HTMLy Comments System

[KuJoe]

There's been multiple issues open requesting alternatives to Disqus and Facebook for integrated comments so I wanted to get a discussion going for this. I explored a few of the recommended solutions and even built the integration for one, but I feel like this needs more input from users before deciding on a solution.

1. CGrassin/interact_php - Very basic with minimal spam filtering and moderation. Last updated >1 year ago. 1 outstanding issue (feature) and 0 outstanding PRs.
2. djyde/cusdis - Could not get the Docker container build or the source build working. Integration with the SaaS offering was simple, but looked out of place with the default CSS styling. Last updated >1 year ago. 83 outstanding issues (including multiple install errors) and 23 outstanding PRs.
3. isso-comments/isso - Appears to be the most feature rich with multiple install options (Docker, pip, and source). Last updated 4 months ago. 52 outstanding issues (lots of feature requests) and 9 outstanding PRs.
4. GiovanniSalmeri/yellow-comment - Appears to be an extension for datenstrom/yellow but looks very lightweight, unsure how hard it would be to integrate into HTMLy. Last updated 4 months ago. 1 outstanding issue (feature) and 0 outstanding PRs.

[KuJoe]

Would a hooks system be a good idea? This way we can have higher compatibility with current and future themes while supporting more options for users without having to integrate them all. We can even remove the existing Disqus and Facebook integration and replace them with separate files.

Effectively we would replace this code in post.html.php:

<?php if (disqus()): ?>
    <?php echo disqus($p->title, $p->url) ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if (disqus_count()): ?>
    <?php echo disqus_count() ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if (facebook() || disqus()): ?>
<div class="comments-area" id="comments">
    <?php if (facebook()): ?>
        <div class="fb-comments" data-href="<?php echo $p->url ?>" data-numposts="<?php echo config('fb.num') ?>" data-colorscheme="<?php echo config('fb.color') ?>"></div>
    <?php endif; ?>
    <?php if (disqus()): ?>
        <div id="disqus_thread"></div>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>

With this code:

<?php post_hooks($p); ?>

And adding this function to functions.php:

function post_hooks($params = null)  
{
    $directory = __DIR__ . '/hooks/posts/';
    $files = scandir($directory);
    
    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if (pathinfo($file, PATHINFO_EXTENSION) === 'php') {
            include($directory . '/' . $file);
        }
    }
    if (!$file) {
        return false;
    }
}

So any files within system\includes\hooks\posts will be included into the page (this can be done for all of the other pages and different parts of each also).

Here's an example of a file called comments.php:

<?php

echo '<div class="comments-area" id="comments"><div class="fb-comments"><div id="cusdis_thread"
  data-host="https://cusdis.com"
  data-app-id="<MY_CUSDIS_APPID>"
  data-page-id="'.$params->slug.'"
  data-page-url="'.$params->url.'"
  data-page-title="'.$params->title.'"
></div>
<script async defer src="https://cusdis.com/js/cusdis.es.js"></script></div></div>';

?>

The end result:

Since it uses any files in that directory, here's an example of a "Hello World" script I uploaded to the same directory, this adds some versatility without requiring direct integration into HTMLy and without having to manually edit theme files with custom changes every time they get updated.

[Joduai]

yesterday I had a search session for self-hosted php flat file comments system.
Years ago there were plenty of them, but as technology advances, and changes php isn't such popular choice as it was 10yrs ago.
Despite already mentioned, there are also Jskomment, and mentioned in issues hashover.

Isso is a python solution, thus I wouldn't even consider this for a non techie blog user.
Comments plugin for yellow cms seems to be very simple. It's obviously one of its pros. But having a glimpse at its source code there's only form validation as a way of filtering spam. I have no idea if yellowcms has builtin solutions like captcha and this plugin utilises it, as I touched this cms once circa 5yrs ago.

Cusdis is a nodejs based system. No chances for this on typical LAMP shared hosting providers.

After wasting so much time I found out somewhat a complete comment system list with all scripts I've already found and looked into:
https://lisakov.com/projects/open-source-comments/

I even thought about looking at guestbooks scripts to adapt it as a comment system, but such "widgets" are relicts of the past.

Basically we can choose from interact, and hashover(next, as it's v.2).
Every of those lack PR approving, development is some kind of stale. I'm afraid of this as things like captchas that base on 3rd party solutions like recaptcha, akismet, hcatpcha, mosparo etc. need support when their api changes. I didn't dig yet, but builtin simple but smart enough QA solution would be good enough to prevent automated spam attempts.
Then goes the support for newer php versions...

integrating comments menagement into admin panel is next question. Having to manage every addon on its own is a managment killer. I was wondering about adding reactions to posts. One of comments system had this builting.Can't remind which one.
I've implemented external uploader and I load it through ajax iframe within admin panel, but this isn't a solution to manage every external script.

As for the hooks you are proposing, isn't it more a part of supporting plugins?
This would contradict basic htmly principle with no plugin support.
Nonetheless scanning a directory and automatically launch every scirpt inside this is a bit dangerous.
I've seen such solutions for plugin support so that every scanned script had to be enabled firstly to be executed in cms.

