Fetching Comments of a particular user

$args = array( 'number' => 10, 'status' => 'approve', 'user_id' => 1 );
$comments_list_by_user = get_comments( $args );
print_r ( $comments_list_by_user );

Fetching Comments of a particular post

$args = array( 'number' => 10, 'status' => 'approve', 'post_id' => 30 );
$comments_list_post = get_comments( $args );
print_r ( $comments_list_post );

Fetching Comments of a particular category

Here is how you can fetch comments for a specific category:

// Posts per page setting
$ppp = get_option('posts_per_page'); // either use the WordPress global Posts per page setting or set a custom one like $ppp = 10;
$custom_offset = 0; // If you are dealing with your custom pagination, then you can calculate the value of this offset using a formula

// category (can be a parent category)
$category_parent = 3;

// lets fetch sub categories of this category and build an array
$categories = get_terms( 'category', array( 'child_of' => $category_parent, 'hide_empty' => false ) );
$category_list =  array( $category_parent );
foreach( $categories as $term ) {
 $category_list[] = (int) $term->term_id;
}

// fetch posts in all those categories
$posts = get_objects_in_term( $category_list, 'category' );

$sql = "SELECT comment_ID, comment_date, comment_content, comment_post_ID
 FROM {$wpdb->comments} WHERE
 comment_post_ID in (".implode(',', $posts).") AND comment_approved = 1
 ORDER by comment_date DESC LIMIT $ppp OFFSET $custom_offset";

$comments_list = $wpdb->get_results( $sql );

if ( count( $comments_list ) > 0 ) {
 $date_format = get_option( 'date_format' );
 echo '<ul>';
 foreach ( $comments_list as $comment ) {
 echo '<li>Comment: '.substr( $comment->comment_content, 0, 50 ).'..<br />'.date( $date_format, strtotime( $comment->comment_date ) ).'<br />Post: <a href="'.get_permalink( $comment->comment_post_ID ).'">'.get_the_title( $comment->comment_post_ID ).'</a></li>';
 }
 echo '</ul>';
} else {
 echo '<p>No comments</p>';
}
?>

What we have done here is that, first we fetch sub categories of the category specified so as to include comments on those posts too which are under a sub-category of the specified category. Then we build an array of all these categories, where we need to look up for comments. Then we fetch the posts ID under those categories and then we use a query to fetch the comments on those posts. Finally, we display them as per our need by iterating $comments_list.

In case you want to fetch the comments of a  particular user under a specific category, then you can just change the SQL query in the above code to this:

$user_id = 1; // change this to the user ID either manually or let it come from some other code
$sql = "SELECT comment_ID, comment_date, comment_content, comment_post_ID
 FROM {$wpdb->comments} WHERE
 comment_post_ID in (".implode(',', $posts).") AND comment_approved = 1 AND user_id = $user_id
 ORDER by comment_date DESC LIMIT $ppp OFFSET $custom_offset";

I have used simple names for variables here to make it easy to understand. Always take care to provide your code in its own namespace, choose unique (non-generic) names. Read prefix everything in WordPress.

Need help? Got questions? Comment section is all yours!

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Here for the sake of explanation of approach, I am making the content paginated where content is already paginated. We will make our extra content work in order to the global $paged variable.

<?php
// Posts Per Page option
$ppp = get_option('posts_per_page');

if (!is_paged()) {
	$custom_offset = 0;
} else {
	$custom_offset = $ppp*($paged-1);
}

// Lets suppose we are querying for posts of a certain author in a particular category
$args = array(
'numberposts' => $ppp,
'offset' => $custom_offset,
'category' => 7, // Category ID of category 'Articles'
'author' => $author_id
);

$posts_data = get_posts( $args );

if ( count( $posts_data ) > 0 ) {
	echo '<ul>';
	foreach ( $posts_data as $post ) {
		echo '<li><a href="'.get_permalink( $post->ID ).'">'.$post->post_title.'</a></li>';
	}
	echo '</ul>';
} else {
	echo '<p>No articles by this user</p>';
}
?>

This way the code make use of the global $paged variable to see which page it is on, and set the value of offset accordingly making the fetched content using get_posts itself paginated. On Page 1, the offset will be zero, it will fetch the posts limited by the posts per page value and on Page 2, the offset will be calculated to leave the posts already shown on previous page and query further posts limited by the posts per page value.

Got questions? Comment section is down below.

