Show coComments
Description
Show coComments creates an unordered list(ul) of your most recent comments on the coComment service. It is intended as a replacement for the official coComment blog box. It uses the blog box configuration of a user specified blog box to propogate the list and is capable of hiding commen text, displaying a link to your coComment RSS feed of either your comments or everyones comments on articles you have commented on, it can also display a header which is customizable.
Installation
Installing Show coComments is very straight forward if you are used to using WordPress plugins. Here are the basic steps to get it installed on your WordPress blog.
- Download and unzip the archive
- Use an FTP client and upload the showCoComments directory into the $WPROOT/wp-content/plugins/ folder
- Activate the plugin
- Alternatively you can activate the widget for use with WordPress Widgets
Usage
Standard Plugin
Using this plugin is just as easy as installing it, find the spot in your theme where you want to display the list of coComments and add the theme tag irgShowCoComments(), the plugin does the rest. You do need to give the plugin your coComment username on the Show coComments options page in the admin control panel.
Widget
Once you have activated the widget it will show up in your admin control panel under Presentation -> Sidebar Widgets with the rest of your widgets. You will need to configure the widget by clicking on the configure icon next to the Show coComment widget. After that just drag it over to your sidebar and save the changes.
Thats all there is to it. If you have any questions or find any bugs please leave a comment here and I will address it ASAP!
Known issues
Currently the JSON(P) implementation at coComment does not recognize box configuration changes and will always show the default coComment box, according to the dev’s this will be fixed with the next release of coComment- Currently relies on wp_head() to add CSS styling for the lists and coComment image link. This *MAY* not be called in your WP theme which would cause it to look different
Changelog
- 0.2 - Various bugfixes, bump to 0.2 stable
- 0.2b2 - Minor bugfixes
- 0.2b - Bumped up to Beta, released widgetized version
- 0.2a - Added RSS feed, and configurable container
- 0.1a - Initial Alpha Release
To Do
- Dashboard Integration for everyones recent comments?
Download
Latest: 0.2
Tar: Download Archive Zip: Download Archive
Previous:
0.2b2 Tar: Download Archive Zip: Download Archive
0.2b Tar: Download Archive Zip: Download Archive
0.2a Tar: Download Archive Zip: Download Archive
0.1a Tar: Download Archive Zip: Download Archive
Nice job! I just now noticed your comment on my site. I will try this out when I get some time.
Make sure you grab the new one, it works with configurable boxes, can display your RSS feed, and it contains the entire div container for the coComments wich is customizeable. Be sure and let me know what you think! =)
I don’t know what all these test posts are, but they aren’t showing up on the coComment thread for this page so I can only assume they are either spam or just BS posts. Most likely the latter seeing as how only one of them actually links back somewhere. And so I must delete them.
On a positive note i’ve gotten over 200 downloads of the plugin so far since it’s iniial release! Where are all those people?! Any feedback guys?
Thanks
Thank you for this useful plugin! it works well :)
I have been looking for something like this for awhile, now. The standard coco comment box, even when hacked, looks like hell on my site. I’ll give it a go and let you know.
Thanks for this.
What is the exact tag for me to place in my sidebar? Also, what are all of the options for?
The tag to place it in your sidebar is It does not require any special styling, it even creates it’s own div. The options are all different ways to display your coComments. The header tag and header text options are what will be displayed as a header above the list of coComments. It also gives you an option to display links back to the coComment thread page for an article in addition to the link to the actual article and commenters webpages. If you have any other questions just leave a comment here. Call it the ‘official support thread’ :-P
OK, Pablo… I’ll add: irgShowCoComments() in my sidebar and see what happens. Thanks!
Nope… It just echoes the code on the sidebar… Take a look under the cocomment window.
As usual, trial and error are my constant companions. I got the tag right and the options look good. It appears that there are only 2 options for the coco box, 0 & 1. Zero gives me 3 comments per thread, and 1 gives one comment per thread.
