Comments Tutorial

From Shopify Wiki

Contents 1 How can I use comments in Shopify? 2 Getting Started 2.1 Enabling Comments 2.1.1 a) Default theme 2.1.2 b) Custom theme 2.1.3 Activate comments 3 More Info 3.1 Managing Your Comments 3.2 SPAM! 3.3 Moderating Comments

How can I use comments in Shopify?

See our wiki section on comments for examples.

Getting Started

To get started with comments, check out Dennis' screencast (for custom themes).

Here is what you need to know (it's easier if you're using one of the default themes):

Enabling Comments

As comments will be displayed slightly different for each shop, we need to prepare their look according to the theme you selected. First check if you are using either a custom or a default theme:

a) Default theme

(if you have never modified your templates and CSS)

Update your theme to the latest version:

1. Log in to the admin pages of your shop and go the Assets section.
2. Open the Theme Gallery (/admin/assets/gallery)
3. Reapply the theme you're currently using (click on one of the links named "Update my templates to use this theme")

b) Custom theme

(if you have a non-standard theme or made modifications to one of the default themes)

Enable the template for displaying articles and comments:

1. Log in to the admin pages of your shop and go the Assets section.
2. Open the Theme Editor.
3. Enable the article.liquid template.
4. Make sure you have links to each article in your blog template (blog.liquid). To see for yourself, click on it in the Theme editor. There should be a link somewhere like <a href="{{article.url}}">. If not, create it!

For more information about this check the aforementioned screencast.

Activate comments

1. Go to the admin panel of the blog you would like to enable comments for.
2. Select the 'Edit' link.
3. Enable comments from the drop-down list.

More Info

Managing Your Comments

Shopify allows two types of commenting:

• Allow comments pending moderation, so that all comments must be approved before appearing publicly.
• Allow comments, automatically published, where all comments are immediately published with no moderator.

SPAM!

How do you keep spam from appearing in your comments? Easy, Shopify uses Defensio to check all incoming comments for spam, and will not allow comments which are marked as spam to be displayed on your blog (unless you say so).

Moderating Comments

If you choose to allow comments, pending moderation, you will have to approve all comments before they are publicly visible. You can manage from the admin panel of you shop, under the 'Blogs and Pages' tab. From this page you should see a link labeled 'You have some number comment(s), clicking this link will take you to the interface for managing your comments.

• Approve
  If a comment's status is shown as 'unapproved', then you have the option to approve it, this will show the comment publicly on your blog.
• Remove
  This option is available for 'published' or 'unapproved' comments. The removal is not immediate, after removal you have the option to 'restore' your comment for approximately 3 days.
• Spam
  'Published' or 'unapproved' comments can be marked as 'spam'. This means they will not be displayed on your blog. This will also notify Defensio that this comment should have been marked as spam, data that it will use to 'learn' over time.
  If you notice comments in your list that are marked as spam, but you didn't do it, that means that Defensio has marked that comment as spam. If that is not the case, then you can choose 'not spam', which will once again notify Defensio that they got it wrong, data that it will use to 'learn' over time.