Commentator: a really simple PHP comments system

Commentator is an extremely simple PHP comments system that uses a MySQL database.

Extremely simple to use and maintain
Produces very clean, semantic and nicely indented HTML (even from inputted comments)
Allows use of some HTML in comments (can be changed or turned off)
Uses Gravatars (can be turned off)
Email notification of new comments option
Ability to unsubscribe from notifications (link sent in email)
Optional spam protection (using Akismet)
Very quick and simple methods for deleting comments and managing spam

Requires PHP 5+ and a MySQL database. I think even the really old versions of MySQL should work.

You need to put some PHP into your own code where you want the comments (and the comment form) to appear. For example, this page contains all comments in a DIV, with an H2 element as a heading, which includes the total number of comments.

<?php
  require_once('../comments.php');
  $comments = new Commentator('commentator', 'Commentator: a really simple PHP comments system');
?>
  <h2 id="comments">Comments (<?php echo $comments->commentcount; ?>)</h2>
  <div class="section">
<?php $comments->write() ?>
  </div>

The require_once argument needs to point to the Commentator PHP file (I renamed it to "comments.php"). You only need it once, as the above code should be the only thing that varies from page to page where you want comments.
The first argument for Commentator() should be a name unique to the page, as it is what the MySQL table will be called.
The second argument should be the title of the page the comments are on. It is used for email notifications. If it is absent the page's URI is used.
By giving a heading (or something else) just before the PHP code the id "comments", the comments area will be immediately visible after posting a comment.
The $comments->commentcount variable is the number of comments that will be shown. Put it wherever you like, but it must come after the new Commentator bit.
Optionally include commentator.css in the <head> of your page, or use your own CSS.
The only other thing that needs to be done is to provide a MySQL connection to a database, which should be the connection returned by PHP's mysqli_connect. There are instructions for this at the top of the PHP file and a sample function is provided at the bottom of it.

The script optionally employs the Akismet PHP5 class to avoid spam comments. I really recommend it, as it works really well and spam is pretty ubiquitous. As an example, within two days of putting this page up, there were already comments about viagra being submitted (but they got caught).

To use it you will need a WordPress API key. It is very easy to get and does not mean you need to get any other WordPress stuff - they'll give it to you for free, which is very nice of them.

When you download the Akismet PHP class, you only need the main PHP file (Akismet.class.php).

You will need to set some variables at the top of commentator.php. None of these are absolutely critical for the operation of the script, but they are important nevertheless. They are quite self-explanatory:


$akismet_file = 'Akismet.class.php';               // Akismet PHP5 class file
$wpAPIkey = 'xxxxxxxxxxx';                         // WordPress API key
$commentator_from = 'noreply@example.com';         // email address to appear in "From" field
$email_owner = 'me@example.com';                   // new non-spam comments posted are sent to this address. Set to false to disable
$commentator_password = 'password';                // Password to enable you to delete comments
$gravatars = true;                                 // Use of gravatars. Set to false to disable them

// Allowed HTML tags in comments. Set to '' to disable HTML altogether
$html_comments = '<a><i><b><em><u><s><strong><code><pre><p>';

As you can see in the settings section above, you can set a password. This will make a checkbox appear next to each comment, and these buttons at the bottom:

To use this feature, you must add ?password=xxxx to the end of the URI. To make spam comments visible, also add &show=all to the query string. So to be able to delete spam and non-spam comments from a page at http://example.com/blog/, you would need to type in http://example.com/blog/?password=xxxx&show=all.

The buttons are pretty self-explanatory. The number in the last button just tells you how many comments are spam. It appears regardless of whether spam comments are showing or not, so use with caution!

If the steps above didn't help, if you encounter bugs or if you have any other questions, email me:

r [at] this domain

Dule

Thank you very much for scripts.

#1 – 7 January, 2010 at 4:54 pm
broocky

thank you very much for the script

#2 – 22 January, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Sven

Thanks, this is a great script.

If you are going to update it, will you please consider adding "reply" to comments (like threaded comments in wordpress)? That would make this script the best!

#3 – 25 January, 2010 at 4:07 am
Rafael

That's a good idea, Sven. I'll add it in the next update.

No promises when that'll be, but I'll post a comment here when I do, so if you're subscribed to comments here you'll know.

#4 – 4 February, 2010 at 11:10 am
Sven

Thanks again Rafael, that would be great!

I am already looking forward to it ;)

PS: I subscribe to follow-up comments , sould you add a comment here when the script is updated?

#5 – 7 February, 2010 at 6:08 am
Rafael

Some changes made:

- Total no. of comments can be shown

- Comments by page owner are highlighted (like this one)

- Comments can be unmarked as spam and all spam just deleted in one go

See documentation above for details.

Sven: no threads yet, it's pretty complicated actually. For example, should it be allowed for comments to be nested unlimitedly, or for people to be allowed to reply only to a non-reply comment? What happens when there are hundreds or thousands of comments? Pagination would be needed.

I'm going to think more about this and then hopefully do something about it.

#6 – 21 February, 2010 at 11:37 am
Sven

Thanks for updates and additions Rafael , they are great!

