number of tags per project" settings wouldn't go amiss. And ideally, if it's not too much trouble — implement the same tag system as discussions have, so it's as flexible as possible.
The ability to add/invite a co-author to a project, so that the project shows multiple authors. The co-author can be either a forum user or just a name entered as text.
The ability to limit the file size of the image uploaded as a project cover.
Right now, buttons in the project card show up without a label, just an icon. I think it'd be worth making the labels visible too, like on the project page.
Also, if you don't add an icon, the button in the card appears as a narrow strip with nothing in it — that definitely shouldn't be happening.

Plus, the visual part needs some polishing, but I guess you already know about that. Thanks again for taking on such a complex extension — looking forward to the release.

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS I’ll be honest haven’t really tested it out much. Please let me know what needs polishing and I’ll look into it.

SergeyTS

ernestdefoe Ok, one moment

Spacing between elements in the "Add project" modal and similar modals in the admin panel
Admin panel: the cards are too wide + icons get underlined on hover
Mismatch between the modal border and its shadow
Labels inside filter buttons aren't displaying properly
"Oops" error when trying to like a project (from any account)
No way to select a featured project on the profile page

That's what I've managed to spot so far. If there are any other little things, I'm sure they'll pop up down the road — but for now, I think this should be enough.

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS will get these fixed this weekend if not sooner.

ernestdefoe

@SergeyTS gonna start working on the improvements and bug fixes here in a little bit.

SergeyTS

ernestdefoe Alright, I can test it tomorrow if it will be ready

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS should be if not it'll be ready Sunday. One way or another it will be done this weekend.

ernestdefoe

@SergeyTS version 1.1.0 has been released. Took care of some audit items from the previous version as well. Waiting on Floxum to see the new version so I can get the code review done again to see what may still need to be fixed on the code part.

SergeyTS

ernestdefoe Hi, thank you. The new features are working properly, but there are a couple of things.

Bug: If you click "Like" or "Featured on profile" on the project page, the detailed project description disappears. It only comes back after refreshing the page.
Adding co-authors works, but I have some suggestions for improving this feature:
- In the "Add project" modal, it would be really handy to add forum users as co-authors by starting to type their username and then picking the right one from a dropdown list.
- It'd be great if the co-author's name in the project card was clickable, and if it showed their avatar when it's a forum user.
- Maybe co-authors could be displayed on the same line as the author, and without the word "with".
There are still a few things that need polishing. From my previous list, these are points: 1 (spacing in the admin panel is still the same), 3, and 4.

Also, I noticed something that was already present in the previous version:

The short description in cards doesn't display in full with the default character limit, and there's no way to read it. I think there should be a way to expand/collapse the full text of the short description.

That's everything I've noticed in terms of critical issues

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS will work on this ASAP.

SergeyTS

ernestdefoe Not rushing you at all, will be wait as long as needed.

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS I promise I will get to it as soon as I can. I have like 3 or more projects going on at the same time. 1 of them takes up most of my time.

SergeyTS

ernestdefoe I really appreciate your approach and completely understand your situation. You're doing this voluntarily and free of charge, and I have no right to demand anything — I can only thank you for the work you've done 🙂

ernestdefoe

SergeyTS well I love doing this as until I learned all about Claude I was at the mercy of extension developers hoping I could get one to create what I wanted. So I love that I can contribute in this way. My new project does take a lot of my time as of late but I am trying to squeeze some time out to still work some on Flarum extensions.