[[!template id=plugin name=postcomment 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.
Comments are saved as internal pages, so they can never be edited through the CGI,
only by direct committers. Currently, comments are always in [[ikiwiki/markdown]].
So, why do it this way, instead of using regular wiki pages in a
namespace, such as $page/comments/*? Then you could use [[plugins/lockedit]] to
limit editing of comments in more powerful ways. --[[Joey]]
Directives and raw HTML are filtered out by default, and comment authorship should
hopefully be unforgeable by CGI users.
I'm not sure that raw html should be a problem, as long as the
htmlsanitizer and htmlbalanced plugins are enabled. I can see filtering
out directives, as a special case. --[[Joey]]
When comments have been enabled generally, you still need to mark which pages
can have comments, by including the \[[!postcomment]] directive in them. By default,
this directive expands to a "post a comment" link plus an \[[!inline]] with
the comments.
I don't like this, because it's hard to explain to someone why they have
to insert this into every post to their blog. Seems that the model used
for discussion pages could work -- if comments are enabled, automatically
add the comment posting form and comments to the end of each page.
--[[Joey]]
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").
Optional parameters to the postcomment directive:
commit=no: by default, comments are committed to version control. Use this to
disable commits.allowhtml=yes: by default, raw HTML is filtered out. Use this to allow HTML
(you should enable [[plugins/htmlscrubber]] and either [[plugins/htmltidy]] or
[[plugins/contrib/htmlbalance]] if you do this).allowdirectives=yes: by default, IkiWiki directives are filtered out. Use this
to allow directives (avoid enabling any [[plugins/type/slow]] directives if you
do this).closed=yes: use this to prevent new comments while still displaying existing ones.atom, rss, feeds, feedshow, timeformat, feedonly: the same as for [[plugins/inline]]
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.
Known issues:
- Needs code review
- The access control via postcomment() is rather strange
- There is some common code cargo-culted from other plugins (notably inline and editpage) which
should probably be shared
- If the postcomment directive is removed from a page, comments can still be made on that page,
and will be committed but not displayed; to disable comments properly you have to set the
closed="yes" directive parameter (and refresh the wiki), then remove the directive if
desired
I haven't done a detailed code review, but I will say I'm pleased you
avoided re-implementing inline! --[[Joey]]
