Subscribe to Comments 2.1
Subscribe to Comments 2.1 is a plugin that allows commenters on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins out there for the simple reason that it helps foster a community around your blog by encouraging commenters to come back and stay engaged in the dialog.
Features
- Rudimentary security
- Users cannot enter a random e-mail into the subscription manager and modify someone else’s subscriptions
- In order to modify subscriptions, users need to use a special link, given in notification e-mails, and printed in the comments form as long as they have their comment cookie
- Recognition of subscription status
- Unsubscribed users see the “subscribe to comments” checkbox, but subscribed users see a “Manage your subscriptions” link
- The author of the post is recognized by either login or comment cookie and is assumed to be subscribed to the entry (as they will receive notifications through WordPress)
- Themeable subscription manager
- Uses visual style of WordPress interface
- Can be optionally accessed via “Manage” menu in WordPress
- E-mail verification of block requests
- Javascript “invert selection” link to check/uncheck subscriptions for mass deletion
- “Return to the page you were viewing” link that persists at the top of the page, so that users can easily return to the post they were reading once they are done modifying subscriptions
- Ability to let users change notification e-mail address
- In the subscription manager, users can request that their notification address be changed for all their subscriptions
- Special link is sent to the old address for verification
- Once clicked, their e-mail address will be changed instantly for all their comments
- Easy integration into comments form
- No modification of comments form needed for WP 1.5+ (supported themes)
- For users who want custom placement of the checkbox/link to subscription manager, this can be done with one simple function call, placed anywhere in the comment form
- Subscription without leaving a comment
- By popular demand, you can now offer visitors the option of subscribing to comments on an entry without having to leave a comment themselves
- If the reader later decides to join the conversation, their subscription continues without them having to explicitly set it
- Customization
- You can make the Subscription Manager that your users see use your theme’s header, footer and sidebar, using CSS to style it to fit your site
- Internationalization
- I’ve written Subscribe to Comments 2.1 with i18n in mind, making full use of
__()and_e()functions. The domain is “subscribe-to-comments”.
- I’ve written Subscribe to Comments 2.1 with i18n in mind, making full use of
Download
Version 2.1 Update
Version 2.1 of Subscribe to Comments has a feature that people have been begging me to implement for many months: you can view the list of people who are subscribed to posts on your blog, and you can also see a list of the most “subscribed” posts. Also in this version is a new one-file install. You just put subscribe-to-comments.php in your /plugins/ directory, activate, and you’re done. This version will work on WordPress versions from 2.0.6 through 2.3.1 (highest tested).
Versions
- 2.1.2 Fixed a few bugs that’d send bad notifications (thanks Donncha!), cleaned up some code and moved to using proper WP escaping functions
- 2.1.1 WordPress 2.2 compatibility! Also note that support for
attribute_escape()is needed, so if you get errors about that, upgrade to the latest version in your branch - 2.1 big update, fixing a few potential XSS holes, and misc error messages… see above for details
- 2.0.8 XSS security fixes, hopefully fixed “+” symbols in e-mail for good
- 2.0.7 additional “funky e-mail” fixes
- 2.0.6 support for e-mail addresses with “+” symbols, option to disable CSS “clearing”
- 2.0.4 potential security bugs, better WP 2.0 capabilities compat
Feedback/Bugs
Feel free to leave bug reports or feature requests here. Use this entry’s comments to ask support questions or offer general feedback
I’ve spent a lot of time writing this code and supporting it. If you derive some benefit from this code, please consider showing your gratitute in a more tangible
way. Thanks!
I have received $30.00 this month for my coding efforts.
Great tool, exactly what I was looking for. There’s onla one problem left: if I put the .mo - file with the german translation to the /plugins - directory nothing happens; the language stays to be english. So what I have forgotten to do ? Thanks for your tip.
Markus
Hey Mark,
Like the idea, but the plugin doesn’t appear in my plugins list to activate. Can you help me debug this?
Thanks, Reuben
Markus,
You must have the same language set in wp-config.php
Reuben,
If it isn’t in the list, it wasn’t uploaded to
wp-content/plugins/properly.Hi Mark, I can assure you it was. I have 15 other plugins that’re working just fine. This guy ftp’d up no problem, but is the only one not showing in the list.
Thanks
Reuben
I translated plugin into Ukrainian. The Manage Comments page looks fine in Ukrainian. But on the comments page, when you subscribe for the first time or see the link “manage subscription” it is still in English.
Also when subscriber clicks the link “manage subscription” system asks a login and password, you click cancel and then you see the management page.
I’m using WordPress 2.0.1, English version. But changed WLANG to uk_UA in order to use localized plugin.
(May be something wrong with the theme bluehorizon which i’m using?)
Hi again, some days before I wrote:
Great tool, exactly what I was looking for. There’s onla one problem left: if I put the .mo - file with the german translation to the /plugins - directory nothing happens; the language stays to be english. So what I have forgotten to do ? Thanks for your tip.
