Recent Comments Widget For Blogspot Users

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Releasing the Recent Comments widget for blogspot/blogger users.

How is it different from the other Recent Comments widget?

The problem with other widgets is that the source code for them lies with the widget author and the authors often integrate it in within their own site. If because of some problem their site is down, the recent comments widget will not work.

Here, I am releasing the source code so that the logic would reside within your blog itself and hence you can do away with dependency on 3rd party site not under your control.

How to install Recent Comments widget for blogger?

  1. Login to the blogger dashboard.
  2. Go to ‘Page Elements’ tab page elements
  3. Click on Add a Gadget. Select HTML/Javascript widget type. image
  4. Now this is the most important step. Select the whole code given below and paste it in the widget box you have just opened above.
    <script style="text/javascript">
    function showrecentcomments(json) {
      var numcomments = 5;
      var showcommentdate = true;
      var showposttitle = true;
      var numchars = 100;
    for (var i = 0; i < numcomments; i++) {
        var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
        var alturl;
        if (i == json.feed.entry.length) break;
    for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++) {
          if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
            alturl = entry.link[k].href;
            break;
          }
        }
       alturl = alturl.replace("#", "#comment-");
       var postlink = alturl.split("#");
       postlink = postlink[0];
       var linktext = postlink.split("/");
       linktext = linktext[5];
       linktext = linktext.split(".html");
       linktext = linktext[0];
       var posttitle = linktext.replace(/-/g," ");
       posttitle = posttitle.link(postlink);
       var commentdate = entry.published.$t;
       var cdyear = commentdate.substring(0,4);
       var cdmonth = commentdate.substring(5,7);
       var cdday = commentdate.substring(8,10);
       var monthnames = new Array();
       monthnames[1] = "Jan";
       monthnames[2] = "Feb";
       monthnames[3] = "Mar";
       monthnames[4] = "Apr";
       monthnames[5] = "May";
       monthnames[6] = "Jun";
       monthnames[7] = "Jul";
       monthnames[8] = "Aug";
       monthnames[9] = "Sep";
       monthnames[10] = "Oct";
       monthnames[11] = "Nov";
       monthnames[12] = "Dec";
       if ("content" in entry) {
         var comment = entry.content.$t;}
       else
       if ("summary" in entry) {
         var comment = entry.summary.$t;}
       else var comment = "";
    var re = /<\S[^>]*>/g;
       comment = comment.replace(re, "");
    document.write('<br/>');
       if (showcommentdate == true) document.write('On ' + monthnames[parseInt(cdmonth,10)] + ' ' + cdday + ' ');
    document.write('<a href="' + alturl + '">' + entry.author[0].name.$t + '</a> commented');
       if (showposttitle == true) document.write(' on ' + posttitle);
    document.write('<br/>');
    if (comment.length < numchars) {
    document.write('<i>');
             document.write(comment);
    document.write('</i>');}
       else
            {
    document.write('<i>');
             comment = comment.substring(0, numchars);
             var quoteEnd = comment.lastIndexOf(" ");
             comment = comment.substring(0, quoteEnd);
    document.write(comment + '...<a href="' + alturl + '">(more)</a>');
    document.write('</i>');}
    document.write('<br/>');
      }
    document.write('<br/>');
    }
    </script>
    <script src="http://xyz.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments">
    </script><a href="http://reviewofweb.com/blogging/recent-comments-blogspot-widget/">Widget </a>by <a href="http://reviewofweb.com/">ReviewOfWeb</a>
  5. Scroll down to src=http://xyz.blogspot.com and replace xyz with your blog’s name. For example if your blog’s URL is http://abc.blogspot.com then the code should become src=http://abc.blogspot.com DO NOT TOUCH any other part of the code or else it might create problems.
  6. You are done! Lastly please do not remove the footer credits*.

Please let me know if you face any problem implementing the code above.

If you like the above widget. Consider donating and encourage us to come up with more such widgets.



*The code is released under the condition that footer credits should remain intact.
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Comments

50 Responses to “Recent Comments Widget For Blogspot Users”
  1. Missy says:

    Thanks, it looks great on my blog

  2. Created a widget to show blogger label co-occurance as a silverlight dynamic tag cloud

  3. Daren says:

    I have added the link but no comments are coming up on it???

