Repository
Main - https://github.com/code-with-sam/finallycomments/
New Plugin Repo - https://github.com/code-with-sam/finallycomments-wp/
What is Finally Comments?
Finally Comments is an embeddable comments system powered by the Steem blockchain. The aim of this project is to promote the Steem ecosystem by breaking the comments system out of the walls of Steem based apps replacing popular comments systems like Disqus & Facebook comments plugin.
Finally Wordpress Plugin
It’s been a long time coming and today I am pleased to tell you the initial version of the Finally Comments Wordpress Plugin is alive! It has been slow progress getting this part of Finally underway and I know many people have been waiting for this to become a reality.
The aim for the plugin is to help increase ease of use and subsequent adoption of Finally Comments & Steem. There are still ideas/features to workout and include in future version of the plugin but the main object if complete. Users no longer have to copy and paste the embed code into their posts or theme files.
This initial version (v0.1.0) is intended for Beta users and testing. Feedback (good/bad) is very welcome. It has been a long time(~3 years) since I worked on a Wordpress project and although the workload was by no means large it still took a lot of effort to get this done. This version has not been submitted to the Wordpress codex yet and therefore will not show up while searching for the plugin. Extra work is needed before I am able to submit the plugin.
Main Features
The plugin includes automatic creation of Finally threads by using a Steem post that has already been posted or from authenticating your account to use the Finally API and generate custom threads automatically.
To do this there needs to be a custom metabox on the Admin side of Wordpress. The admin side allows the user to fill in extra information while editing posts. The section related to Finally is automatically saved along with other Wordpress data on saving posts. On the flip side when a user views the post from the front-end the plugin checks for Finally settings and includes the relevant comment thread embed code and Javascript library.
How To Use The Plugin
Until the plugin is submitted/accepted into the Wordpress Codex you can trial it on your site by downloading it from Github and re-uploading it.
Once activated the plugin will show a custom metabox when creating posts.
By default Finally Comments is not displayed. Finally Comments does not disable or replace your default commenting system so you may want to manually disable it for any posts that you choose to use Finallycomments on.
Use Comment Threads From Steem
All content posted to the Steem blockchain(from any platform) has a comments thread. Make use of this by copying the steemit.com version of the link (even if it was not posted on steemit originally) and selecting steem as the tread type. Comments will match across Finally and your own post on busy/d.tube/steemit etc. This option is useful if you are currently using steempress.
Use Custom Threads
If your content is not posted on the Steem blockchain elsewere or if you prefer a new blank comments thread this is the option to choose.
To make use of custom threads you must first sign in through https://finallycomments.com/dashboard#api authorise your account and register your site with the Finally API. If you don't do this you will see an error page instead of the comments thread.
Specify the account name your website is authorised with and a custom thread will be generated on the first time you load the Finally Embed for that page. The Wordpress post slug will be used as the slug for you comments thread(this can not be changed at a later date) and can be found in the dashboard - https://finallycomments.com/dashboard#custom-threads.
Bugs, Feedback & Contributions
The primary place to contribute will be through Github Issues. Specific issues related to the wordpress plugin can be added on that repo, more general requests/ideas may be moved to the main Finallycomments project.
I keep communications related to Steem project centered on Discord (sambillingham#7927) or Steem Dev Slack.
Roadmap
There are plenty of ideas and features to work on here and I’m interested to hear what you think. If you have any specific requests please don’t hesitate to share them.
- Submit to Wordpress Codex for easy plugin install
- Interface with Steempress automatically (no copy/pasting steemlinks)
- Set default in settings (nothread/steem/steempress/custom)
- default settings for threads within the Wordpress setting page. e.g Show reputation/profiles/rewards
- settings for individual threads in metabox e.g Show reputation/profiles/rewards
- load thread preview in the admin area?
- old comment import feature?
- use posting key instead of Steemconnect through Finallycomments.com dashboard
- enable parsing of all types of links not just steemit.
- redirect to friendly error page if a user is not authenticated with Finally API but trying to use custom threads
Github
Work on this project can be found in it’s own standalone Repo.
https://github.com/code-with-sam/finallycomments-wp