Well as soon as i knew the comments table had a field for the user agent the first thing i did was ask myself how comments are looped…
The theme i use has wp_list_comments, so i hit the codex and created a custom callback, it was then a matter of guessing/assuming how to call that field…
In this case..
$comment->comment_agent
I assumed $comment was an object which is the result from the comments table, so then i reference the necessary field, that being “comment_agent”..
Testing locally means i can run any code without fear of opening a gaping security hole…
So while testing i do alot of…
<?php
print '<pre>';
print_r($somevar);
print '</pre>';
?>
and..
<?php
print '<pre>';
var_dump($somevar);
print '</pre>';
?>
Also turn on full error reporting and notices…
I also have this little function for printing out handy info..
function variable_array_dump($var_name, $var_array) {
if (is_array($var_array)) {
$output = "
<table width='100%'>
<tr>
<td width='20%'><b>" . $var_name . "</b></td>
<td><b>VALUE</b></td>
</tr>
";
foreach ($var_array as $key => $value) {
$value = variable_array_dump($key, $value);
$output .= "
<tr>
<td>$key</td>
<td>$value</td>
</tr>
";
}
$output .= "
</table>
";
return $output;
}
else {
return strval($var_array);
}
}
//echo variable_array_dump('SOMENAME', $_SERVER);
The commented bit is an example, in this case i get a print out of what’s been stored in $_SERVER, but you can use, $_POST, $_GET, or just about anything else… (It’s not 100% perfect, but it works for most things – grabbed it off google)…
It definately helps to know what variables and requests are being made on each page load, especially if you’re working on a plugin or function… though for most things a var_dump or print_r is sufficient..
