Recent Comments

Caveat

Unfortunately, due to ill-health, this plugin has not been developed or supported properly for some years. It works with the latest versions of WordPress (including on this website) but could possibly conflict with any WordPress features added after 2008 — e.g. custom post types — if you use them.

Purpose

This plugin displays a list of the most recent comments to your blog in a highly customisable way.

This is version 2.6.2.1 download latest version. It is compatible with WordPress 1.5–2.6.2.

Please note the new upgrade instructions!

  • 2.6.2.1 allows output to be restricted to one comment per post.
  • 2.6.2.0 supplies a .pot file making internationalisation possible; introduces the {imagealt} output tag and allows {excerpt} to output whole sentences; the content filter and the widget can now take a parameter string; output can be automatically placed after post content without editing theme files.
  • 2.6.1.0 allows the current post to be marked manually where the automatic mechanism fails; when used as a widget the plugin now honours the setting to show nothing when there is no output; and {commenterlink} now applies the appropriate WordPress filter.
  • 2.6.0.1 fixes the option to include attachments and adds a parameter to the {imagesrc} output tag to append a suffix to the image name.
  • 2.5.0.11 has a new option to include posts which are attachments; a new output template tag {authorurl} which points to the archive of the author’s posts; new behaviour for the {php} output tag which can now accept other output tags in the code.
  • 2.5.0.10 fixes several bugs.
  • 2.5.0.9 adds an option to match the current post’s author and extends the options for snippet and excerpt output tags to make the ‘more’ text into a link.
  • 2.5.0.8 adds an option to show posts by status, i.e., published/private/draft/future, changes the {categorynames} and {categorylinks} output tags by applying the ‘single_cat_name’ filter, and fixes a bug in WordPress pre-2.2 that stopped installation code running on Windows servers.
  • 2.5.0.1 has a new option to only show comments from the current post and improvements to the output tags {commentsnippet} and {commentexcerpt}.
  • 2.5.0 introduces a new output tag {imagesrc}, and adds more parameters to {image}. Fixes bugs with empty categories, excluded posts, and the option to omit current posts.
  • 2.5b25 makes some important changes: the {image} output tag now serves real thumbnails (couple of bug fixes too); output can now be sorted as you choose with sub-headings included; the {date:raw} tag modifier has been added to help the sorting; the ‘trim_before’ option has been replaced with the more logical ‘divider’.
  • 2.5b24 fixes to stop recursive replacement by content filter, {gravatar} to allow for ‘identicon’ etc., to {commenter} to allow trimming, and to remove a warning in safe mode
  • 2.5b23 brings a new option to filter on custom fields and adds proper nesting of braces in {if}.
  • 2.5b22 fixes bugs in several output tags, and introduces two new options: to show only pages and to omit comments by registered users.
  • 2.5b18 fixes a filtering problem and introduces the conditional tag, {if:condition:yes:no}.
  • 2.5b16 fixes a problem with {php}.
  • 2.5b15 more bug fixes and added ‘included posts’ setting.
  • 2.5b14 continuing bug fixes.
  • 2.5b11 has new features and improvements.
  • 2.3.6 restores the widgetiness I managed to remove in 2.3.5!
  • 2.3.5 has been rebuilt to save memory and can match the current post’s tags. It also fixes a bug with categories in WordPress < 2.3.
  • 2.3.4 can be used as a WordPress widget. Also can include or exclude the current post from the output.
  • 2.3.3 beta adds the ability to include as well as exclude categories and authors and is able to find posts by tag.
  • 2.3.2 beta fixes a conflict between tags and categories and grouping bug introduced in 2.3.0.
  • 2.3.1 fixes a stupid bug in category exclusion
  • 2.3.0 is compatible with WP 2.3
  • 2.1.1 fixes a bug when recent_comments() is used more than once on a page

The plugin has an settings page which lets you change how the output is generated and displayed.

Installation Instructions

  1. If upgrading from a previous version, first deactivate the plugin via the Plugins page and delete the plugin folder from your server.
  2. Upload the plugin folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. You will also need to install the Post-Plugin Library.
  3. Go to your admin Plugins page and activate Recent Comments.
  4. Put<!--?php recent_comments(); ?--> at the place in your theme files where you want the list of similar posts to appear. Lorelle on WordPress has a good guide to modifying themes for plugins. If you are using a widget-ready theme the plugin can be placed from the widget admin page.
  5. Use the admin Options|Recent Comments page to set all the available options. Alternatively, the options can be overridden by passing a parameter to the recent_comments template tag.

Usage and Options

The configuration page will help you to set up the plugin to your satisfaction.

If you also install the latest version of Plugin Output Cache the output of this plugin will be automatically cached for efficiency.

168 replies on “Recent Comments”

  3. Dear Sir:

    I tried to test this plugin and found a strange result : I always get the oldest comment for each post.
    ( just plugin and put on )

    Is there something wrong in my setting ?
    Thanks !

  5. Is there an easy way to paginate Recent Comments output?

    I’m using RC to list of ALL comments on a WP page.

    The number of comments has gotten to the point where trying to place them all on a single page exceeds available PHP memory.

    Thanks!

  6. Hi Rob,

    Excluding categories in recent comments does not work for me on 2.7. I am using the latest version. Does it require latest version of the Post-Plugin Library. Do clarify.

    Thanks

  9. How about a “Random Comments” plugin? Or how hard would it be for me to convert “Recent Comments” into “Random Comments”?

  10. The recent comments widget is so awesome. I don’t really understand why this has never been thought up before. Using the recent comments widget can also help you monitor your visitors. most of the time it gives you a good idea. I like these instructions provided, really nice of you to post them.

  11. I debated a couple of years about purchasing a tool like this. At first, Fein was the only option and just for home use it was too much money for me to justify purchasing. Now that there are reasonably priced choices, I purchased the 37 piece Rockwell kit and added some accessories. Honestly, I felt like it was a gamble. Many reviews say the blades don’t last and they come loose all the time. I rolled the dice. I WON!!!

  13. Wow, this is a cool plugin.

    I already have your random and popular posts plugin installed on my site and they are just awesome. I think this plugin could also fit into my site as the normal recent comments of WP is dull and boring.

  15. Hi, how do I add “recent comments” into a particular page? I would like to insert it into one specific page (and not a template if that’s possible).

    – thanks

    Sam

  18. I, too, have the same problem as above, I downloaded the most recent version of this plugin and uploaded it to my plugins dir and it wouldn’t show up in the list of available plugins in order for me to activate it.

    Do you know how to fix this, is anyone else having this same problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you!

Comments are closed.