I examined MTThreadedComments' documentation and everything I could find on the internet. I didn't like MTThreadedComments' suggested method of responding to comments. Clicking on any 'Respond' link redirected the reader to another page with a copy of the article text or the comment text that the reader was responding to along with the comment form. This is normally ok but I don't like unnecessary page loads and wanted to come up with a more ideal (in my opinion) way of doing it. I liked the way MTSimplyThreaded worked and after analysing what data MTThreadedComments needed to work, I decided to implement a simple Ajax comment system. The investigation of MTThreadedComments and the analysis of what I wanted to do and how to do it took two full days.
Now for the details.
MTThreadedComments on MT 3.3: The details
MT 3.33
MTThreadedComments 0.1.1 (Date: 2003/02/19 17:18:16)
MT Code Edits
You'll need to apply the following edits to MT's code:
(Taking a cue from the Korean site, the new code is coloured red.)
File: mt/lib/MT/App/Comments.pm
Subroutine: _make_comment()
$comment->ip($app->remote_ip);
$comment->blog_id($entry->blog_id);
$comment->entry_id($entry->id);
$comment->author(remove_html($nick));
$comment->email(remove_html($email));
$comment->url(is_valid_url($url, 'stringent'));
$comment->text($text);
## MTThreadedComments patch start ##
$comment->subject($q->param('subject'));
$comment->parent_id($q->param('parent_id'));
## MTThreadedComments patch end ##
File: mt/lib/MT/App/Comments.pm
Subroutine: _send_comment_notification()
my %param = (
blog_name => $blog->name,
entry_id => $entry->id,
entry_title => $entry->title,
view_url => $comment_link,
edit_url => $base . $app->uri_params('mode' => 'view', args => { blog_id => $blog->id, '_type' => 'comment', id => $comment->id}),
ban_url => $base . $app->uri_params('mode' => 'save', args => {'_type' => 'banlist', blog_id => $blog->id, ip => $comment->ip}),
comment_ip => $comment->ip,
comment_name => $comment->author,
(is_valid_email($comment->email)?
(comment_email => $comment->email):()),
comment_url => $comment->url,
## MTThreadedComments patch start ##
comment_subject => $comment->subject,
## MTThreadedComments patch end ##
File: mt/lib/MT/App/Comments.pm
Subroutine: view()
my $ctx = MT::Template::Context->new;
$ctx->stash('entry', $entry);
## MTThreadedComments patch start ##
$ctx->stash('comment_parent_id', $q->param('parent_id'));
## MTThreadedComments patch end ##
File: mt/lib/MT/Comment.pm
Subroutine: the root (i.e., the implicit) routine, at the beginning of the file
column_defs => {
'id' => 'integer not null auto_increment',
'blog_id' => 'integer not null',
'entry_id' => 'integer not null',
'author' => 'string(100)',
'commenter_id' => 'integer',
'visible' => 'boolean',
'junk_status' => 'smallint',
'email' => 'string(75)',
'url' => 'string(255)',
## MTThreadedComments patch start ##
'subject' => 'text',
'parent_id' => 'integer',
## MTThreadedComments patch end ##
and…
indexes => {
ip => 1,
created_on => 1,
entry_id => 1,
blog_id => 1,
email => 1,
commenter_id => 1,
## MTThreadedComments patch start ##
parent_id => 1,
## MTThreadedComments patch end ##
mt_comments Table
Next, you'll need to add two columns to the mt_comments table. I used phpMyAdmin.
comment_subject (text)
comment_parent_id (int)
Implementing my Ajax comments script: The details
If you plan on using my Ajax comments script (which you can get directly from my server) or something based on it:
MT Code Edits
File: mt/lib/MT/App/Comments.pm
Subroutine: post()
at the end of the routine:
return do_preview($app, $app->{query}, '');
return $app->redirect($comment_link);
This returns the comment preview html to the Ajax script which then inserts it into the existing individual archive page.
Comment Preview Template
You will need to edit your Comment Preview Template so that it only returns the html required to preview the comment. That means no <head>, no <body>, nothing except the comment itself and any tags that you need to format it. My xhtml code looks like this:
<MTIfNonEmpty tag="CommentPreviewSubject">
<h2><$MTCommentPreviewSubject$></h2></MTIfNonEmpty>
<$MTCommentPreviewBody$>
<div class="posted">
<p>Posted by: <$MTCommentPreviewAuthorLink spam_protect="1"$> |
<$MTCommentPreviewDate format="%a, %B %e, %Y, %H:%M"$></p>
</div>
Incidentally, the MTThreadedComments plugin does not provide a MTIfCommentPreviewSubject container tag so I had to use MTIfNotEmpty provided by Brad Choate's ifempty plugin.
