I'm pleased to say that Commentics v2.0 was released yesterday. This post aims to highlight some of the more important and noticeable improvements in this version. For full details see the changelog page.
Arguably the biggest improvement is that the script is far more integrable. It has been tested and proven to work on several large and complex applications. Why is it easier to integrate?
Firstly, everything on the frontend is now unique and cannot conflict with the other parts of your page, whether it be PHP variables, CSS, JavaScript, POST data, cookies or sessions. If you do find anything that could conflict, please report it in the Bugs section of the forum.
Secondly, the script will attempt to re-connect to whatever database is connected at the time when Commentics is loaded. This means that you don't need to add any code to re-connect to it yourself. If you're not connected to a database then it won't do this.
Thirdly, there is no longer any need to globalise any variables in the integration code. This might have been the case if you were loading Commentics from within a function or if you used a Smarty templating system.
Fourthly, the Rich Snippets feature is now fully built-in meaning that you don't have to add any additional mark-up to your page. To do this, the script displays the 'Topic' of the page to the right of the Sort By links. Some of the Rich Snippets mark-up is wrapped around this. The text for the Topic is obtained from the page reference.
Lastly, the image captcha is now ReCaptcha. This is more integrable because, unlike the previous captcha, it doesn't require the GD Library, a session, or cookies to work. For those who prefer the previous captcha, it will likely be made avaiable as an add-on soon.
As Commentics can now be integrated into popular applications, there is a plan to raise awareness of the script within a few software communities, as well as add more tutorials on the Implementations page.
Elsewhere, there is now a 'Text Finder' tool in the admin panel (Tools -> Text Finder). If you want to change a piece of text either on the frontend or the backend and you're not sure where to change it, use this tool to locate the exact file and line number.
Another addition is wildcard support for the word detection features. You can now match a word using the * symbol, so for example to match the word computer, you can use *put*. There are more detailed examples on the actual word detection admin panel pages.
The email subscription feature has been enhanced. There is now an automatic task (Tasks -> Re-Act Inactive Subs) to re-activate subscribers who forget to click the re-activation link in their new comment notification email. The default setting for this task is to wait for 3 days before re-activation.
The script is now more permissive when it comes to error messages. For example, the flooding delay check has been reduced from 10 minutes to 1 minute, the flooding maximum check has been increased from 3 comments per hour to 5, while the minimum comment words and characters has been reduced from 2 to 1 and 5 to 2 respectively. You can adjust these according to your website.
Finally, there are two additional features. The first is a 'Read More' feature where if the user types a very long comment then it will be shortened with a link to expand it. This is useful if you have limited space for the comments. The default cut off point is 500 characters. This can be changed in Layout -> Comments -> Read More. A second feature is the ability to initially hide the comment form with a link to expand it. Again, this is useful is you have limited space on the page. This feature can be enabled in Layout -> Form -> General.