Joomla 1.6 comments using FB comments

Recently I have been progressing onto using Joomla 1.6 on websites more often and have discovered a distinct lack of a joomla 1.6 jComments, or any good Joomla 1.6 comments plugin that's non-commercial for that matter. In response to this I was originally going to create a proper extension for comments, however, my sense got the better of me and realised that jComments would release eventually and then I would be stuck with a plugin that's not getting used.

Instead I decided to create a non-commercial Facebook comments plugin, it's simple and allows your users to post comments to your posts easily just by being logged into Facebook. The benefits of social exposure from using this method are also much higher than just using regular comments to allow users to post on your website, giving you free exposure to any commenters friends (unless they opt-out of course). Anyway, without further a due, the Facebook comments plugin is ready for release.

Comments Basic parameters, allowing customisation of the module

Here you can customise the following:

• The URL to attach comments to, either each individual URL or one global set of comments across your entire website.
• Where to display the comments. Either Single articles, Category blog listings, or Featured article layouts.
• The Facebook colour scheme you wish to use. Either "Light" or "Dark".
• How many comments to display by default - 0 is possible, but not advised.
• The width of the comments container, this value is to be specified in PX, if a numeric value isn't given it will default to 500px.
• Display a like button below the content.
• What text to use on the like button. Either "like" or "recommend".
• Display a send button next to the like button or not.
• The layout style of the button(s). Either "standard", "button_count", or "box_count"
• Where to display the buttons. Either Single articles, Category blog listings, or Featured article layouts.

Advanced comments paremeters

This optins section allows you to do the following with the Joomla comments plugin:

• Add a wrapping div around the comments and give it class to aid with CSS and templating
• Specify the account ID of a Facebook account to notify when comments are posted
• Specify a group in the admin team who are allowed to delete comments within the comments.
• This also allows you to remove the link back to the developer (me) - if you are using for commercial purposes, please consider the many hours of development I have saved your team and consider a donation.

Here is a shot of the facebook comments plugin in action

The facebook like button in action from the Joomla plugin

As always I ask for your support and bug fixing help through the comments here, sorry I still don't have a demo of a Joomla1.6 installation readily available but I've provided the above shots of it in action to give you a taster.