Ah ok, I guess I could have explained that option a bit more thoroughly … when you go to your coComment blog box page(http://coComment.com/share/) You can configure your own Blog Box, which will be given an ID number, an that is what you put in there, or you can leave it at 0 for the default blog box they configure for you.
Hi! That last comment of yours was really useful, you should add it to the Usage section of your post (I almost gave up installing your plugin because the instructions didn’t seem clear enough…)
I installed the plugin, and have had two problems:
a) the Options page is only available when the plugin isn’t activated (weird, isn’t it?). If I activate the plugin, the coComments option page is empty.
b) I put the theme tag in my template, activated the plugin, but I get a fatal error: call to undefined function showcocomments() error when I load my page. I had to de-activate the plugin.
Anybody else having similar problems? Can you fix this?
I had a major problem posting that last comment to your blog. I’ve filed a but with coComment, but it might be a problem on your end too.
I use the FireFox extension. When I submitted the form to post the comment, I got the usual coComment message informing me that my comment was being sent to them. However, all that arrived is this (you can see I tried 3 times): http://www.cocomment.com/comment/76805
Then, the comment was not posted to your blog at all.
After that, I disabled the extension and I could post the comment to your blog normally.
Have any other people reported similar problems? Have you integrated your blog?
Stephanie: As far as the options page not showing up, I have no clue and would probably need some more details, I am using the latest version on my blog here and the options page shows up fine, perhaps a problem with your wordpress install? Also the theme tag is isgShowCoComments, not showcocomments. As far as the coComment issues, I have not installed the coComment integration plugin, I still use the coComment JS button/greasemonkey extension.
Pablo: I was using irgShowCocomments() in my theme, which is why I was surprised to get an error about a ShowComments() function. I’m using the latest stable WP release, to my knowledge.
Nice Job! I am using your plugin on my site right now. :)
I got a same case with Stephany Boothm I just wondering, it’s because Ican’t find Cocomen options page in the admin control panel. Plz somebody help me…:(
The options page link is titled ‘Show coComments’, if it is actually not showing up I am going to need more details to troubleshoot the issue, what version of the plugin do you have? What version of wordpress? Does anything work? If so what does not work? Any error messages?
awesome, am using it right now. makes the cocomments this fit seamlessly with just about any theme! better than the javascipt they give to every user. they should list this widget/plugin especially for wordpress users! XD
Let’s try this again. Leaving a comment here has crashed Netscape 7.2 twice now.
Long story short - I can’t get rid of the RSS icon even though that box is unchecked. Yes, I’ve even tried checking the box but it won’t go away.
Any ideas? :)
Thanks,
-drmike
drmike: There were a few typo’s in the plugin that caused the option not to be recognized properly. This actually happened in more than one place because of a naming scheme I used early on in development and never got updated in certain parts. This also affected the widget so any users should upgrade to the latest version 0.2b2.
Thank you for the response.
I may have found a bigger issue though. I’m downloading the showCoComments-0.2b2.zip file via the link above and it’s displaying version 0.1a. :)
Yeah, that is actually a big issue, one that I am actually aware of. The issue for those of you who aren’t aware … is that I am a lazy summabitch LOL … I will go ahead and fix that and upload a new one. Sorry :-P
Works great. Thanks.
Hi! I’m having a minor problem with your widget: if I put an apostrophe in the widget title (IE, Steph’s coComments) it breaks and doesn’t display at all.
Not sure if the problem is on your end or the widget plugin’s. I suspect a string needs escaping/sanitizing somewhere.
The widget wasn’t working for some obscure reason, and suddenly it started working again, out of the blue. I don’t know what I did to make it work.
Stephanie: Thanks, that one totally slipped by me =) Fixed that, as well as a few other bugs and bumped it up to 0.2 … download the new version and find some new bugs for me =)
Another bug, in the CSS this time. Line 70 of the widget part of the plugin widget_irgShowCoComments.php and line 259 of irgShowCoComments.php
margin-botttom: 8px;
should have only two t’s!
