MelisCmsComments

Comment system for News and Blog posts, with moderation, optional approval workflow, and a dashboard widget. Package melisplatform/melis-cms-comments.

Purpose

MelisCmsComments attaches a comment system to MelisCmsNews and MelisCmsBlog posts. It ships a front-office templating plugin (comment list + "leave a comment" form), a Comments moderation tab inside the News/Blog post editor (create, edit, delete, approve, refuse), and an optional per-post validation workflow where front-office comments are held pending until an admin approves them. A Latest Comments dashboard widget and GDPR auto-delete support are also included. Combined with MelisCmsUserAccount, comments can require a logged-in site account.

Enable it

Add to config/melis.module.load.php:

return [
    'MelisCmsComments',
];

Composer dependencies: melis-core and melis-cms (^5.2), PHP ^8.1|^8.3. Functionally requires at least one post module — MelisCmsNews or MelisCmsBlog — to be useful. MelisCmsUserAccount is an optional integration for account-gated comments.

Key services

Service alias	Role
MelisCmsCommentsService	Main CRUD/moderation service (extends MelisEngineGeneralService). Fires *_start/*_end event pairs on every method.

Key methods on MelisCmsCommentsService:

$svc = $sm->get('MelisCmsCommentsService');

// Create or update a comment
$id = $svc->saveComment($text, $postId, $commentId, 'NEWS', $name, $authorId, 'front');

// Fetch a single comment
$comment = $svc->getCommentById($id);

// Front-office list for a post (ordered)
$list = $svc->getCommentsByPostId($postId, 'BLOG', 'mccom_date_creation', 'DESC');

// Back-office table query (with optional user info)
$rows = $svc->getComments([
    'postType'     => 'NEWS',
    'postId'       => $postId,
    'withUserInfo' => true,
    'limit'        => 10,
]);

// Moderation
$svc->approveComment($id);          // mccom_validated=1, status=1 (shown)
$svc->refuseComment($id);           // mccom_validated=2, status=0 (hidden)
$svc->deleteCommentById($id);

// Cascade-delete when a post is removed
$svc->deletePostComments('NEWS', $postId);

saveComment() reads the post's c{type}_validate_comments flag: when enabled and the comment originates from the front office, it is stored as pending (validated=0); back-office comments are stored as approved immediately.

Backoffice

Comments moderation tab

MelisCmsCommentsTabController renders the Comments tab injected into the News/Blog post editor. It maps the calling module to its post type via setPostType() / setService().

Action	Role
commentsTable	Renders the tab container.
getComments	AJAX JSON feed for the DataTable (ajaxUrl: /melis/MelisCmsComments/MelisCmsCommentsTab/getComments); builds status dots (blue/green/red), human-readable elapsed time, and author cell (triggers melis_cms_user_account_add_user_picture for avatars).
commentsModalContent	Add / edit comment form.
saveComment	Persists a comment; runs the text through HTMLPurifier 4.12 before saving (XSS protection).
deleteComment	Deletes a comment.
approveComment	Sets mccom_validated=1, status=1.
refuseComment	Sets mccom_validated=2, status=0.
commentsValidateComments	Toggles the per-post "Validate comments" switch (stored in cnews_validate_comments / cblog_validate_comments).

The DataTable tool is registered as meliscmscomments_tool in config/app.tools.php with columns status / author / comment and action buttons validate-refuse / edit / delete. The validate/refuse buttons are injected at runtime (setCommentValidationBtns) and only appear for posts that have validation enabled.

Save and delete actions fire melis_cms_comments_flash_messenger (log type codes CMS_COMMENT_ADD / UPDATE / DELETE), consumed by MelisCmsCommentsFlashMessengerListener.

Dashboard widget

MelisCmsCommentsLatestCommentsPlugin (registered as a controller plugin; config in config/dashboard-plugins/dashboard.config.php) renders the Latest Comments widget. It lists the most recent comments per site, with author, status badge, post title, and date. The dashboard_latest_comments_list interface zone provides zoneReload support.

Front office

MelisCmsCommentsPlugin is a MelisTemplatingPlugin (config key meliscmscomments, section MelisCms, config in config/plugins/MelisCmsCommentsPlugin.config.php). Drop it onto a News/Blog page template from the page editor's PLUGINS panel under Melis Cms Comments.

• front() resolves the post from the newsId / blogId query parameter, loads comments via getCommentsByPostId(), and builds the add-comment form. When the post requires an account it triggers melis_cms_user_account_login_form to embed a login plugin and tie comments to the account (uac_firstname / uac_lastname).
• Settings modal (createOptionsForms): a Template select and a Post type select (NEWS / BLOG). Persisted into the page's plugin XML as template_path, mccplugin_post_type, registration_page_page_id.
• Default view: MelisCmsComments/comments (view/.../plugins/comments.phtml).
• Assets: plugins/css/commentsPlugin.css, plugins/js/commentsPlugin.js.

Database tables

Table	Holds
melis_cms_comments	All comments: mccom_id, mccom_post_id, mccom_type (NEWS/BLOG), mccom_comment_text, mccom_name, mccom_validated, mccom_status, mccom_date_creation, mccom_author_account.

Two columns are auto-added to the post modules' tables at bootstrap (no schema change required in those modules):

Column	Table	Purpose
cnews_validate_comments	melis_cms_news	Per-post "Validate comments" flag for News.
cblog_validate_comments	melis_cms_blog	Per-post "Validate comments" flag for Blog.

Status model. mccom_validated: 0 = new/pending (blue), 1 = approved/shown (green), 2 = refused/hidden (red). mccom_status mirrors site visibility (1 shown / 0 hidden).

Listeners & cross-module wiring

Attached in Module.php on bootstrap:

Listener	Event	Purpose
MelisCmsCommentsFlashMessengerListener	melis_cms_comments_flash_messenger	Flash-messenger feedback and activity log.
MelisCmsCommentsSaveValidateCommentListener	meliscmsnews_get_postvalues (MelisCmsNews)	Persists cnews_validate_comments when a news post is saved.
MelisCmsCommentsGdprAutoDeleteActionDeleteListener	melis_cms_user_account_gdpr_auto_delete_action_delete	GDPR: nulls mccom_author_account for a deleted account, then re-fires melis_cms_comments_gdpr_auto_delete_action_delete.

Module::addValidateCommentsField() (back-office bootstrap) checks which post modules are active and adds the c{news,blog}_validate_comments column to their tables if missing.

Key files

Concern	Path
Module config (services, controllers, plugins)	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/config/module.config.php
Backoffice tool (DataTable)	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/config/app.tools.php
Interface zones	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/config/app.interface.php
Comment forms	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/config/app.forms.php
Front plugin config	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/config/plugins/MelisCmsCommentsPlugin.config.php
Dashboard plugin config	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/config/dashboard-plugins/dashboard.config.php
Main service	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/src/Service/MelisCmsCommentsService.php
Backoffice tab controller	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/src/Controller/MelisCmsCommentsTabController.php
Front templating plugin	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/src/Controller/Plugin/MelisCmsCommentsPlugin.php
Dashboard widget	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/src/Controller/DashboardPlugins/MelisCmsCommentsLatestCommentsPlugin.php
Listeners	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/src/Listener/
DB model / table gateway	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/src/Model/Tables/MelisCmsCommentsTable.php
Bootstrap / column injection	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/src/Module.php
Install delta	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/install/dbdeploy/16618_cms_comments_install.sql
HTMLPurifier (bundled)	vendor/melisplatform/melis-cms-comments/library/htmlpurifier-4.12.0/

See also: MelisCmsNews · MelisCms · MelisEngine · MelisCore