Joomla! Plugin (beta) Installation and Administration
N.B. This guide covers plugin version 0.7.1 to 0.9. a separate set of instructions for version 1 is available here.
Contents:
2.6 Enabled / Disabled Categories
3.1 Manual Enabling or Disabling Comments on Individual Articles.
1. Installation
1.1: Joomla! 1.5 Install
(please scroll down for Joomla! 1.6 installation
instructions)
Before installing the plugin please ensure you have signed up for an account here as doing so will provide you with the API key you will need to enable the plugin to work properly. A setup guide is available here if you need further help with this step.
To install the Joomla! 1.5 plugin, first log in to your Joomla administration page and select Extensions->Install/Uninstall.
Click the 'Browse' button in the 'Upload Package File' panel and select the plugin package .zip.
Now click 'Upload file & Install.'
You should receive the following message if the plugin has installed successfully.
Go to Extensions -> Plugin Manager as shown here:
Click on 'Content - Discussit.'
Now enter your DiscussIt API key in the Parameters panel and click 'Save'
Navigate to the homepage of your Joomla! site and comments will now be enabled!
1.1.1 Joomla! 1.5 plugin uninstall
To uninstall, first click on 'Extensions' -> 'Install/Uninstall' in your Joomla administration
Now click 'Components' as shown below:
Select the DiscussIt component by clicking on the radio button next to the DiscussIt entry in the on-screen list.
Now click the 'Uninstall' button in the top-right of the screen.
You should recieve a message telling you the uninstall was successful.
1.2: Joomla! 1.6 Install
(please see above for Joomla! 1.5 installation
instructions)
Before installing the plugin please ensure you have signed up for an account here as doing so will provide you with the API key you will need to enable the plugin to work properly. A setup guide is available here if you need further help with this step.
To install the Joomla! 1.6 plugin, first log in to your Joomla administration page and select 'Extensions' -> 'Extension Manager'.
Click the 'Browse' button in the 'Upload Package File' panel and
select the plugin package .zip.
Now click 'Upload & Install.'
Next, go to 'Extensions' -> 'Plug-in Manager'
Look for the 'Content - Discussit' entry and click on the round red button to enable the plugin.
Now click on the 'Content - Discussit' link to go to the plugin's administration page.
On this page enter your DiscussIt API key in the box labelled 'Key' (if you don't already have a DiscussIt API key you can get one by signing up here)
Finally, click 'Save & Close' and your plugin is properly installed! (N.B. In version 0.8 of the plugin click 'Save' instead and wait for the page to reload.)
1.2.1 Joomla 1.6 Plugin Uninstall
To uninstall, first go to your Joomla! administration page and select 'Extensions' -> 'Extension Manager'
Click on 'Manage'
Type 'Discussit' into the text box labelled 'Filter:' and click 'Search'
Click the tick-box next to 'Content - Discussit' to select the plugin.
Now click the 'Uninstall' button in the top right of the screen.
If the plugin has been successfully uninstalled you should see a message similar to this one:
2. Plugin Management
This is where your discussit.com API key needs to go - if you don't yet have a DiscussIt API key you will need to sign-up for one here.
If you have lost your API key you can recover it by signing-in to your DiscussIt account at: http://account.discussit.com/ and clicking on 'Properties' for your site's entry on the page.
This sets wether a 'View/Add Comments' link is shown below articles in the featured view.
This is enabled by default in the Joomla! 1.5 plugin abd disabled by default in the Joomla! 1.6 version of the plugin.
Disabled by default - Enabling this makes your comments visible to search engines and can improve your site's visibility and search ranking.
If using this feature it is recommended that you turn on caching in Joomla! global configuration.
Enabled by default - this adds a link back to discussit.com underneath your comments widget.
Enabled by default - this setting allows you to enable or disable comments on all articles except those in categories specified in 'Enabled / Disabled Categories' (see section 2.6 for more info).
Using {showcomments} or {nocomments} overrides this setting on the individual article - See section 3.1 for more information.
Please not that changing the value of this will change the functionality of 'Enabled / Disabled Categories,' which is covered next.
2.6 Enabled / Disabled Categories
Optional - Depending on what the 'Auto-enable Comments' settings are this function will either disable or enable comments in all articles in the categories specified in the box.
If 'Auto-enable Comments' is set to 'Yes,' articles in the categories specified in the text box will have comments disabled. Entries must be numerical and separated by commas e.g: '1, 12, 22' (without quotes)
If 'Auto-enable Comments' is set to 'No,' articles in the categories specified in the text box will have comments comments. Entries must be numerical and separated by commas e.g: '1, 12, 22' (without quotes)
Please note that {nocomments} and {showcomments} supersede this functionality.
Default is 600 - This specifies the width (in pixels) of the comments widget so you can adjust it to best fit your template. Numerical values only.
Default is 0 - This allows you to set the space (in pexels) between the bottom of your article text and the top of the comments widget.
Optional - This allows you to append a message to the end of articles in which comments are switched off e.g: 'Comments disabled on this page'
3 Additional Features
3.1 Manual Enabling or Disabling Comments on Individual Articles.
You can manually enable comments on an article by adding the tag {showcomments} (including curly braces) to the beginning of your article text. this supersedes other plugin settings to ensure comments are always enabled on that article.
You can manually disable comments on an article by adding the tag {nocomments} (including curly braces) to the beginning of your article text. this supersedes other plugin settings to ensure comments are always disabled on that article.