doc/plugins/contrib/comments.mdwn



[[!template id=plugin name=comments author="[[Simon_McVittie|smcv]]"]]
[[!tag type/useful]]
This plugin adds "blog-style" comments. The intention is that on a non-wiki site
(like a blog) you can lock all pages for admin-only access, then allow otherwise
unprivileged (or perhaps even anonymous) users to comment on posts.
When using this plugin, you should also enable [[htmlscrubber]] and either [[htmltidy]]
or [[htmlbalance]]. Directives are filtered out by default, to avoid commenters slowing
down the wiki by causing time-consuming processing. As long as the recommended plugins
are enabled, comment authorship should hopefully be unforgeable by CGI users.
The plugin adds a new [[ikiwiki/PageSpec]] match type, postcomment, for use
with anonok_pagespec from the [[plugins/anonok]] plugin or locked_pages from
the [[plugins/lockedit]] plugin. Typical usage would be something like:
locked_pages => "!postcomment(*)"

to allow non-admin users to comment on pages, but not edit anything. You can also do
anonok_pages => "postcomment(*)"

to allow anonymous comments (the IP address will be used as the "author").
There are some global options for the setup file:

comments_shown_pagespec: pages where comments will be displayed inline, e.g. blog/*
or */discussion.
comments_open_pagespec: pages where new comments can be posted, e.g.
blog/* and created_after(close_old_comments) or */discussion
comments_pagename: if this is e.g. comment_ (the default), then comments on the
[[sandbox]] will be called something like sandbox/comment_12
comments_allowdirectives: if true (default false), comments may contain IkiWiki
directives
comments_commit: if true (default true), comments will be committed to the version
control system
comments_allowauthor: if true (default false), anonymous commenters may specify a
name for themselves, and the [[!meta author]] and [[!meta authorurl]] directives
will not be overridden by the comments plugin

Templates that will display comments (by default that means comments_display.tmpl)
can use the following additional <TMPL_VAR>s:

COMMENTUSER: the authenticated/verified user name, or undefined if the user was not signed in
COMMENTIP: the remote IP address, or undefined if not known (this is not currently recorded
for users who are signed in, who are assumed to be vaguely accountable)
COMMENTAUTHOR: a "prettier" version of the authenticated/verified user name (e.g. OpenIDs are
formatted the same way as in [[RecentChanges]]), or the result of localizing "Anonymous" if the
user was not signed in
COMMENTAUTHORURL: if the user was signed in with an OpenID, that URL; if the user was signed
in with some other username, a CGI URL that redirects to their user page (if any)

This plugin also adds a \[[!comment]] directive which is used when storing comments. This
directive shouldn't be used on pages that are edited in the usual way.
This plugin aims to close the [[todo]] item "[[todo/supporting_comments_via_disussion_pages]]",
and is currently available from [[smcv]]'s git repository on git.pseudorandom.co.uk (it's the
comments-rebase1 branch). A demo wiki with the plugin enabled is running at
http://www.pseudorandom.co.uk/2008/ikiwiki/demo/; the
sandbox page has some
examples of comments.
Known issues:

Needs code review
The access control via postcomment() is rather strange (see [[discussion]] for more details)
There is some common code cargo-culted from other plugins (notably inline and editpage) which
should probably be shared
Joey doesn't think it should necessarily use internal pages (see [[discussion]])
\[[!comment]] should perhaps be `[[!_comment]], or a special filter/htmlize hook rather
than being a directive at all


I haven't done a detailed code review, but I will say I'm pleased you
avoided re-implementing inline! --[[Joey]]

Fixed issues:

Joey didn't think the \[[!comments]] directive was appropriate; comments now appear
on pages selected with a [[ikiwiki/pagespec]]
Joey thought that raw HTML should always be allowed; it now is
tbm wanted anonymous people to be able to enter their name and possibly email
address; a name and website can now be supplied
There is now an indication of who you're signed in as
Each comment is now one big [[!comment]] directive invocation, avoiding previous
issues with unambiguous and un-spoofable metadata