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I have created a launcher in my top panel, with which I start a new pomodori (name for a new period of time, lets call it a Pomodoro anyway). It calls up the script which alerts me that a new Pomodoro (time period) has started and then alert me again when the timer ends and I should take a small break.

Here is the script:

DISPLAY=:0 notify-send -t 1000 -i /home/ashfame/Dropbox/Ubuntu/icons/pomodoro.png "New Pomodoro starts" "You have 25 minutes to work."
# 25 minutes timer
sleep 1500
DISPLAY=:0 notify-send -t 1000 -i /home/ashfame/Dropbox/Ubuntu/icons/pomodoro.png "Pomodoro ends" "Take a break!"

As soon as I click the launcher, the first notification appears telling me that a new Pomodoro has started.

Then it sleeps for 1500 secs = 25 minutes. And after that the second notification appears telling me that the Pomodoro has ended.

I just take a 3-5 minutes break or even longer (I am the boss!), and then I again click on the launcher starting another Pomodoro and I work for another 25 minutes. You can use the same tomato icon, if you want.

Enjoy the awesomeness of Ubuntu and ditch Windows, yes I am an Ubuntu advocate and will push you to switch all the time

Have your say in the comments!

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You are welcome for the following:

• Comment anything relevant! You can criticise my series too, I won’t mind!
• Tip me for the next Evil Post.
• Write a Guest Post for WP Evil Series (Decision of accepting it as a qualified WordPress Evil Post Series will be totally on me, though)

That said, first post in the series will be up in a few minutes.

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• Handling WordPress Post Revisions the right way
• How to highlight first post in bbPress
• Post Twitter updates on Facebook automatically

I am zipping it up as a plugin but you can copy paste the code inside your functions.php file and you should be fine.

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Show Recent Comments by a particular user
Plugin URI: http://blog.ashfame.com/?p=876
Description: Provides a shortcode which you can use to show recent comments by a particular user
Author: Ashfame
Author URI: http://blog.ashfame.com/
License: GPL
Usage:
*/

add_shortcode ( 'show_recent_comments', 'show_recent_comments_handler' );

function show_recent_comments_handler( $atts, $content = null )
{
	extract( shortcode_atts( array(
		"count" => 10,
		"pretty_permalink" => 0
		), $atts ));

	$output = ''; // this holds the output

	if ( is_user_logged_in() )
	{
		global $current_user;
		get_currentuserinfo();

		$args = array(
			'user_id' => $current_user->ID,
			'number' => $count, // how many comments to retrieve
			'status' => 'approve'
			);

		$comments = get_comments( $args );
		if ( $comments )
		{
			$output.= "<ul>\n";
			foreach ( $comments as $c )
			{
			$output.= '<li>';
			if ( $pretty_permalink ) // uses a lot more queries (not recommended)
				$output.= '<a href="'.get_comment_link( $c->comment_ID ).'">';
			else
				$output.= '<a href="'.get_settings('siteurl').'/?p='.$c->comment_post_ID.'#comment-'.$c->comment_ID.'">';
			$output.= $c->comment_content;
			$output.= '</a>';
			$output.= "</li>\n";
			}
			$output.= '</ul>';
		}
	}
	else
	{
		$output.= "<h2>You should be logged in to see your comments. Make sense?</h2>";
		$output.= '<h2><a href="'.get_settings('siteurl').'/wp-login.php?redirect_to='.get_permalink().'">Login Now &rarr;</a></h2>';
	}
	return $output;
}
?>

You can use in a post or page as follows:

[show_recent_comments]

This will show last 10 comments of the current user.

[show_recent_comments count=15]

You can change the number of comments you want by providing it with the value of count.

Now, if you notice, they do link to the respective comments but links are not pretty permalinks. I don’t recommend you do this (because it increases the query count), but if you really want to have pretty permalinks, you can use the shortcode as follows:

[show_recent_comments count=15 pretty_permalink=1]

or just with the default count of 10 as follows:

[show_recent_comments pretty_permalink=1]

I should highlight the fact that the current user (registered member) will see the comments he or she has made. If you are not logged in, it asks you to login and after login brings you back on the post or page where you are using this shortcode.

You can use this code to make changes as per your need. You can use this shortcode anywhere in your theme by calling it as follows:

<?php echo do_shortcode( '[show_recent_comments count=15]' ); ?>

And I think if you use it like that outside the loop, it won’t bring the user back to the previous page. You will need to change the get_permalink() call near the end of the plugin.

