My Top Commentators Widget: Quick & Dirty



Updated 06/Jan/2010: Download Top Commentators Widget v.1.3 (refer to the README for customization). And, yes, it works with WordPress 2.9.1.

Holy Molly, I never thought I’d make one so soon, but it’s true! I’ve created my very first WordPress Widget!

Yeah, well, not exactly. I adapted this Top Commentators Widget from the actual Show Top Commentators (hereto known as STC) plugin by PFA. Here’s actually what happened:

  1. Went to Giuk.Net as usual, saw MrBadak talking about his newly installed plugins, and I hopped by.
  2. Excitedly surfed into Personal Financial Advice to download the STC plugin.
  3. Followed the instructions to the dot, only to find out later that it won’t work if you have Sidebar Widgets activated.
  4. Googled for a widgetized version of STC, only to find that the download links don’t work.
  5. Desperately needed to install it, so I did the next best thing a desperate grrrl would do — build one.
  6. Accidentally sacrificed a few other widgets due to carelessness, but nevermind as I always back-up.
  7. Destabilized my site with countless access error messages and loads of SQL warnings.
  8. Trying so hard to stay true to the original codes, only to surrender at the last minute and decided to strip down most of the original codes off, therefore FINALLY COMPLETING MY MISSION!

But wait….

Crapazoola. After more googling, I found out that the STC plugin does run on widgets, if you installed the executable PHP for Text widgets first.

My ego is effectively squashed by this new-found knowledge. It took me an embarrassing 8 hours just to get this heck of a plugin to work as a Widget, which goes to show how badly I need to polish up on my PHP.

You may happily use this full-fledged Widget by downloading here:

Download Top Commentators Widget v.1.3

Installation instructions

(WordPress 2.5 and above)

  1. Unzip to get the topcommentators_widget.php file.
  2. Upload the file into the wp-content/plugins folder.
  3. In your WP admin console, go to Plugins and activate Top Commentators Widget.
  4. In your WP admin console, go to Design | Widgets and click Add beside the Top Commentators widget.
  5. Click Edit on the Top Commentators then scroll down and click Change.
  6. Drag the Top Commentators to wherever you want it to be, and click the Save Changes button if you want to stick to the default values.
  7. That’s it!

(WordPress 2.3.3 and lower)

  1. Unzip to get the topcommentators_widget.php file.
  2. Upload the file into the wp-content/plugins folder.
  3. In your WP admin console, go to Plugins and activate Top Commentators Widget.
  4. In your WP admin console, go to Presentation | Widgets (for WordPress 2.2 and later) or Presentation | Sidebar Widgets (for older WordPress versions), and drag the Top Commentators widget to wherever you want it to be, and click the Save Changes button.
  5. Nah, that’s it! Remember to read the FAQ to see what options you can play around in the Top Commentators Widget.

Customization

Please refer to the README file or the WordPress Plugins Directory page for TCW for the latest changelog, available options, snapshots, buglist, etc.

Bug Reports

The comments on this page has been disabled. Please go to WordPress.org and post your issues in the Support Forum. Remember to tag your posts as top-commentators-widget (remember the widget part!).

My Wish-List as of 05/Oct/2009

  • Allow TCW to be used in more than one sidebar within a blog.Totally forgot about this in v.1.2. Will do so for the next version.
  • Allow users to select the default Gravatar to be used.

Donate?

Sure, if you want to, though it’s not necessary. Just PayPal any amount to me at “webgrrrl”.”net” (remember to remove the quotes).

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