Show more than one topic per category on the wide categories page. Disable support for the 2-column categories page. The category_featured_topics site setting controls how many topics to show.

app/assets/javascripts/discourse/controllers/list_categories_controller.js

@@ -41,7 +41,11 @@ Discourse.ListCategoriesController = Discourse.ObjectController.extend({
 
   moveCategory: function(categoryId, position){
     this.get('model.categories').moveCategory(categoryId, position);
-  }
+  },
+
+  latestTopicOnly: function() {
+    return this.get('categories').find(function(c) { return c.get('featuredTopics.length') > 1; }) === undefined;
+  }.property('categories.featuredTopics.length')
 
 });
 

app/assets/javascripts/discourse/models/category.js

@@ -117,6 +117,13 @@ Discourse.Category = Discourse.Model.extend({
     }
   }.property("topics"),
 
+  featuredTopics: function() {
+    var topics = this.get('topics');
+    if (topics && topics.length) {
+      return topics.slice(0, Discourse.SiteSettings.category_featured_topics || 2);
+    }
+  }.property('topics'),
+
   topicTrackingState: function(){
     return Discourse.TopicTrackingState.current();
   }.property(),

app/assets/javascripts/discourse/routes/list_categories_route.js

@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@
 Discourse.ListCategoriesRoute = Discourse.Route.extend({
 
   template: function() {
-    return Discourse.SiteSettings.enable_wide_category_list ? 'listWideCategories' : 'listCategories';
+    // Remove the option to have 2-column layout on categories page.
+    // TODO: remove this old code when we're sure about it.
+    // return Discourse.SiteSettings.enable_wide_category_list ? 'listWideCategories' : 'listCategories';
+    return 'listWideCategories';
   }.property(),
 
   redirect: function() { Discourse.redirectIfLoginRequired(this); },

app/assets/javascripts/discourse/templates/list/wide_categories.js.handlebars

@@ -49,8 +49,9 @@
         </td>
         <td class='num'>{{number topic_count}}</td>
         <td class='num'>{{number post_count}}</td>
-        {{#with latestTopic}}
         <td {{bindAttr class="archived :latest"}}>
+          {{#each featuredTopics}}
+            <div class="featured-topic">
               {{topicStatus topic=this}}
               <a class='title' href="{{unbound lastUnreadUrl}}">{{{unbound fancy_title}}}</a>
               {{#if unread}}
@@ -62,12 +63,19 @@
               {{#if unseen}}
                 <a href="{{unbound lastUnreadUrl}}" class='badge new-posts badge-notification' title='{{i18n topic.new}}'><i class='fa fa-asterisk'></i></a>
               {{/if}}
+
+              {{#if controller.latestTopicOnly}}
                 <div class='last-user-info'>
                   {{i18n categories.latest_by}} <a href="{{{unbound lastPosterUrl}}}">{{unbound last_poster.username}}</a>
                   <a href="{{unbound lastPostUrl}}">{{unboundAge last_posted_at}}</a>
                 </div>
+              {{else}}
+                &nbsp;
+                <a href="{{unbound lastPostUrl}}" class="last-posted-at">{{unboundAge last_posted_at}}</a>
+              {{/if}}
+            </div>
+          {{/each}}
         </td>
-        {{/with}}
       </tr>
       {{/each}}
     </tbody>

app/assets/stylesheets/desktop/topic-list.scss

@@ -252,7 +252,6 @@
   }
   .last-user-info {
     font-size: 12px;
-    margin-top: 3px;
   }
   tbody td {
     padding-bottom: 20px;
@@ -287,6 +286,13 @@
       font-size: 14px;
     }
   }
+
+  .featured-topic {
+    margin: 6px 0;
+    a.last-posted-at, a.last-posted-at:visited {
+      color: #888;
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 

app/controllers/categories_controller.rb

@@ -9,10 +9,11 @@ class CategoriesController < ApplicationController
   def index
     @description = SiteSetting.site_description
 
-    wide_mode = SiteSetting.enable_wide_category_list
+    # TODO: remove this when we're sure about removing 2-column layout on categories page
+    # wide_mode = SiteSetting.enable_wide_category_list
 
     options = {}
-    options[:latest_post_only] = params[:latest_post_only] || wide_mode
+    options[:latest_posts] = params[:latest_posts] || SiteSetting.category_featured_topics
 
     @list = CategoryList.new(guardian,options)
     @list.draft_key = Draft::NEW_TOPIC

app/models/category_list.rb

@@ -22,7 +22,15 @@ class CategoryList
   private
 
     def latest_post_only?
-      @options[:latest_post_only]
+      @options[:latest_posts] and latest_posts_count == 1
+    end
+
+    def include_latest_posts?
+      @options[:latest_posts] and latest_posts_count > 1
+    end
+
+    def latest_posts_count
+      @options[:latest_posts].to_i > 0 ? @options[:latest_posts].to_i : SiteSetting.category_featured_topics
     end
 
     # Retrieve a list of all the topics we'll need
@@ -33,6 +41,7 @@ class CategoryList
 
       @all_topics = Topic.where(id: category_featured_topics.map(&:topic_id))
       @all_topics.each do |t|
+        t.include_last_poster = true if include_latest_posts? # hint for serialization
         @topics_by_id[t.id] = t
       end
 

config/locales/server.en.yml

@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ en:
     delete_removed_posts_after: "Number of hours after which posts removed by the author will be deleted."
     max_image_width: "Maximum allowed width of images in a post"
     max_image_height: "Maximum allowed height of images in a post"
-    category_featured_topics: "Number of topics displayed per category in the /categories page"
+    category_featured_topics: "Number of topics displayed per category on the /categories page. After changing this value, it takes up to 15 minutes for the categories page to update."
     add_rel_nofollow_to_user_content: "Add rel nofollow to all submitted user content, except for internal links (including parent domains) changing this requires you update all your baked markdown with: \"rake posts:rebake\""
     exclude_rel_nofollow_domains: "A comma delimited list of domains where nofollow is not added (tld.com will automatically allow sub.tld.com as well)"
 
@@ -681,7 +681,7 @@ en:
     min_body_similar_length: "The minimum length of a post's body before it will be checked for similar topics"
 
     category_colors: "A pipe (|) separated list of hexadecimal color values allowed for categories"
-    enable_wide_category_list: "Enable traditional full width, non-tiling, category list"
+    enable_wide_category_list: "Enable traditional full width, non-tiling, category list. NOTE: this setting currently does nothing and will be removed. Wide list is the only option now."
 
     max_image_size_kb: "The maximum size of images we allow users to upload in kB - configure the limit in nginx (client_max_body_size) / apache or proxy as well."
     max_attachment_size_kb: "The maximum size of files we allow users to upload in kB - configure the limit in nginx (client_max_body_size) / apache or proxy as well."

config/site_settings.yml

@@ -32,10 +32,10 @@ basic:
     default: ''
   enable_wide_category_list:
     client: true
-    default: false
+    default: true
   category_featured_topics:
     client: true
-    default: 6
+    default: 3
   topics_per_page: 30
   posts_per_page:
     client: true

test/javascripts/integration/list_topics_test.js

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ test("Categories List", function() {
   expect(1);
 
   visit("/categories").then(function() {
-    ok(exists('.category-list-item'), "has a list of categories");
+    ok(exists('.category'), "has a list of categories");
   });
 });