How to show comment numbers?

DavidTanzer · November 2019

Hi does anyone know of a way to number the comments in a discussion? Presumably this would be through a plugin.

I'm on Vanilla 3.2.

Here's an example of a forum that has numbered comments:

https://forum.azimuthproject.org/discussions

That's an older version of vanilla, which is using a non-standard plugin called EnhancedComments: https://github.com/loopspace/EnhancedComment

But that plugin is not playing well with the theme I'm using (Keystone) on 3.2. Also it's doing other stuff besides numbering the comments which are garbling the presentation.

I could always try hacking on that plugin, but just wondering if the numbering issue has already been solved in a more mainstream way.

Thanks!

R_J · November 2019

That's easy. You need a plugin which does not much more than this:

   public function discussionController_discussionInfo_handler($sender, $args) {
       echo '<span class="MItem CommentCounter">'.anchor(
           '#1',
           $sender->Discussion->Url,
           'Permalink',
           ['rel' => 'nofollow']
       ).'</span>';
   }

   public function discussionController_commentInfo_handler($sender, $args) {
       $permalink = $args['Comment']->Url ?? '/discussion/comment/'.$args['Comment']->CommentID.'/#Comment_'.$args['Comment']->CommentID;
       echo '<span class="MItem CommentCounter">'.anchor(
           '#'.strval($args['CurrentOffset'] + 1),
           $permalink,
           'Permalink',
           [
               'name' => 'Item_'.$args['CurrentOffset'],
               'rel' => 'nofollow'
           ]
       ).'</span>';
   }

Additionally you can use some CSS that will re-order the number. I've put some quick proof of concept together. It should be pretty complete, but the css would need to be tested on different browsers.

https://us.v-cdn.net/5018160/uploads/301/04ND30TAJCQU.zip

DavidTanzer · November 2019

Thanks R_J, that’s a great help!