(thanks to Yoan and Firebug for picking it up — http://yoan.dosimple.ch/blog/
Pablo: BTW, any idea what could have been making the widget silently fail at times? It started working on my site all by itself again, but I don’t think I did anything. Could it have something to do with comment content — some situations making it blow up and fail silently?
confirmation: the 3 t’s in botttom are in your 2.0 stable version. would be nice to fix the typo.
Changed and repackaged 2.0, there were only 2 downloads of it so hopefully that is not a huge fau paux =) As far as the plugin not working at all, if your server is unable to retrieve your coComments from the coComment server(it being down, or something else blocking it) the plugin will appear to not be installed(by design) Nothing should show up at all in that event. I did that back when the coComment server was down for like a week and didn’t like the an error message showing up on my blog =)
Cool, thanks! will blog this now.
Er… now got sidetracked, sorry. Next on the blogging list, though.
Other little bug: missing amp; in the blog box url:
$URL = 'http://cocomment.com/mybox-json?nick='.$this->options['ccUsername'].'&box='.$this->options['ccBox'].'&callback=SCCCallback';Where is the missing ampersand? It all looks right to me.
Well, you need to use the HTML entity & (I hope this comes out right) in the URL instead of a just a normal ampersand. It needs to be escaped.
it did come out right, for the record :-) — Use & instead of & in the URLs.
damn! & instead of &
There we are :-) Result
$URL = ‘http://cocomment.com/mybox-json?nick=’.$this->options[’ccUsername’].’&box=’.$this->options[’ccBox’].’&callback=SCCCallback’;Pablo — you might want to add your plugin to the plugin directory at http://wp-plugins.net/
cheers!
I see some posts above from Stephanie. It was her website where I got the coComments idea from in the first place. I was able to install the plugin and it’s running with no issues. I came back to see what the 0 and 1 thing were all about and I was happy to see the post about the coComment Blog Box. Will check that out net
Nice plugin, works fine.
Thanks for this!
Ahhaaa.. at last the info ive been looking for !!..
Many thanks all IM sorted now cheers !
Nice widget! I just installed it, and it looks great on my blog.
Thanks!
Jose
I supposed it can not be used on a .wordpress blog? (as it does not accept java scripts)
anything for wpmu?
I can’t use Show CoComments because I had customized my sidebar manually - now with WP 2.2 widgets, I can only replace my sidebar. (You can’t just add to it.)
Do you know any way I can add this widget without it replacing the customization I made to my sidebar?
Jonathon: The release does come with a plugin file and a widget. They both work exactly the same way just activate the plugin instead of the widget and add the function call irgShowCoComments(); where it fits into your customization.
Thanks - you’re right!
This plugin is very helpful, i use his becouse i have a blog. Than’s
David: Thank you =) I always like to hear that people are getting use out of something I wrote!
Hi,
Thank you for this very usefull plugin.
Sadly I am getting an error when the widget is activated and visit the plugin options page. (options-general.php?page=irgShowCoComments.php)
Warning: calluserfuncarray() [function.call-user-func-array]: First argument is expected to be a valid callback, ‘widgetirgShowCoComments::optionsPage’ was given in …../wp-includes/plugin.php on line 164
Deactivating the widget in plugins and the optionpage works perfect.
I use WP2.3
When posting the last comment I got this error on your site:
Warning: in_array() [function.in-array]: Wrong datatype for second argument in /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments.php on line 434
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments.php:434) in /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-comments-post.php on line 67
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments.php:434) in /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-comments-post.php on line 68
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments.php:434) in /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-comments-post.php on line 69
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments.php:434) in /home/7874/domains/irgeek.net/html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 331
Thomas-DK: I tried out the widget on another blog of mine with version 2.3 on it and it worked okay. I think they have done something new with widgets with the more recent versions but I don’t know what, I will keep looking into it and see if there is anything I need to change for it to work. If you have any more details about the widget implementation you have that would be very helpful.
And it looks like the comment posting error is resolved as well =)
This rocks! Now using it on a few of my blogs.
Thank you for releasing this. (i heart open source ;))