ejm

Excuse me for replying to myself….

Success!!

I reread the format instructions at https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/better-recent-comments/ and, at last, this line of code put into a Widget text produces the date format that is the same as on my WP.

[better_recent_comments format="{author} on {post}, {date}" date_format="l, j F Y"]

I did have to fool around a bit with the css because the text file throws things over to the right a bit.

These are the styles that I put into my theme’s style sheet:

/* Better recent Comments */
#better-recent-comments li {background:transparent url('/images/customicon.gif') no-repeat left 6%; padding-left:15px;}
#better-recent-comments li .comment-date {display:inline;}
#better-recent-comments li .comment-date::before {content:" on  ";}
#better-recent-comments .recent-comment {margin-left:-6px;}

Thank you again for your assistance, Andy.

-E Morris

Ohhhh! I hadn’t thought of that option. But, alas, it didn’t work. The date format remained in the M j, H:i form. Also, there was no way to make the comments themselves invisible. I only want the commenter’s name, post link and comment date to show on the sidebar.

Also, the text version was shifted over to the right (I confess that I didn’t look at the rendered coding to see what was causing it (an extra <ul><li> perhaps??)

So. I guess I will have to live with the existing date format.

Thank you, Andy. Because I’m using the sidebar widget, I had hoped it could be incorporated into the coding itself, but at least this is a solution. I’ll keep staring at the coding to see where to put the shortcode. I wonder if I can do this in my theme’s functions file with a conditional. Something along the lines of “if better-recent-comments is there… then date_format=”l, j F Y” (Again, having attended the University of the Internet, I only know enough about coding to get myself in trouble.)

Do you think that setting the default to the WP date format setting might be an option in a future version? I hope so….

E Morris

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

I would like to do something a little simpler than changing to relative time. Alas, I only know enough about coding to get myself in trouble. I tried adding the following to my theme’s functions file, but (aside from the fact that it’s quite unwieldy) it didn’t work at all.

/*...............
Changing  date format from 'M j, H:i' to 'l, j F Y' on Better_Recent_Comments_Util
...............*/
	function new_default_shortcode_args() {
		return array(
			'number'		 => 5,
			'format'		 => self::get_comment_format(),
			'date_format'	 => 'l, j F Y',
			'avatar_size'	 => 50,
			'post_status'	 => 'publish',
			'excerpts'		 => true
		);
	}
	add_filter('default_shortcode_args', 'new_default_shortcode_args');

The description of the plugin implies that the date format can be changed in the shortcode

Options available with the shortcode:
[…] date_format – the PHP date format to use. Defaults to ‘M j, H:i’. See this cheat sheet for a full list of date and time options.

Rather than imposing an arbitrary date format, please explain how to change the coding to use the date format that is in the WP settings: date(get_option('date_format'))

If I knew how to do this, I would…. Thank you for any help that can be offered on this.

E Morris

Thank you for your reply, Edward.

If Disqus hadn’t stripped the user ID from the comments I made, then this would make sense. Comments made before I installed the Disqus plugin are nicely following the .commentlist .bypostauthor css rules in my Twenty Twelve child stylesheet. But it’s the comments that were exported to Disqus and back that are disobeying the rules. I think the user IDs have been stripped.

What I need to know is how to put them back – if it’s even possible.

I tried disabling iThemes Security and switching to WordFence (my webhost will not allow me to run WP without a security plugin). Alas, the manual sync’ing still did not work.

It’s with great regret that I have had to disable Disqus. So, even though the solution was not found, I’m marking this thread as “resolved”.

Thank you again, brevityness, for all your replies.

Augh!!!

I have discovered that the missing comments in wp goes back much further than 24 May. I have also discovered that manual sync’ing doesn’t necessarily work. (For an April post that has 8 comments, only 4 appeared after the manual sync’ing.)

I must apologize for taking up so much of your time, brevity.

I just saw the following at https://help.disqus.com/troubleshooting/wordpress-troubleshooting-and-faq

If Syncing is not working in version 3.x
1. Check the webhook link here: https://YOURSITE.com/wp-json/disqus/v1/sync/webhook

If that link is not returning anything or not loading, something is blocking outside sources like Disqus from making requests to your site.

2. This may also be caused by a conflict with ones of your current plugins (often a security plugin). […] Specific conflicting themes that we’ve identified so far:

Disable REST API
iThemes Security

I am running iThemes Security. I hesitate to mark this thread as resolved though. I will investigate with iThemes Security to find out the solution and report back if there is a solution.

