Displaying # of comments on single entry pages

#1 / Dec 05, 2009 2:23pm

arilyn

8 posts

I’m having a lot of trouble getting the following to work properly.

{exp:channel:entries channel="mwblog" limit="1" disable="member_data|pagination|trackbacks"}
<div class="box a">
    <h1>{title}</h1>
    <div class="meta">by <a href="http://{profile_path=member}">{author}</a> on {entry_date format="%F %j%S, %Y"}</div>
    {body}
</div><!--entry-->
{/exp:channel:entries} 

<ul id="comments" class="box comments">
    <h3>{total_comments} Comments <a href="#add-commentid=right">Add yours</a></h3>
<p>    {exp:comment:entries channel="mwblog"}<br />
    <li class="comment"><br />
        <a href="http://{permalink}class=count">{count}</a><br />
        {comment}<br />
        by {url_or_email_as_author} on {comment_date format="%F %j%S, %Y at %g:%i%a"}<br />
    </li><!--comment--><br />
    {/exp:comment:entries}<br />
</ul>

The problem I’m having is that {total_comments} is showing the total comments for the entire site, not just the specific entry. Moving {total_comments} inside {exp:comment:entries} works, but that <h3> ends up getting repeated for every single comment.

{comment_total} works if I move ul#comments inside the {exp:channel:entries}. However, that makes {count} show the id for the entry instead of the ids for the comments.

I’m also looking for a conditional that will hide ul#comments when there are zero comments on an entry. I tried using {if total_comments > 0}{/if}, but that seems to hide ul#comments in all cases.

Thanks for any help.

#2 / Dec 05, 2009 4:43pm
Herb
224 posts
I know this doesn’t solve the problem completely; but you can put opening html inside:
```
{if count == 1}put html here that should precede entries{/if}
```
and then you can place closing html inside:
```
{if count == total_results}put html here that should follow entires{/if}
```
Then you can nest your tags to get what you need.

#3 / Dec 06, 2009 1:40am

arilyn

8 posts

I figured out a hackish solution to my problem.

{exp:channel:entries channel="mwblog" limit="1" disable="member_data|pagination|trackbacks"}
<div class="box a">
    <h1>{title}</h1>
    <div class="meta">by <a href="http://{profile_path=member}">{author}</a> on {entry_date format="%F %j%S, %Y"}</div>
    {body}
</div><!--entry-->

{if comment_total > 0}
<ul id="comments" class="box comments">
    <h3>{comment_total} Comment{if comment_total != 1}s{/if}{/exp:channel:entries}<a href="#add-commentid=right">Add yours</a></h3>
<p>    {exp:comment:entries channel="mwblog"}<br />
    <li id="{count}" class="comment"><br />
        <a href="http://{permalink}class=count">{count}</a><br />
        {comment}<br />
        by {url_or_email_as_author} on {comment_date format="%F %j%S, %Y at %g:%i%a"}<br />
        {if avatar}<br />
            {avatar_url}<br />
        {/if}<br />
    </li><!--comment--><br />
    {/exp:comment:entries}<br />
</ul><br />
{/if}

I moved {/exp:channel:entries} to after {comment_total}, which fixes the {comment_total} showing the number of site-wide comments problem. With {comment_total} working correctly, I was able to finally use the simple conditional {if comment_total > 0} to hide the comment display when there are zero comments.

#4 / Dec 06, 2009 12:32pm

Focus Lab Dev Team
1129 posts

That’s not hackish at all. That SOP.
#5 / Feb 27, 2010 5:48pm
briankalwat
50 posts
You can also use this conditional within your comment count, so when there is only one comment, the plurality is dropped. I wanted to add this to the user guide, but I don’t have enough posts… so if an ambitious moderator happens to see this… that’d be great!
```
{comment_total} {if comment_total == "1"}Comment{if:else}Comments{/if}
```

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arilyn

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Focus Lab Dev Team

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