It might be complicated to do threaded/nested comments, but I would suggest to have a look at the add-ons to Wordpress (the ones that were made before it was "built in" as standard).

A few reply to would normally be enough, like setting max thread depth 5 (?)

I do not think that there should be any limit in number of replies, but is should be noticeable that it is a reply to another comment.

It is somehow "obligatory" in a modern online communication to have a good and clear system for visitors to read/write comments.

Pagination could be needed for very popular pages. Text don not take to long to download, so for me a long page would be preferred over pagination (others might prefer limited comments per page).

But it is all up to you, your comment system is already very easy to use and simple to install so nested comment/pagination would just be extra "bonuses".

Thanks again Rafael :)

#7 – 21 February, 2010 at 4:05 pm
John

Hello I am looking for a VERY simple way for people to comment on stories contained in a website I am working on so I am trying this out !

#8 – 26 February, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Sven

@ John

A good choice, it is a good script!

#9 – 27 February, 2010 at 10:10 am
val

Bonjour

C'est vraiment un bon script de commentaires

#10 – 6 March, 2010 at 10:45 pm
elvio

this script looks great; can't wait to try it out!

#11 – 2 April, 2010 at 10:55 am
john

nice script

look forward to updates if you have the time

#12 – 30 April, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Steve

This looks like a really cool script but i'm getting this message with these errors:

Success... Localhost via UNIX socket

No MySQL connection set up!

Warning: mysqli_query() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli, null given in /home/mysites/public_html/cmscommerce/restart/includes/modules/comments.php on line 207

Warning: mysqli_error() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli, null given in /home/mysites/public_html/cmscommerce/restart/includes/modules/comments.php on line 208

Warning: mysqli_num_rows() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, null given in /home/mysites/public_html/cmscommerce/restart/includes/modules/comments.php on line 209

#13 – 20 May, 2010 at 6:24 am

Rafael

It looks like you haven't set up the MySQL connection properly. You have to provide a function called "mysql_connection" that can be called by the script (see line 31). Like it says at the top of the script, there is a sample one you can use at the bottom:

/*  //   Mysql connection function, in case it isn't provided elsewhere already
    //   You have to replace the parameters in msqli_connect and in
mysqli_select_db with your own
        function mysql_connection() {
  $link = mysqli_connect('mysql.example.com', 'username', 'password');
  if (!$link) return false;
  if (!mysqli_set_charset($link, 'utf8')) return false;
  if (!mysqli_select_db($link, 'database_name')) {
    echo 'db selection error:' . mysqli_error($link);
    return false;
  }
  return $link;
}
        */

Remove the comments and put the right parameters in.

#14 – 20 May, 2010 at 11:35 am

jaap

thanks

#15 – 29 May, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Nicholaus

I hate Lindsay Lohan.

Chelsea Handler rocks.

The moon is an artificial small planet made by aliens.

#16 – 20 June, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Bruno

Hi, I installed it on localhot (wampserver) but I´m getting all sorts of errors (Undefined property/variable/index).

Commenting is actually working but the errors are all over the comments and comment box.

#17 – 5 July, 2010 at 5:54 am
Rafael

Bruno:

I can't really help without knowing exactly what the errors are. Can you paste the entire errors here?

Also let me know if you've made any modifications to the script (except for putting in your correct MySQL information).

#18 – 11 July, 2010 at 4:47 am
Bruno

I´ve set akisment, e-mail, gravatars to false and set the mysql connection at the bottom.

Here are the errors http://pastebin.com/JLyXqSAm

#19 – 11 July, 2010 at 8:58 am
Rafael

Ah, that's because your server must have a very strict error reporting setting by default.

Put this at the top of the PHP script:

error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);

#20 – 11 July, 2010 at 10:24 am
Bruno

Thanks, it works. Do I have to care about the errors or are they "normal"?

#21 – 11 July, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Rafael

They're "normal". They are there to help developers debug code and should not be turned on for code that's released into the wild.

#22 – 11 July, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Bruno

Ok, there´s another thing. It seems under certain conditions the system sends mail notifications multiple times. It occured in my localhost and also with your last reply.

When I refresh the page just after I´ve posted the comment gets duplicated.

#23 – 12 July, 2010 at 2:32 am
Rafael

I think it is an oversight I found a while back, as I was also getting double emails. I updated the code but forgot to re-upload it.

Download the zip again, update your PHP file and you should be OK. Don't forget to preserve your settings.

#24 – 12 July, 2010 at 11:36 am
Bruno

Ok, but there´s still a minor bug with duplicate post when I refresh the page just after I´ve commented (when the #comments section is displayed).

#25 – 17 July, 2010 at 12:59 pm
csar

thank you very much for the script

#26 – 26 July, 2010 at 2:33 pm

Commentator: a really simple PHP comments system

Features

Download

Usage

Spam protection

Settings

Deleting comments

License

Contact

Comments (26)

Dule

broocky

Sven

Rafael

Sven

Rafael

Sven

John

Sven

val

elvio

john

Steve

Rafael

jaap

Nicholaus

Bruno

Rafael

Bruno

Rafael

Bruno

Rafael

Bruno

Rafael

Bruno

csar