Outputs a Page of Most Recent Site Comments Organized by Recency/Post

Commentariat List

<?php

/*CK MacLeod, 2015.05.08, GPL

Function for displaying list of n most recent comments on a single page
in blog - consecutive comments from same post are grouped together
0.3 (2015.05.11): Added Series Length variable/logic
*/

//key settings, in plug-in version set in admin:
	
	//total most recent comments:
$total_comments = 50;
	//maximum size of comment before excerption, in words
$length_excerpt = 50;
	//maximum number of consecutive comments before re-printing post title
$series_size = 4;

/*in this approach we do not utilize innate capacity of 
get_comments() to order comments by post
*/

$comments = get_comments(array(
	'status' => 'approve' ,//Change this to the type of comments to be displayed
	'number' => $total_comments
	));

//for implementation on new blog, would need logic for fewer than 50 comments	
	if (count($comments) < $total_comments) { $total_comments = count($comments); }

//initialize variables

	$old_post = 0;
	$number_comments = 0;
	$series_comments = 0;
	
//open commentariat div

echo '<div class="commentariat">';	

//produce comment list, keeping track of number of comments

foreach($comments as $comment) { 
	$current_post = $comment->comment_post_ID;
	$number_comments++;	
	$series_comments++;
	
	if ($old_post <> $current_post || $series_comments == $series_size ) { 
	/*if a new comment print linked title of new post
	and if not first comment tie off previous post */

		if ($number_comments > 1) { ?> </ul></div> <?php }  
		
		if ($number_comments <= $total_comments)  { ?> 
		<div class="commentariat-post">
		<a href="
		<?php echo get_permalink( $comment->comment_post_ID ); ?>">
		<?php echo get_the_title($comment->comment_post_ID);?></a>
		<?php if ($number_comments <= $total_comments) { ?> <ul> <?php }
		$series_comments = 0;	
		} 
	}//old post
/*produce comment - uniquely formatted for output to avoid overlap problems
with commenting systems - include in-reply-to links
*/
   ?>
   <li class="comment" id="li-<?php echo $comment->comment_ID ?>">
     <div class="commentariat-comment-head">
     <div class="comment-author">
       <?php echo get_avatar($comment->comment_author_email,32);?>
       <?php echo get_comment_author_link($comment->comment_ID);?> 	
       <span class="comment-datetime"><a href="
       <?php echo get_comment_link($comment);?>"><?php echo $comment->comment_date;?></a></span>   
     </div>
     </div>
     <div class="comment-irt">
       <?php if ($comment->comment_parent != '0') : ?>
       <a href="<?php
       $commentparent = get_comment($comment->comment_parent);
       $commentparentpage = get_page_of_comment($commentparent);
       echo htmlspecialchars(get_comment_link( $commentparent, array('page' => $commentparentpage) ) ); ?>
       "> to 
       <?php echo $commentparent->comment_author ; ?>
       </a>
       <?php endif; ?>
     </div>
     <div class="comment-content" id="text-<?php echo $comment->comment_ID ?>">
       <?php 
       $comment_text = $comment->comment_content;
       $comment_text = strip_tags($comment_text);
       $words = explode(' ', $comment_text, $length_excerpt + 1);
       if (count($words) > $length_excerpt ) {
         array_pop($words);
         $comment_text = implode(' ', $words);	 
         $comment_text = implode(' ', $words) . ' <a href="' . 
         get_comment_link($comment) . '">[. . .]</a>';
        }				
	echo $comment_text; ?>
     </div>
       </li>
<?php
//close off list and div
  if ($number_comments == $total_comments) { ?>
  </ul></div>
<?php
  }

  //reset old_post variable
  $old_post = $current_post;
} //end foreach

//close commentariat-wrapper and clear floats:
echo '</div><div style="clear:both; height:1px;">&nbsp;</div>';
?>