[thopanX]

I installed Interact, but have the problem that comments aren't post-specific. The same test comments are shown on every post.

The comment system wants an identfier, what's the code to include the post id?

[Joduai]

If you don't specify ID when calling \Interact_PHP\Interact_PHP(); comment's file name is generated from page's URI without domain name, not recommended thou.

1. Do you call the code in post.html.php file?
2. Do you call interact with empty ID for default behaviour?

The simplest id is page slug, or full url if you want the comments to be available also on static page.
Try with $post->slug or $post->url as ID

[thopanX]

1. yes
2. yes

The ID for post slugs works perfectly, thanks!

[thopanX]

Has anybody gotten Interact's admin interface to accept a password via hash in the settings.php? I triple-checked and my hash seems to be alright, but I keep getting the info that the password is wrong.

[Joduai]

try this hash generator for a temporary password
https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha256.html

[thopanX]

Thanks, that worked! No idea why the hash created on the CLI here didn't. Anyway, great help!

[Clover-Zero]

This is a bit different from the other comment systems and I'm probably the only one who wants it, but, I'm considering to add Mastodon comments (another guide). It seems pretty easy to apply to static sites, but I'm afraid I'm not savvy enough to know how to apply it to HTMLy.

[thopanX]

No, you're definitely not alone in wanting to use Fediverse comments!

[Clover-Zero]

Glad to hear that! I hope someone can help with that. ( ; ω ; )

[Clover-Zero]

I got it working!! Turns out it's pretty easy and simple lol:

1. Add Mastodon-comments as the guide said to <head>.
2. Make a custom field (in this case, toot_id).
3. Add <mastodon-comments host="instance" user="user" tootId="<?php echo get_field('toot_id', $p->raw);?>"></mastodon-comments> to post.html.php.
4. Fill in toot_id custom field in your blog post with your toot's ID. Done!

[danpros]

That's great! Custom fields open up a lot of possibilities 😃

[rolandixor]

Are there any of these suggested solutions that:

1. Would work for users without an account
2. Would be possible to integrate into a custom theme, today?

I'd like to try out one of these solutions on my blog (and in custom themes).

[mithat]

I want to throw out another potential alternative. Flatpress (also GPL-2) has a baked-in comments system that when I used Flatpress was usable (though the anti-spam might be too light for some users). Assuming porting it to HTMLy is workable, is this a solution worth considering?

[afoster1955]

I have had many problems getting some of the third party comment systems to work with HTMLy but recently I stumbled across Hashover (2.0) and it worked right away. I read in this thread that Hashover is not an optimal system, but it works for me and very easy to integrate into the blog for a non techie.

[mithat]

The most recent update to the 1.0 Github repo was 6 years ago, and to the 2.0 Github repo was 3 years ago. In practice this means both might have unpatched security issues and/or a PHP update that removes deprecated features might break the system.

It should also be noted that Hashover is licensed as GNU Affero, which comes with it some obligations that the plain GPLs don't.

[afoster1955]

Good to know, thanks. I wish that HTMLy had its own comment system so that there is no need for any third party involvement. Hashover is especially good (for me anyway) because there is little to no coding needed to get it to work.

[andrigamerita]

I'm new to HTMLy, but one of the first things I did on my website has been setting up comments my own way, because I too think that Disqus (not to mention Facebook) nowadays are really not ideal.

I'd be interested to see if some proper generic integration can be implemented (especially to allow anonymous comments), but for my own use case right now I'm happy with Giscus, which just uses GitHub Discussions and has a public instance, so doesn't require to install anything on the website server. I'm surprised no one has ever mentioned it yet in this discussion, given we're all GitHub users here!

[Joduai]

You might check https://github.com/splitbrain/meh/
A JS+PHP>8.2+SQLite comment system.
I had problems compiling it under freebsd, thus asked dev for a ready to deploy package, so check releases if you aren't familiar or do not have access to composer, and npm package manager, or get compilation errors due to compatibility.
Although shell access is a must have to initialize the sqlite file database, and some basic configuration.

Unfortunately I did not succeed to make it work due to json parse data error, which I got no idea how to debug as this comment system communicates through avascript(?) api. It still might be a compat problem with freebsd, and I don't have enough time to put up even a local test environment to find the culprit. There are some security features like time blockade allowing to post after 30sec by default.

wish you luck

[afoster1955]

At the moment, I am trying to get the interact_php comment system working. I have it being displayed at the bottom of the article but it is inconsistent in getting any comments posted. Sometimes it does and other times it does not. Also, I am not certain I have the correct parameters to enter into the comment system to make it work separately with each article rather than displaying the same comment after all articles. I really like HTMLy, but not having a comment system is making me look elsewhere. I realize it works with Disquus, Facebook and Commentics, but all of those are bloated and not good for my readers. I will keep trying, but I'm fast running out of patience. Your suggested solution is not viable for me as my host does not (at the moment) provide access to php 8.x.x