Good thing is that it works correctly with cache plugins such as WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache because logged in users are served live pages instead of cached pages. Correct me if I am wrong.

Download Show Recent Comments plugin

Other than that, if you have any questions, comment section is all yours!

• Recent Comments
• Adding a custom user profile field to registration in WordPress
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First, I would write create a custom user field so that it can be operated from the WordPress profile page and then add that field in the registration form. To keep it general and useful for everyone, I would be adding a simple Twitter handle field.

Adding a custom user profile field

/**
 * Add additional custom field
 */

add_action ( 'show_user_profile', 'my_show_extra_profile_fields' );
add_action ( 'edit_user_profile', 'my_show_extra_profile_fields' );

function my_show_extra_profile_fields ( $user )
{
?>
	<h3>Extra profile information</h3>
	<table class="form-table">
		<tr>
			<th><label for="twitter">Twitter</label></th>
			<td>
				<input type="text" name="twitter" id="twitter" value="<?php echo esc_attr( get_the_author_meta( 'twitter', $user->ID ) ); ?>" class="regular-text" /><br />
				<span class="description">Please enter your Twitter username.</span>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</table>
<?php
}

add_action ( 'personal_options_update', 'my_save_extra_profile_fields' );
add_action ( 'edit_user_profile_update', 'my_save_extra_profile_fields' );

function my_save_extra_profile_fields( $user_id )
{
	if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_user', $user_id ) )
		return false;
	/* Copy and paste this line for additional fields. Make sure to change 'twitter' to the field ID. */
	update_usermeta( $user_id, 'twitter', $_POST['twitter'] );
}

Adding a field on the registration form / registration page

/**
 * Add cutom field to registration form
 */

add_action('register_form','show_first_name_field');
add_action('register_post','check_fields',10,3);
add_action('user_register', 'register_extra_fields');

function show_first_name_field()
{
?>
	<p>
	<label>Twitter<br/>
	<input id="twitter" type="text" tabindex="30" size="25" value="<?php echo $_POST['twitter']; ?>" name="twitter" />
	</label>
	</p>
<?php
}

function check_fields ( $login, $email, $errors )
{
	global $twitter;
	if ( $_POST['twitter'] == '' )
	{
		$errors->add( 'empty_realname', "<strong>ERROR</strong>: Please Enter your twitter handle" );
	}
	else
	{
		$twitter = $_POST['twitter'];
	}
}

function register_extra_fields ( $user_id, $password = "", $meta = array() )
{
	update_user_meta( $user_id, 'twitter', $_POST['twitter'] );
}

If you are using this on before WordPress 3.1, then your input box will not be styled like that of username and email. Its fixed in WP 3.1 though.
For earlier versions, change the id of the input field on Line 14 to user_email

	<input id="user_email" type="text" tabindex="30" size="25" value="<?php echo $_POST['twitter']; ?>" name="twitter" />

To get this custom field, you can use get_the_author_meta() to return its value or the_author_meta() for displaying it.

the_author_meta( $meta_key, $user_id ); // $meta_key = 'twitter' in our case

I am also attaching the whole code as a plugin that you can activate on your WordPress installation.

Download Plugin

This concludes the tutorial for adding an Custom user profile field which is an input text box but there may be certain cases where you would like to use select dropdowns, radio buttons or checkboxes. Right? I will cover that in the next post.

If you have any questions, use the comment section & I will try to help.

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Installing bbPress in a different language or changing it to a different language in an already installed bbPress follows exactly the same procedure. There is no difference in them as no permanent changes are made. In other words, nothing is written to the database. Obviously that doesn’t count the content you already have in posts.

Before you can switch the language, you would need the .mo file for your desired language. You can obtain the .mo file either from the Official server by Automattic – http://svn.automattic.com/bbpress-i18n/ or a local mirror maintained by _ck_ @ bbshowcase.org – http://bbshowcase.org/forums/topic/bbpress-translation-internationalization-into-local-languages#post-1133

Now when you have obtained the language file, create a folder named my-languages in bbPress root for version 1.0+ and a folder named languages under bb-includes folder incase you are using version 0.9

Now open bb-config.php file (found in bbPress root), and edit this line.

define( 'BB_LANG', '' );

Change it to

define( 'BB_LANG', 'es_ES' ); // for Spanish language and a corresponding es_ES.mo file needs to be present in the language folder

That’s it. If you did both the steps correctly, then you should be able to check out the new language on your forums.

