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Comments, Comment Threads and Ratings
Allow logged-in users to post threaded comments (responding to other user’s comments) and ratings against any system or custom module items.
Promote engagement amongst your site members and allow users to give a star rating and comment on any module items you configure for Comments. Comment authors can edit or delete their own comments for full control over their content.
Comments can also be threaded, to show replies nested under their parent comments, or simply displayed as a flat list - sorted by date or other Comment properties.
Moderator controls and Workflow Notifications are also built-in for fine-grain approval control and management of Comments so that admins are notified of new Comments and can approve, decline, or mark as spam if needed.
The Comments module comes with complete interfacing and styles for both the Comment submission form and Comment/Rating layouts and logic, but can also be customised with your own Liquid layouts and styles.
Enabling
Comments is installed as a site extension and can therefore be enabled from your reseller Portal, via the site instance settings, then under the ‘Extensions’ tab.
Clicking the “Install” button will move the extension to the ‘Installed Extensions’ section and activate it for that site.
Once installed, configuration options for the extension will be available by clicking on the “Settings” button, and these are detailed below.
Uninstalling
From your reseller Portal, via the site instance settings, then under the ‘Extensions’ tab, clicking the trash can () icon next to the Comments extension will uninstall the extension from the site and move it back to the ‘Available Extensions’ section.
Managing Comments
View
From the admin, you can access the Comments from the main menu, under 'Extensions' > 'Comments'.
From the Comments list view you can see all Comments in a paginated table layout (with pagination controls at the bottom of the table) and a sortable column headers.
You can also filter the list via the inputs at the top of the table, where you can filter by date ranges, Comment 'Status' and 'Module'.
Additionally, you’ll find controls for editing and deleting Comments, as detailed further below.
Settings
You can access settings for the Comments under the "EDIT SETTINGS" menu which allow for fine-grain moderation and workflow configurations for each CMS module available in your site.
The setting options are described below:
If unchecked, new Comments against the given module will be automatically approved and published.
If unchecked, edited Comments against the given module will be automatically approved and published.
Comment Once Only
A member will only be able to post one Comment per module item (including any Comments still pending or marked as spam for the given item).
Comments unlimited
A member will be able to post an unlimited number of Comments per module item.
Import / Export
Found under the main auxiliary menu (), you can import/export data to/from your Comments module where you can then further update your items in bulk using a spreadsheet application and re-import item data in an Excel file format (.xlsx).
If re-importing to update existing items, be sure to maintain the same 'ID' values from those exported items.
Export the current items in order to get a template import file you can use for importing new data. If you're starting from scratch, first create a dummy item with some sample data so you can see the import format needed.
Delete
Individual items can be deleted either by clicking the trash can icon () to the right of the item or when on the item's edit page, click the trash can icon () in the lower right of the page.
Additionally, you can make bulk selections from the item list view (by ticking the checkboxes on the left of each item) and click the "DELETE SELECTION" button that will appear at the base of the list view.
Editing Comments
From the Comments item list view, click on the pencil icon () of any existing item in the list to view/edit its details.
Currently, you cannot add a new Comment from this section. However, you can import Comments or add a reply Comment.
Upon viewing/editing an item you'll have access to the following data, as detailed below:
Details
The Comment-specific fields defining the Comment are described below:
A rating integer, between 0 and 100, representing a rating value for the module item.
The default Comment form includes a star rating system of 5 stars, with stars valued at 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 incrementally.
Replying to Comments
From the Comments item list view, click on the arrow icon () of any existing item in the list to create a reply Comment.
Displaying Comments
To render the Comments module on your website simply add one of the Comment component tags to your module item’s detail Layout.
You can generate the code for the component tag from the Component Manager, expanding the ‘Comments’ option and selecting either “Thread List” or “Flat List” and further configuring the components options as needed.
Thread List will display Comments with any reply Comments nested underneath the parent Comment. While Flat List will simply display all Comments in a single list.
The default output of these component tags will handle the display of Comments, styles and scripting logic to allow commenting to work for logged-in users. Including the display of the Comment submission form, edit, delete and reply links and all other interface elements.
By default, only the Comments list will be displayed for non-logged-in site visitors.
For more information on configuring the Comment component tags see the Related Articles below for both the ‘Comments’ and ‘CommentThreads’ articles.