cdharrison.com

I was trying to figure out the best way to separate trackbacks/pings from the comments here on the site. I’ve seen a number of tutorials out there, but none seemed to do exactly what I wanted. The code is piece-mealed from a couple of places, but this is how I accomplished it here on the site:

1. Backup your existing comments.php file associated with your theme! I cannot stress this enough.
2. Assuming you’re using the default theme, or some variation thereof, you’re going to want to look for this in your comments.php file:
   

   <!-- You can start editing here. -->

   <?php if ($comments) : ?>

3. You’re basically going to replace the logic on comments.php from where it says <?php if ($comments) : ?> (Line 20) to <?php endif; ?> (Line 61) with the logic below.
4. Define the number of pings and comments (Source: Sandbox theme):
   

   <?php /* NUMBERS OF PINGS AND COMMENTS */
$ping_count = $comment_count = 0;
foreach ( $comments as $comment )
get_comment_type() == "comment" ? ++$comment_count : ++$ping_count;
?>

5. Then check to see whether comment_status is set to 'open'. If it is 'open', we then check to make sure the comment_count isn’t equal to zero. Once these conditions are met, I then display only the comments. Some other conditional logic is included, like checking whether the comment’s being held for moderation:
   

   <?php if ('open' == $post-> comment_status) : ?>
<?php if ( $comment_count ) : ?>
<?php if ($comments) : ?>
<!-- Comments! -->
<h3>Stuff said in regard to this entry:</h3>
<ol class="commentlist">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<?php if (get_comment_type() == "comment"){ ?>
<li class="<?php echo $oddcomment; ?>" id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<div class="gravatar"><img src="<?php gravatar("R", 40); ?>" alt="" /></div>
<cite><?php comment_author_link() ?> <?php _e('said'); ?>:</cite>
<div class="comment-text">
<?php comment_text() ?>

   <?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>
<p class="unapproved"><em>Your comment is awaiting moderation.</em></p>
<?php endif; ?>

   <p class="comments-meta">
Posted <span class="date"><?php comment_date('F j, Y') ?></span> @
<span class="permalink"><a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title="<?php _e('Permanent link to this comment'); ?>"><?php comment_time() ?></a></span>
<?php edit_comment_link(__("Edit"), '<span class="edit"> ', '</span>'); ?>
</p>
</div>
</li>
<?php /* Changes every other comment to a different class */
if ('alt' == $oddcomment) $oddcomment = '';
else $oddcomment = 'alt';
?>
<?php } ?>
<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>
</ol>
<?php else : ?>
<?php endif ?>

   <?php else : ?>
<h3>Hey, there's no comments on this post!</h3>
<p><a href="#respond">How about being the first?</a></p>

   <?php endif /* if ( $comment_count ) */ ?>

   <?php else : // comments are closed ?>

   <?php /* Comments are closed */ ?>
<h3>Sorry dude, comments are closed on this post. If you had stuff you liked to say about this entry,
<a href="/contact/">feel free to contact me</a>.</h3>

   <?php endif; /* if ('open' == $post-> comment_status) */ ?>

6. Then we do the same thing for trackback/pings:
   

   <?php if ( pings_open() ) : ?>
<?php if ( $ping_count ) : ?>
<!-- Pings! -->
<h3 id="trackbacks">Trackback/Ping Stuff:</h3>
<ol class="pinglist">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<?php if (get_comment_type() != "comment") : ?>
<li class="<?php echo $oddcomment; ?> smaller" id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<cite><?php comment_author_link() ?></cite>
· <span class="commentmetadata"><?php comment_date('F jS, Y') ?> at <?php comment_time() ?> <?php edit_comment_link('e','<span class="edit"> ', '</span>'); ?></p>
</li>
<?php
/* Changes every other comment to a different class */
if ('alt' == $oddcomment) $oddcomment = '';
else $oddcomment = 'alt';
?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>
</ol>
<?php else : /* if ( $ping_count ) */ ?>

   <?php endif /* if ( $ping_count ) */ ?>

   <?php else : // pings are a no-go bro. ?>

   <?php /* Pings are a no-go, bro. */ ?>
<h3>Pings are a no-go, bro.</h3>
<p>Maybe next time?</p>

   <?php endif /* if ( pings_open() ) */ ?>

7. Save the changes and you should be good to go.

Hopefully this is a pretty straightforward implementation… If you have any better ideas, I’d love to hear ‘em.