CUNY Academic Commons

Yes, Matt, could you please provide a link as Boone requested? I know I've seen Brian's weekly roundups in the past but can't seem to find the site he posts them on. Thanks.

It's the Footenotes blog

I agree with Boone, this appears to be a theme related issue.

The Footenotes (great name by the way) blog is running the Simplex theme. The comments template file doesn't do a whole lot when it comes to the comments section. It basically makes a call to WP's internal comment_form() function. Contrast this with the Ground Control blog, which uses the Spectrum theme from WooThemes; that theme defines a few related files and functions to customize the way comments and the comment form are displayed, like making decisions about who's logged in or not.

I don't think I'd categorize this as an issue per se. This is more along the lines of a lack of functionality on the part of the theme. However, I'm not marking this as resolved just yet.

Boone, let me know if you agree. I may be missing something in the plain vanilla wp comment form function. Maybe there really is a deeper underlying issue here?

Matt, is the requirement to enter user info when commenting on Footenotes a problem? Maybe we should have Brian look at alternate themes (if Boone doesn't disagree with my assessment that is)?

Thanks for the explanation, Dom. My understanding of the comment_form() function is that it should be context-specific for logged-in users. Would you mind looking a little deeper to see if I'm off base here? wp-includes/comment-template.php, starting around 1550.

OK, first of all, Boone, you were absolutely correct. WP 3.0 introduced the comment_form() function which standardizes the display and control/customization of a site's comment form. It adds a slew of actions and filters that can be used to control a comment form. So the issue is not in WP's commenting subsystem.

I don't know how I got it into my head that the Footenotes blog was using the Simplex theme, but it's not. It's using Manifest. I went through theme after theme, the Codex, and countless web searches to find a solution to this. On the bright side, I learned more than I wanted to know about WP commenting! :-)

Here's the problem. The Manifest theme author never updated the commenting to support 3.0+ features. It's comments.php template still hard-codes a comment form on posts. Therefore, the status of logged in users IS NOT used when displaying the form. The only solution to this issue would be to have the author update the theme or for Brian to pick a new theme.

Here's the template in question: https://github.com/castiron/cac/blob/master/wp-content/themes/manifest/comments.php

The pre-3.0 <form> code starts on line 70.

Matt, I'm sorry but I spent way more time on this issue than I probably should have. When I come across a situation where I can't figure something out, I am unable to concentrate on anything else until I've resolved it.

I'm leaving this issue open for now, since 1.4.7 isn't slated for release until Thurs. Let me know how you'd like me to proceed. I feel like this can be marked as resolved or even rejected as this is not a bug in The Commons but a failing of a third party theme.

Matt, I'm sorry but I spent way more time on this issue than I probably should have. When I come across a situation where I can't figure something out, I am unable to concentrate on anything else until I've resolved it.

I know it's a process and that you learn lots of things along the way that increase your WP knowledge and may help with future tickets. And that tenacity is what makes you a good programmer. Thanks for your work on this.

Thanks for your research, Dom.

I don't want us to be in the business of bringing obsolete themes up to date. So please don't go refactoring comments.php in that theme. However, it does look like the Manifest team is still being maintained, in this case by the (excellent) wordpress.com theme team: https://wpcom-themes.svn.automattic.com/manifest/ Dom, could I ask you to do the following: On your local, set up a simple site using our existing Manifest theme. Then replace our files with an svn checkout of the wpcom-themes version. Check your local test site to make sure that there are no major changes in the way the theme looks. In short, make sure that the wpcom-themes version is an update, rather than a total fork, of the original Manifest.

If the theme looks similar enough, let's just replace our outdated version and call it a fix. Otherwise, I'll mark this ticket as Rejected and we can revisit when we do a more general theme review.

Hi Dom. I think the comment form looks fine. Don't spend any time fixing it (it'd just get overwritten in future upgrades). Go ahead and commit the swapped out version.

Hi Brian - Read the above thread only if you want :) Long story short, the theme you use on Footenotes was waaay out of date. In 1.4.7 we brought it up to date, but it's possible that you'll see some small changes. If you see anything that needs to be fixed, please don't hesitate to open a ticket.