Discussions Overview
The Discussions package contains two web parts. Discussions is the board itself; Discussions Activity is a compact list of the latest topics that you place on any other page of the same site - the home page of a team site, a department landing page or a Teams tab - so that people see what is being discussed without opening the board. Each title links to the topic on the board page. This article explains what the web part shows and how to configure it.
What the web part shows
The web part reads the current site’s topics and sorts them by stored last activity, newest first. A new approved reply or approval of a reply updates that value when the metadata write succeeds. Pending replies do not move a topic to the top, and an already open Activity view needs to reload to display changes. Each topic shows:
- an icon for the type - a question mark for a Question, a speech bubble for a Discussion;
- the title, as a link when a board page is configured;
- the Answered badge for questions with an accepted answer;
- the board name (optional), the author, the time of the last activity ("3 hours ago") and the number of replies.
Only topics with the approval status Approved are listed. Topics that wait for moderation or were rejected never appear here, not even for moderators or for their own authors; they are visible in the moderation queue of the board instead. Pinned and featured topics are not treated specially - the order is purely by activity.
The default title is Recent discussions; click it in edit mode to type your own, as with any Vitextra web part.
Adding the web part
- Open the page in edit mode and click + in the section where the list should appear.
- Find Discussions Activity in the Communication and collaboration group (or type activity into the search box) and add it.
- If the site already has a board, the latest topics appear immediately with the default settings: all boards, five items, board names shown.
- Open the property pane with the pencil icon to adjust the settings described below, then republish the page.
The web part needs the Discussions lists on the same site as the page. If the site has no board yet, the web part shows the message The web part needs a board to show. Create a new board on this site or pick an existing one. in edit mode; create the board with the Discussions web part first (see KB10391. How to Add and Configure the Discussions Web Part). The web part does not need the Discussions web part to be on the same page.
Settings
The property pane has three groups.
| Group | Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board | Board | All boards shows the latest topics across every board on the site; selecting a board restricts the list to that board. The drop-down lists the boards found in Discussions Boards | All boards |
| Board | Board page URL | The address of the page that hosts the Discussions web part. When set, the titles become links that open the topic on that page | Empty |
| Appearance | Maximum items | How many topics to show, from 1 to 50 | 5 |
| Appearance | Show board name | Shows the name of the board in front of the author in the meta line; useful with All boards | On |
| About | License information | The status of the Vitextra license, as in every Vitextra web part | - |
Linking to the topics
The web part does not know on which page the board is shown - the same board can be placed on several pages - so you tell it with Board page URL. Enter the address of the page that hosts the Discussions web part, either site-relative (/sites/intranet/SitePages/Discussions.aspx) or absolute. The web part appends ?topic={Id} to it (or &topic={Id} if the address already contains a query string), and the Discussions web part on that page opens the topic directly. This is the same deep link that users copy from the browser; see KB10407. Sharing a Link to a Topic in Discussions (Deep Links).
💡 Tip
Always fill in Board page URL. Without it the titles are plain text and the readers have no way to get from the list to the conversation. If the web part shows All boards and the boards live on different pages, point the address to the page whose Discussions web part can switch between them, or add one Discussions Activity web part per board, each with its own page address.
When there is nothing to show
In read mode the web part hides itself completely - including its title and the space it would take - when the site has no Discussions lists or no approved topic matches the selected board. The page therefore looks clean on a new site, and the list appears by itself after reloading the page once the first approved topic exists. In edit mode the web part stays visible so that you can find and configure it: it shows the board setup message when the lists are missing, or No topics yet. Start the first one. when the board is empty. A read failure displays an error instead of being treated as an empty board.
📝 Note
The web part shows topics of the current site only. A hub or a page on another site cannot aggregate boards from several sites in this version; place one Discussions Activity web part on each site that has a board.
In Microsoft Teams
The supplied Teams app package includes only Discussions, not Discussions Activity. To show Activity in Teams, add a SharePoint page containing this web part through an available SharePoint page tab. Activity reads the lists of the site containing that page. Use an absolute board-page address for topic links. KB10393. How to Add Discussions to Microsoft Teams
