Making my comments different

well, the way I do it works for multi-author blogs too… my theme is based on kubrick so your mileage will vary.

In whichever element contains your comment (in my case it’s a list-item) where you might ordinarily put the class put this:

<?php if($comment->comment_author_email == get_the_author_email()) echo ‘class=”byauthor”‘; else echo $oddcomment; ?>

the $oddcomment functionality is for themes which alternate comment classes based on odd/even numbers, it just inserts the regular class= attribute. I’ve maintained that, but added a completely different class called ‘byauthor’ which is only used if the comment was written by the author of the post.

So I put that in my comments.php file in place of what’s already there?

Here is my current comments.php file, where would I insert that?

<?php if ( !empty($post->post_password) && $_COOKIE['wp-postpass_' . COOKIEHASH] != $post->post_password) : ?>
<p><?php _e('Enter your password to view comments.'); ?></p>
<?php return; endif; ?>

<?php if ( $comments ) : ?>

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) :
$commentcounter++;
if ($commentcounter % 2 == 0) { ?>
<div class="commentodd" id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>"><div class="commentcontent">
<p class="comment_header"><span class="comment_name"><?php comment_author_link() ?></span><br /><?php comment_date() ?> - <?php comment_time() ?></p><br />
    <?php comment_text() ?>

</div></div>
<?php } else { ?>
<div class="commenteven" id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>"><div class="commentcontent">
<p class="comment_header"><span class="comment_name"><?php comment_author_link() ?></span><br /><?php comment_date() ?> - <?php comment_time() ?></p><br />
    <?php comment_text() ?>

</div></div>
<?php } endforeach; endif; ?>

<?php if ( comments_open() ) : ?>
<div class="post">
<h3><?php _e('Leave a comment'); ?></h3>

<?php if ( get_option('comment_registration') && !$user_ID ) : ?>
<p>You must be <a href="<?php echo get_option('siteurl'); ?>/wp-login.php?redirect_to=<?php the_permalink(); ?>">logged in</a> to post a comment.</p>
<?php else : ?>

<form action="<?php echo get_option('siteurl'); ?>/wp-comments-post.php" method="post" id="commentform">

<?php if ( $user_ID ) : ?>

<p>Logged in as <a href="<?php echo get_option('siteurl'); ?>/wp-admin/profile.php"><?php echo $user_identity; ?></a>. <a href="<?php echo get_option('siteurl'); ?>/wp-login.php?action=logout" title="<?php _e('Log out of this account') ?>">Logout &raquo;</a></p>

<?php else : ?>

<p><input type="text" name="author" id="author" value="<?php echo $comment_author; ?>" size="22" tabindex="1" />
<label for="author"><small>Name <?php if ($req) _e('(required)'); ?></small></label></p>

<p><input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="<?php echo $comment_author_email; ?>" size="22" tabindex="2" />
<label for="email"><small>Mail (will not be published) <?php if ($req) _e('(required)'); ?></small></label></p>

<p><input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="<?php echo $comment_author_url; ?>" size="22" tabindex="3" />
<label for="url"><small>Website</small></label></p>

<?php endif; ?>

<!--<p><small><strong>XHTML:</strong> You can use these tags: <?php echo allowed_tags(); ?></small></p>-->

<p><textarea name="comment" id="comment" cols="100%" rows="10" tabindex="4"></textarea></p>

<p><input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" tabindex="5" value="Submit Comment" />
<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo $id; ?>" />
</p>
<?php do_action('comment_form', $post->ID); ?>

</form>
</div>

<?php endif; endif; ?>

well.. yes, but it really depends on what’s already there.

there will be an element there which encases each comment.

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
  <div class="someclass">
  ...

or in my case…

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
  <li class="someclass">
  ...

regardless of the element, you just replace the class=”someclass” part with what I’ve posted.

if your class is actually called “someclass” then the exact code to drop in there would be:

<?php if($comment->comment_author_email == get_the_author_email()) echo ‘class=”byauthor”‘; else echo ‘class=”someclass”‘; ?>

As you know, themes vary wildly, so it’s really kind of hard to tell you exactly where to put it or how it should look — you’ll have to try to understand the code and bend it to suit your theme.

Also, you’ll then need to define the .byauthor class in your theme’s style.css

ok, I was too slow in replying I guess… here’s the deal…

on the line beginning with:

<div class=”commentodd” id=”comment

replace:

class=”commentodd”

with:

<?php if($comment->comment_author_email == get_the_author_email()) echo ‘class=”byauthor”‘; else echo ‘class=”commentodd”‘; ?>

then, as I said above, you’ll need to edit your style.css to create a new class called ‘byauthor’ which you can style to look the way you want it to look.

Yeah, the CSS side I’m fine with. I just kinda suck at PHP and am still learning the intricacies of the loop. Once I get it to call my posts by a different class I’m fine.

Anything you can tell me by looking at my comments.php?

hahaha replies flying past each other

thanks mate, I’ll give that a go.

sweet, that works… now to style it up so it doesn’t look like shit.

glad you got it going ??

It’s lookin good now. Only a couple more tweaks.

https://www.minute44.com/archives/109

Check it out.