How to build a discussion around a document in SharePoint 2013?

Question

I have a business requirement from a client to have the ability to build discussions around a document located in a document library. Threaded discussion would be a plus.

Is there a way to implement such a functionality on a out-of-the-box SharePoint 2013 Enterprise without any code development, just via UI?

Thank you.

Answer 1

I have build something like this with some javscript/jQ code using a standard comments list and joining/filtering it to the item with a reference field.

Without code you could try the "Note Board" webpart. If you only have few dedicated documents this might be an approach.

What about document workspaces - have you thought about using them? Maybe this guide can help you? https://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/02/25/document-workspace-in-sharepoint.aspx

Answer 2

OK, we found a solution which may help others.

1. Created a Discussion Board (to store discussions).
2. Created a Document Library (to store the docs to discuss).
3. Added a custom lookup column to the Discussion Board (content type Message) which points to a document from the Document Library.
4. Created a web part page with a web part for Document Library.
5. Added a linked web part for the Discussion Board ("Add linked list web part" on the ribbon, or something like that as I'm using a non-English localization).

Et voila! You click a selection field in the doclib web part, then list of discussions shows discussions which are linked to that document.