Your answer:
You must have the same language set in wp-config.php
In my wp-config.php there is the setting “define (’WPLANG’, ‘de_DE’);” anyway the translation doesn’t work. To be true: I’m an absolute beginner with WP and HTLM so I would be very happy to get an idiot - save explanation
Thanks for this, works flawless!
Great plugin! Works a treat, thank you!
Hi there,
I have the exact same problem as Markus: I can’t get the plugin to be translated. I tried it by putting in the translation file (”de_DE” is set in wp_config.php, yes) and also by editing the php file of the plugin itself, it just doesnt get translated… even when hardcoding it *lol* whats wrong here?
Hi,
I have 2.0.2 WP and downloaded the 2.0.2 I think of this code. I put subscribe-to-comments in the plugins and put wp-subscription-manager alongside wp-config.php. I activated the plugin (no errors).
Only problem is when I comment to my blog it acts as if nothing has changed. What could I have missed?
Peter,
There is a checkbox that your commenters can check which will subscribe them to the post. I viewed your blog and verified that the checkbox is appearing.
Hi,
I installed the plugin but there is a small problem. When I hit subscribe by not commenting on it, it takes me to a different page. It says click here to go back where you were. When I do that, it goesback to comments.php instead of the actual location. Is there a way to change this?
thanks
abhinav kaiser
Abhinav,
It must be placed outside of the comments form.
Great Plugin.
Exactly what I was looking for.
I only have a little problem.
I didn’t read the HowTo Install and just copied the extracted archive with all the *.php files in my plugins folder.
And now it seems like everything is messed up a little.
I am using the Regulus Theme and the “subscribe to comment” is not in the actual comment box (well not completly)
and when I try to add the theme to the subscription manager I have a ton of mistake messages on the screen (header and footer part)
I cannot find anywhere in the Database where those settings are saved (on where to find the php files) but they must be somewhere, because my changed comments text is saved also (it returns after I delete the files and reupload them to the server)
Can you please tell me where all the settings are saved? And what database tables have been altered?
Thank you
Christian
The plugin (as I recall, it’s been a while) was working fine when I installed it. Now I just noticed the manage subsicriptions link isn’t working.
Since the install I have modified my permatlink structure (adding a “.html” to the end of the url). I suspect this may be the problem. Here is a url that the link outputs:
http://www.oldguy.us/blog/wp-subscription-manager.php?&ref=http://www.oldguy.us/blog/i-will-be-back.html
Upon clicking the link, wp displays the front page. Do you think the .html is the problem? If so, how can I fix it?
Thanks for your consideration.
I’m getting the “You may not access this page without a valid key” also. I saw other people above had the problem but I didn’t see a solution. Anyone know what’s going on?
Youve got very useful site. It really helped me. Thanks.
http://newblogs.bravehost.com/ultram/1.html
Hey Mark,
Is there a way to only send 1 comment per day to a subscriber? I have a blog entry with over 2000 comments in just a month and people are unsubscribing because they’re getting sometimes 50+ comments a day.
Thx
I’ve tried to download the zip file but it’s empty. Am I doing something wrong?
I love this plugin but if I have it, and SecureImage installed at the same time it is not possible for comments to post.
Anyone have any ideas how to make both of these work?
I deactivated secureimage overnight and got 114 spam comments.
Thanks
Hello
This is a great plugin
But I am having a similar problem to some users.
If you are the author of the post, manage subscription link has a bug? It does not allow you to enter into the subscription page. The link does not have the email address and md5 code.
The link formats like this:
http://www…/wp-subscription-manager.php?&ref=http://www...
This is not the case if you subscribe to another author’s post and the manage subscribe link works perfectly then.
I tried downloading the latest svn branch but still the same problem.
Any fix would be most appreciated
thanks
That’s actually intended… on entries where you are the author, it’s intended for you to go in and manage other people’s subscriptions… obviously you wouldn’t be subscribed to your own post. You already get notifications for comments on it.
Just to be clear, this is what I get when I click the “Manage subscriptions” link that shows up for this entry: image
Hey, thanks for the quick reply
I don’t think I explained myself clearly.
If I am the author of a blog post, under the comments box, there is the message:
You are the author of this post. Manage your subscriptions.
If I click on the ‘Manage your subs’ link, the following error occurs:
You may not access this page without a valid key.
This does not happen when I have subscribed to another user’s post, and the manage link takes me to the correct page.
Hope this is clearer
What’s your WordPress user level? That’s probably because you have a user level of 7 or lower, which means you don’t have “admin” access to the subscription manager. It probably shouldn’t show you the link if you can’t use it, though! I’ll get that fixed in the next version.
Just to add, as an author of a blog post, how would I turn off receiving email alerts when another user comments on my post?
I thought that’s what the manage link is for?
thanks again
As an author, you can’t. You’re not getting e-mails because you’re subscribed, but because WP itself is sending them to you. That’s a per-blog setting, not a per-user setting. Actually, it probably SHOULD be a per-user setting, now that I think about it. I’ll see if I can get that into WordPress 2.1
The manage link for Subscribe to Comments is if you want to manually unsubscribe someone, or see what posts someone is subscribed to (by e-mail address). It’s probably not used that much.
