Collapsible Comments is my plugin for WordPress. It was created for my personall needs and because i couldn’t find any other plugin to show a few words of each comment and open the full comment text by choice. Fell free to try it, share your opinion with me and make any suggestions!
Collapsible Comments version 3.8
Updated @ 21/07/2008
Download Collapsible Comments
(from the Wordpress Repository)
Collapsible Comments shows an excerpt of each comment on your blog (the first characters of each comment) and you can expand any comment inline by demand. That means you don’t have to scroll too deep to read the last comment and you can read only the comment you want without destructing your attention (or getting bored). It was developed for my needs because i get really long comments and the readers found annoying scrolling down to read the last unread comments (so as I).
After the succesfull installation you will see the first 130 characters of each comment and a link [+] which you can click it to open the box with the comment text. After reading it you could leave it opened and go to another one or close it by clicking the [-] link. There are also two additional links [Open ↓] and [Close ↑] which they also do the same job. Texts can be changed in collapsible-comments.php file. The separate CSS file has been removed to avoid multiple http requests but you can easily give your own style at the comment box by opening collapsible-comments.php file. There you can define the number of characters from which a comment should be in an “opened” or “closed” state by changing the value of $ccTEXT_lenght variable. Comments with less characters will start opened. There’s another variable named $CCstyle and is used to apply a style on comments and comment box. After that you are ready!
You can also leave a test comment in this page if you want to see it in action but make it long, more than 200 characters!
- Decompress and upload the folder collapsible-comments to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins‘ menu in WordPress.
- Find the file comments.php in your theme directory and replace the expression <?php comment_text(); ?> with the <?php collapsiblecomments(); ?>
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- Deactivate the plugin through the ‘Plugins‘ menu in WordPress.
- Delete the folder collapsible-comments from your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Decompress and upload the folder collapsible-comments to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins‘ menu in WordPress.
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- Find the file comments.php in your theme directory and replace the expression <?php collapsiblecomments(); ?> with the <?php comment_text(); ?>
- Deactivate the plugin through the ‘Plugins‘ menu in WordPress.
- Delete the folder collapsible-comments from your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
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| Collapsible Comments is tested on WordPress 2.3 and above and acts nice on IE6, IE7, Opera, Firefox, Safari or any modern browser supporting javascript. It is compatible with all the plugins that i ‘m using (check my plugins page). It is advised to not install it along with other plugins which aim the same purpose and *always* keep a back up of your files. To install it you must have the ability to upload and edit some files. |
Version 3.8: WP2.6 compatible.
Version 3.7: Small fix to DIV value for html validation.
Version 3.6: Changed all SPANs to DIVs.
Version 3.5: Fix for PHP 4.X.X.
Version 3.4: CSS file has been removed. A Variable with the desired number of characters of an excerpt was added and lots of other changes.
Version 3.3: Small bug in CSS file.
Version 3.2: Invert .js code thx to Matteo for better handling collapsible elements.
Version 3.1: Doubleclick bug was smashed. More choices at the CSS file with styles for comment excerpt and comment text.
Version 3.0: Major changes so that it can be used to have collapsible elements within a page or post.
Version 2.0.1: Small changes to readme.txt file.
Version 2.0: Changes to the Javascript code so now the reader has the ability to leave OPENED as many comments as he wants.
Version 1.2: In order to customize the comment’s presentation, i put a separate css file so changes to “look ‘n feel” of the table who has the comments would be made there. I also put a separate js file so i could improve the javascript without changing the php file. Variables of text has been put in php file and the script can be localize. |
- Is this plugin free?
Yeah, this plugin is free. That means you can do whatever you like with it without paying, donating or doing anything dealing with money.
- May I alter it, change it, recode it?
You can do whatever you like with it.
- It didn’t work at my blog!
There maybe a conflict with other plugins. You ‘d better leave a comment here and I will try to help you. If you can’t use it just uninstall it.
- It destroyed my blog!
This plugin CAN’T destroy a blog. Read carefully the uninstallation process and everything will get back to normal.
- Does this plugin change my database/data/tables/comments?
NO! This plugin just calls a javascript function to show the comments you already have in your database but doesn’t changes your data or messing your database in anyway.
- Will this plugin make my page load faster?
NOT in anyway. Your page will load all the comments from the beginning. The difference is that it will show each one on demand.
- Is it useful for my blog?
Well, honestly I don’t know. I just find it useful for my blog because sometimes many readers leave really big comments and it’s annoying scrolling down too deep to read the unread ones. Here’s an example of one long post with more than 70 comments, half of them have more than 500 words! A heavy page but think it without that plugin!
- OK, so how can i use it to have collapsible elements like you do?
I made a separate plugin which you can see it at Collapsible Elements page. If you don’t need Collapsible Comments go and get Collapsible Elements plugin!
- Can i just have both Collapsible Elements and Collapsible Comments?
Yeah, you can, Collapsible Elements plugin checks if Collapsible Comments is activated and uses its Javascript without to load it again.
- Can you make it do “this” or “that”?
I could make almost anything but it takes time and the right mood. Just leave a wish and expect no promises.
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Collapsible Comments is based on the Javascript i found on Arvind Satyanarayan example which toggles the visibility of multiple elements on a page, see the code in his website.
22-01-2010 @ 14:24 [ID:11156]
It doesn’t work on my 2.9.1 installation with Sandbox theme. I’m checking thie …
22-01-2010 @ 14:56 [ID:11157]
It does (as you can see i’m using latest WP) but it requires a bit of tweaking functions.php file in your theme directory so if you can handle php files then go straight to my forums and read what you should do to make it work. If you like it try it.
Unfortunately it doesnt work “out of the box” cause i don’t have spare time to make a new release. I ‘ll be waiting for WP 3.0 changes and i ‘ll decide about it. But there’s always a workaround for anything.