Comment Error Template
You will also need to edit your Comment Error Template so that it only returns the minimum html required to view it within the Comment Form Error div if an error should occur during final submission of the comment. My xhtml code (it's just 3 lines) looks like this:
<h3>Comment Submission Error</h3>
<p>Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:</p>
<$MTErrorMessage$>
Individual Entry Archive edits
You'll need to add MTThreadedComments tags and JavaScript code to your template. For example;
The code that produces the comments list:
<MTIfCommentsActive>
<div id="comments-list">
<h3 id="comments">Comments</h3>
<MTRootComments>
<div id="comment-<$MTCommentID$>-parent" class="comment-parent">
<$MTInclude module="comments nested"$>
</div><!-- comment_parent -->
</MTRootComments>
</div> <!-- comments list -->
</MTIfCommentsActive>
The code for the 'comments nested' module:
<div id="comment-<$MTCommentID$>" class="comments-body">
<MTIfCommentSubject><h2><$MTCommentSubject$></h2></MTIfCommentSubject>
<div id="comment-<$MTCommentID$>-body">
<$MTCommentBody$>
</div> <!-- comment-<$MTCommentID$>-body -->
<div class="posted">
<p>Posted by: <$MTCommentAuthorLink spam_protect="1"$> | <$MTCommentDate format="%a, %B %e, %Y, %H:%M"$>
<MTIfCommentsAccepted> | <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="respond(<$MTCommentID$>, '<$MTCommentSubject remove_html="1" encode_js="1"$>', '<$MTCommentAuthor remove_html="1" encode_js="1"$>')">Respond to this comment</a></MTIfCommentsAccepted></p>
</div>
</div> <!-- comment-<$MTCommentID$> comments-body -->
<MTCommentIfChildren>
<div id="comment-<$MTCommentID$>-children" class="comments-children">
<MTCommentChildren>
<div id="comment-<$MTCommentID$>-child" class="comments-child">
<$MTInclude module="comments nested"$>
</div> <!-- comment-<$MTCommentID$>-child -->
</MTCommentChildren>
</div> <!-- comment-<$MTCommentID$>-children -->
</MTCommentIfChildren>
The code in my template that produces the "Create a comment regarding this article." link at the end of the comment list:
<MTIfCommentsAccepted>
<p><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="respond (0, '<$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_js="1"$>', '河國榮')">
Create a comment regarding this article.</a></p>
<MTElse>
<p>Comments to this entry are no longer being accepted.</p>
</MTElse>
</MTIfCommentsAccepted>
For reference, the MTThreadedComments plugin provides the following tags:
<MTRootComments>, <MTCommentChildren>, <MTCommentIfChildren>
<MTIfCommentSubject>, <MTUnlessCommentSubject>, <$MTCommentSubject$>
<$MTCommentPreviewSubject$>, <$MTCommentResponseSubject$>
<MTCommentParent>, <$MTCommentParentID$>, <MTCommentIfParent>, <MTCommentUnlessParent>
<MTCommentPreviewParent>, <$MTCommentPreviewParentID$>, <MTCommentPreviewIfParent>, <MTCommentPreviewUnlessParent>
Optional: An improved link to the comment upon comment submission.
When you submit a comment, MT currently usually in the Comment Notification email returns a link to the Individual Entry Archive page without including the comment # anchor. You can rectify this if you wish.
File: mt/lib/MT/App/Comments.pm
Subroutine: post()
in the # Form a link to the comment section:
# $comment_link = $entry->permalink;
$comment_link = $entry->permalink . '#comment-' . $comment->id;
Note. My Individual Entry Archive template assigns ids to each of the comments
using the format id="comment-<$MTCommentID$>". Your format may and probably does differ. You will need to adjust the $comment_link code accordingly.
MT 3.34/3.35 and FastCGI
Note. This setup works with MT 3.34/3.35 and FastCGI as long as you don't use the FastCGI version of AdminScript; i.e., in the config file;
AdminScript mt.cgi
CommentScript mt-c.fcgi
TrackbackScript mt-t.fcgi
SearchScript mt-search.fcgi
ViewScript mt-view.fcgi
If you use the FastCGI version of AdminScript, building the Individual Entry Archive pages will fail; something to do with this line of code in the get_comments() subroutine of the MTThreadedComments.pl code:
my @comments = sort { $a->created_on <=> $b->created_on }
MT produces an error which begins with these three lines:
unknown column: parent_id for class MT::Comment at lib/MT/Object.pm line 283
MT::Object::AUTOLOAD('MT::Comment=HASH(0x92a1cc8)') called at /path_to_cgi-bin/mt/plugins/MTThreadedComments.pl line 123
MT::get_comments('MT::Template::Context=HASH(0x9168aa4)', 'MT::Entry=HASH(0x9175904)', 'undef') called at /path_to_cgi-bin/mt/plugins/MTThreadedComments.pl line 153
If anyone knows why this line doesn't work, please leave a comment.
Other details
You will of course need to write (or copy) the css for the form, etc. I use Dean Edwards' IE7 JavaScript script to help standardise the look of my blog on IE so don't count on my css to help you code for IE.
No support! I can offer no support for this implementation of MTThreadedComments. If you don't understand the instructions, then it's probably too difficult for you and you shouldn't attempt it.
Above all else; and it should go without saying; back up your MT installation before you begin editing the code and templates.
That's all folks!