In reply to your earlier question, I’m testing as
Hi, thanks for the great plugin. I’m having a problem because my sidebar is on the left and I can’t get the Subscription Manager to display correctly.
I need to move the call for sidebar above it in the code but I don’t know how. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Ok, I just set it not to use the custom theme so it’s fine now.
Colleen,
Sweet.
Making the manager work with thousands of different themes is impossible, so I had to make some decisions, like following the format of “header, content, sidebar, footer.” But yeah, you can always just use the default style… it uses WordPress’ CSS, so it’s not entirely ugly.
Hi, I have some troubles with your plugin.
When I try to search any e-mail into Manage -> Subscriptions error occured:
Cannot redeclare show_subscription_checkbox() (previously declared in ...subscribe-to-comments.php:25 ....What I need to do? Insert if (!function_exists(…))? Or, maybe, there is better way to solve this problem?
Would it be possible to use a javascript plugin to provide values for subscribe-to-comments when wp-cache is used? Or perhaps some dynamic HTML ala AJAX? WP-Cache allows you to identify which pages aren’t cached, so if a DHMTL/Ajax frameset or DIV made a call to an uncached page, could the proper values to comments subscription be loaded for folks who don’t actually write comments?
As mentioned above, I’m using the STC plugin, and I still use it with wp-cache. It just that the only way to subscribe to comments, now is either via feed or by actually posting a comment.
Alternately, perhaps the plugin could provide a hyperlink to a dynamic uncached subscription form that would allow visitors to sub to comments without blogging.
Just thinking out loud. I love the plugin–it’s dramatically improved my blog’s comment-to-post ratio since I installed it.
Regards,
Rich
BlogRodent
Hello Mark
From my earlier post, you kindly pointed out that for a post author, WP automatically sends out a comments notification email, and this is set at blog level, rather than per user.
And so can’t be turned off for an specific blog author.
This is probably asking too much, but I’m wondering if it’s possible with your plugin to allow the author of a post to subscribe/unsubscribe to comments on their own posts? Just as if they were subscribing to someone’s else’s comments.(The comments at blog level would be turned off)
I’ve tried looking at your code to see if it can be hacked (but my php knowledge is v. basic to say the least). Any pointers would be most appreciated
thanks
ps. the reason I’m asking is that I’m setting up a blog with a number of authors, so it would nice if they could keep track of comments on their own posts, but have the option to subscribe/unsubscribe from email alerts
Snowcrash,
Hm, how about if it only allows it if the global setting is disabled?
Rich,
It’s just the “subscribe without commenting” functionality that doesn’t work, right? I use WP-Cache2 here and regular subscribe to comments functionality works fine. I can try to figure out why this is happening.
Hello Mark
Yes, that would make sense, as otherwise two posts would be sent out. (And maybe also because it would be easier to code)
I think it would be cool if the post author is by default subscribed to comments on their own post (which they could unsubscribe from if they want).
And if they are subscribed, when commenting on their own post, they don’t get a notification.
thanks
Yes that would be cool. Same issue here with an multiple author blog…
Mark
I seem to be having a small problem. We are using your plugin in a greek site, so understandably we want to change the text to greek. Some text is changed in the control panel, no problem with that.
But when I change the text in the plugin (to edit the manual subscription text) there is a peculiar problem:
After submitting any comment, I get this message about headers already having beeg sent and stuff.
I assure you there are no standard problems, there are no wrong spaces in the subscribe-to-comments.php file. The only main difference to your plugin is that i save it with UTF encoding (and of course the greek text).
I would appreciate any help…
Thanks very much for a great plugin btw.
Just in case it helps others, I had a problem with this plugin where a user was having problems clicking on the ‘manage subs’ link when they had subscribed to posts. They would get a ‘You may not access this page without a valid key’ msg when clicking the link.
I traced the problem back to an invalid email address, the user was using the alias feature of gmail where you can add to your base address. His email was username+alias@gmail.com. The script accepted the addy and indeed would send messages to it when the comments were added to but the ‘manage’ link would fail. Since we have changed the email addy back to username@gmail.com, all has been hunky dory
Hope it helps some folks.
Mark, thank you for great plugin!
Alex
My blog -Blog about AdSense and SE
Great plugin. Thanks so much!!!
Hey Mark,
Quick question. This whole comment thing that we are using right now, is that the “Subsrive to Comment 2.0″ thing that you are talking about on this page. Sorry if that sounds like a noob question.
Thanks, (btw, great site)
Spencer
Spencer,
The check box above the “Post Comment” box that said “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” that now says “You are subscribed to this entry. Manage your subscriptions.” is made by the plugin.
Mark,
O alright I see now, great little plugin. Thanks for your help and keep up the good work on the site.
- Spencer