Hmmm it’s possible that another plugin is interfering with the set up process. You could try disabling other plugins and attempting to re-install again to see if that works.

The problem with disabling other plugins one by one is that the site looks broken. Not to mention that it’s very time consuming. So, to save time (ha!), I upgraded to the latest version of WP.

Alas, autosyncing is still showing up as “unconfigured”.

In spite of the fact that I believe my Disqus account seems to be configured, this is what I see after selecting the “enable auto syncing” tab in the wp-admin area of the Disqus Plugin:

Auto syncing: Not Configured
Error enabling syncing: Verification request failed: 2018-05-31 5:51 pm

I have got manual sync’ing to work but it could prove to be a little unwieldy to have to remember to do it. Because autosyncing was working before the latest plugin update, and because manual sync’ing is working, I’m afraid I’m disinclined to try to fix the autosyncing through trial and error by disabling plugins one by one.

Thank you for your help, brevityness. Am I correct that autosyncing is working for you?

If not, I’m not sure now who or how to ask about how to fix autosyncing, but as there is one other person who posted on the Disqus forum about autosyncing not working in her WP, I suspect it may be something that was done in the latest upgrade of Disqus itself.

So. I jumped to configuration in the Disqus admin area and got the message:

Setup Complete!

Congratulations, you finished installing Disqus! Here are a few pages to help you get started using Disqus.

But. Sync’ing is still not completed.

Please advise.

What’s the link of the page where you clicked the “Install [sitename] on your site”.

That is correct. I just tried reinstalling again to doublecheck. It goes to the following link:
https://[myshortname].disqus.com/admin/install/platforms/wordpress/

The message is the same: “An error occurred trying to configure your site. Make sure the Disqus plugin is installed and activated, and that your site is publicly accessible.”

The plugin is installed and activated; my site is publicly accessible; Disqus commenting system appears to be working on the site. However, in the wp-admin area for a post that has comments, it says “no comments yet”. Because automatic sync’ing has not been set up.

It’s a vicious circle.

Is it because I have not yet updated to the very latest version of WP? (I have not had time to do the backups necessary before updating. I was under the impression that this latest WP update was NOT a security update.)

The odd thing is that it appears that Disqus is installed on the site. I just looked at a post with comments and they are there.

However, the old version of automatic sync’ing does not seem to be available. According to the message under the Sync tab in WP-admin,

You must have a site short name, API Secret Key, and API Access Token configured to enable this feature.

I have entered all of those (again) and tried “reinstalling” (again) and still get the same error message.

I highly recommend following the Automatic Installation flow built into the plugin

This is exactly what I’m trying to do.

I have just deleted Disqus plugin, reinstalled/activated it, gone to the wordpress installation page on Disqus, pasted the sync token, clicked “install” and got the following message:

An error occurred trying to configure your site. Make sure the Disqus plugin is installed and activated, and that your site is publicly accessible.

This is very frustrating! (The only reason I am using Disqus instead of WP commenting system is because a while back, I suffered a brute force attack and my webhost told me I had to use a 3rd party commenting system.)

The shortname is etherwork and the link to my site is etherwork dot net slash blog slash (purposely left spelled out so as to keep spammers and brute force attackers at bay)

You can also try restarting the entire process by deleting the plugin and installing it again on your WordPress site.

If I do that, does that mean I would have to re-import the comments to Disqus?

Once again, excuse me for appearing to reply to myself.

Okay. I’m happy to report that progress is being made and it appears I’m getting closer. Baby steps. Baby steps.

After logging into Disqus, I went to https://disqus.com/api/applications/ to see what my Site Shortname, API Secret Key, and API Public Key are. The API Access Token was a little trickier to find. It turned out to be on the link to https://disqus.com/api/applications/MYAPPLICATIONNUMBER/ at the top of the applications page (it starts with disqus_ and is followed by the number of the application).

I then went to “Reinstall” and finally managed to get a message that all went well. Then I went back to wp-admin section below “syncing” tab and clicked on “Enable AutoSyncing”.

But.Now, instead of “AutoSyncing: Needs Update”, I see

Auto syncing: Not Configured
Error enabling syncing: Verification request failed: 2018-05-30 7:17 pm

I do not know what I am doing wrong. As far as I can see, all the fields are filled in now under the configuration tab.

(Please note that the YouTube video does not show the same things that I see on my wp-admin page.)

I pressed the “back” button to see the various platforms and saw the message
“Looks like Disqus is already installed on your site” at https://MYSHORTNAME.disqus.com/admin/install/