Website Comments v1.01 Released!

18 posts by 8 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder: Plugins & Add-ons
Last Post: August 6, 2012   (RSS)

By Dave - September 8, 2011 - edited: September 8, 2011

Hello All,

We've just released a new plugin called Website Comments:
http://www.interactivetools.com/add-ons/detail.php?Website-Comments-1056

This is a very powerful, easy to use plugin, with cut and paste code to add the "Comments" to any section or page on your site. We use this plugin ourselves and adding comments now takes us a few minutes instead of 1-3 hours.

Here's the key features:

SETTING UP THE PLUGIN
  • Copy and paste a block of code to add comments to any page in minutes
  • Includes example code for three types of comments pages (under "Plugin Menu" > "Example Code")
  • Plugin setting allows comments to be sorted newest or oldest first
  • Plugin setting allows you to control how many comments are displayed per page
  • Multiple "themes" are supported, allowing you to display comment sections in different styles on the same site
  • Theme styling is done in external CSS file for easy editing

    DISPLAYING COMMENTS:
  • Members can post comments (non-members are encouraged to sign-up to post)
  • Display comment count on list pages "Comments (33)" , encouraging users to click through to detail pages
  • Comments have facebook-style dates, posted: "A few seconds ago", "about an hour ago", etc

    EMAIL FEATURES:
  • One click email subscriptions lets users get updates by email on comment threads
  • Members receive email notifications when people comment on threads they've commented on
  • Website administrators can be notified via email of new comments
  • Email templates can be easily modified in the CMS with a wysiwyg editor and content placeholders
  • Email templates can be enabled or disabled as needed.

    If you're already running the Website Membership plugin, or thinking about adding it, this is a great add-on. I hope you'll give it a try!

    Let me know any questions or comments, thanks! :)
    Dave Edis - Senior Developer
    interactivetools.com

    • Re: [Dave] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By danwilson - September 8, 2011

    Awesome, Dave!
    I'm working on a site to which I'd like to add a "rate & review" module to each page, and this will take care of the "review" part.

    I'd also like to give visitors the option of also giving 0-5 star ratings (technically a form re-styled via jquery), and am wondering if I could create an extra data field (or fields) to the comment to capture a visitor's rating(s) and store those ratings values along with their review (comment).

    Thoughts?
    Thanks,
    -Dan

    Re: [danwilson] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By Dave - September 9, 2011

    Hi Dan,

    Yea, I think that should be possible with some custom coding. Here's some basic tips on added that feature yourself:
    - First, thoroughly test the comments plugin. Set it up so it does everything you want "except ratings".
    - That backup the plugin folder.
    - Then create a new field in the comments table for "ratings".
    - Then search for all references to "wsc_comment" and 'wsc_comment' in the code (search for the word in single and double quotes).
    - This is all the places where comments are added from the form value
    - Create a new field called "wsc_rating" and add that code everywhere the comments code is.

    That's a basic overview, there's probably a few extra steps that will be needed as well. Feel free to give it a try or let us know if you want us to do it as a custom programming job for you.

    Also, you'll probably want to consider issues such as if you allow people to leave multiple comments and ratings or just one. And if it's just one, can you edit or erase it, etc.

    Hope that helps!
    Dave Edis - Senior Developer
    interactivetools.com

    Re: [Dave] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By danwilson - September 9, 2011

    Cool! Sounds like I've got a plugin to buy and some experimenting to do!
    -Dan

    Re: [danwilson] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By Dave - September 9, 2011

    Great, let us know how it goes! :) I'd be interested to see how it works out. It's a neat idea for an enhancement.
    Dave Edis - Senior Developer
    interactivetools.com

    Re: [Toledoh] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By Dave - September 12, 2011

    Hi Tim,

    You can find that function in cmsAdmin/lib/common.php

    You can edit it there (but you'll have to re-apply your edits when you upgrade) or copy it to your plugin with a new name such as custom_prettyDate() and call that function instead.

    Hope that helps! Let me know any questions.
    Dave Edis - Senior Developer
    interactivetools.com

    Re: [Dave] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By Toledoh - September 12, 2011

    Perfect - ta!
    Cheers,

    Tim (toledoh.com.au)

    Re: [Dave] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By Maurice - September 14, 2011

    Looks great we are now testing it

    just 1 missing thing.

    login using facebook, twitter or open id account that would of been the finishing toutch.
    [;)]

    Greetz M
    -------------------------------------------

    Dropmonkey.nl

    Re: [Maurice] Website Comments v1.01 Released!

    By videopixel - September 17, 2011

    + for Facebook login!!!


    Looks great we are now testing it

    just 1 missing thing.

    login using facebook, twitter or open id account that would of been the finishing toutch.
    [;)]

    Greetz M