If you have any questions, then let me know and I will try to cover it up in a post.

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<meta name="generator" content="bbPress 1.0.2" />

In bbPress 1.0+ you can remove the meta tag generator by adding a single line of code to your functions.php file to your theme’s folder. If there is no functions.php file in your theme folder then create a new one with the name and add this line:

remove_action('bb_head', 'bb_generator');

For those who don’t want to do this by editing a file and would prefer to do it by a plugin, here is a tiny plugin to do the same.

Download bbPress Plugin

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Example #1 (Show ads only for non-logged in members and not for logged in members)

<?php
    if ( bb_is_user_logged_in() ) {
/* Add adsense or other ad code here*/
    }?>

Example #2 (Show some content only if the user is logged in)

<?php
    if ( bb_is_user_logged_in() ) {
/* Add the private content here or some code */
    }?>

Example#3 (Do more stuff)

<?php
    if ( bb_is_user_logged_in() ) {
/* You are logged in – do something for members */
    }
    else {
/* You are not logged in – do something for guests */
    }?>

So you can do anything on the basis that the current user is logged in or not. Need more help? Ask in the comments and I will be glad to help you out.

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• Contests are usually played out between participants in real time.
• Challenges are mostly formats where you do the problem in your own time and submit the answer — your score will increase if your answer verified.
• Online Judges are similar to challenges, but require you to submit the code itself, rather than the answer. The code will be run on the server, and you’ll be told if your program passed. Online Judges are usually more difficult than Challenges because the server imposes a time limit.

These are some of the challenges I’ve found the most interesting :

Project Euler

Languages : Anything

Project Euler is a collection of (mostly) mathematical problems that (in general) you’ll have to write some sort of program to solve. It’s a challenge (in the above sense of the word), so you have as much time as you want to solve the problems in any order using any language. It has the usual ranking system so you can compare yourself to everyone else, as well as within your country. New puzzles are added almost every week or so, but it can vary. The problems range from ridiculously easy, to impossibly hard. Each problem has its own forum thread, where people post how they solved it, with the code they used. However one can access the thread for a problem only if they’ve solved it.

Sphere Online Judge (SPOJ)

Languages : Lots. Check the site for the full list.

SPOJ is good because it combines problems from almost every other source. They’re not mathematical, just normal Computer Science problems. The 3 main limitations that they place on you are the running time, memory usage and code size. There are 1000s of problems, most of them are easy to solve in general, but hard to solve within the restraints imposed.

UVa Online Judge

Languages : C, C++, Java, Pascal

The same as structure as SPOJ, except you can only use those 4 languages. Whether or not you consider this a handicap, or simply a tougher rule set is your choice. It has lots of problems, some of them are duplicates of SPOJ (or may be it’s the other way around). In general, very challenging algorithmic problems.

The Python Challenge

Languages : It should be fairly obvious…

A dedicated challenge for python. As far as format goes, it’s the same as KlueLESS, but with some required knowledge of Python. For some levels you’ll need extra modules not provided with the standard distribution, but all of them are free downloads. This is possibly the best way to get interested in Python. There are 33 levels, and they get hard fairly quickly.

The Open Source Institute

Languages : Any

OSIX has a number of challenges, including the main “Geek Challenges” which are a series of problems one after the other. The problems are very interesting, but also get hard fairly quickly. Other problem types involve Bonus Levels, which are what you do when you get stuck on the main Geek Challenge. You can attempt these in any order. They also have reverse engineering challenges, and tests for various topics. The site is a bit buggy though (login issues).

Code Golf

The main focus of code golf is to solve the problem using the minimum number of keystrokes. The problems here are amazingly thought out, and the site in general is nice to read (no programming relevance, but it helps). You are ranked based on the number of bytes of your code, so the shorter the better. Solving these problems is by no means difficult. Coming anywhere near the top scores is insanely hard.

Hackits

Languages : Any, for most challenges.

Hackits is new for me, and it’s very similar to OSIX. It has 6 challenge branches, including the main, logic and oktranon, which are logic challenges, crypt – a crypto challenge; script – a java script challenge; and misc, which doesn’t fit under any category. The difficulty varies, and there is a lot of non-programming work to do, before you actually find out exactly what you’re supposed to program.

My Thoughts

Finally I have find the perfect thing to do when you are free. I have joined Project Euler right away and will be peeking in for more. So what are you into?

Thanks to Sykora! [via Lucentbeing.com]

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