  4. Daren says:

    It’s OK I sorted it!!! Thanks!!!

  5. Frances says:

    Thanks so much – finally a great-looking comments widget that works on my complicated template.

  6. gejza says:

    thnx a lot

  7. Mat says:

    Thanks for this!

  8. stare gry says:

    dzieki , dobry artykul

  9. mamen says:

    Thank’s for u info

  10. Many thanks for this! This is the only recent comment widget that works! Keep up the good work.

  11. Gennita says:

    I’m not sure whether it’s my site or Blogger, but all the Recent Comments widgets I’ve been trying just post comments from September and nothing recent. This started sometime early this morning EST and I have no idea how to solve it. I uninstalled my old one and installed yours, hoping that it being JS on my site would take care of the problem, but to no avail. But it’s still just showing Sept. comments! Can you help, please?

  12. Rhoda says:

    Same problem as Gennita. This just started a couple of days ago & all the Recent Comment widgets I have tried are all pulling comments from January 2008. I would love to fix this ASAP. None of the widgets seem to be working properly & I see I’m not the only one with the problem.

  13. ROW says:

    @Gennita and Rhoda:
    Have you followed the exacts steps as above? I just saw my test installation again, it is working perfect. Moreover you can check other bloggers who have commented above (like http://ky-justanotherstupidblog.blogspot.com/) for them also the widget is working fine.

    Please try it out again.

  14. Gennita says:

    Hi ROW,
    It seems that there are a bunch of bloggers with this problem. See the following thread on blogger forum:

    http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-troubleshoot/browse_thread/thread/b5d9c0bff84c4694/62311f0d80cf3f8e

    We’re all waiting for some kind of update but it being the holidays, maybe the techies are skiing in Aspen or something ;-) .

  15. Taz says:

    Finally one that works!! Thank u!

  16. ROW says:

    @Taz: Welcome!

    @Gennita: I looked into it again. The code is fine. It seems Google has recently messed up with comments feed and some of the blogspot bloggers are affected due to this. [http://knownissues.blogspot.com/2008/12/comments-feed-not-updating-1562053.html] I think the best way out is to ‘wait-and-watch’ till blogger team issue a fix.

    Having said that, for some blogs(like one of mine and some others who commented above) it is still working perfect.

  17. gapsky says:

    thx a lot.
    it’s so useful

  18. kouretinho says:

    thanx mate. Great easy-to-use widget! Made my day

  19. Dalina says:

    Thanks for the widget!!
    I would like to know how I can change the Font and font size
    Any help?

  20. La Huerita says:

    Thanks for this, it’s great! I have one problem with it: When you click on the “More” link it takes you to the post connected to the comment, not to the comment itself. Is there a way to fix this so the link goes directly to the comment?

  21. Aditi says:

    It’s working fine. Thank you for this widget. God bless.

  22. Eskapisminda says:

    Hi, how do I adjust the comments to ONLY showing the title not the snippets of content? thanks

    • ROW says:

      @Eska: You “ll need to delete a chunk of code. Remind me if you’re not able to do this on your own.

  23. Yes that worked! Thanks so much. Now if only I can find a Recent Posts widget that works!

  24. Jack says:

    Thanks for the information:)

  25. bent says:

    Hello & thanks for this widget ! I just started using your of widget and am impressed by the quality of the code.

  26. kurt says:

    thanks man appreciated..! works!

  27. sastro2010 says:

    thank you for your tutorial

  28. Questions says:

    Variables cannot be passed to this function. Is there a way around this?

  29. Pantorijn says:

    Thanks. Great widget. However I had to customized it to Dutch. Thanks again.

  30. BEBEN says:

    I think this feature was provided by the blogger in collaboration with the feed. Go to add the widget and select add recent comments. BTW … this is one good hack. Thank’s before and share U am waiting ur next post…hohohoho

  31. Surccero says:

    Thanks this script is what I needed.

  32. Cerebration says:

    THANK YOU!!! I’ve been trying to fix my lost comments for days! We were using an RSS feed – but it’s just not the same. I pasted your code – changed the xyz to my blog name and – Your widget worked perfectly! I really appreciate it!

  33. Finally it works. Thanks!

  34. ecky says:

    it works,
    thanks ,but the title-comment is the link of the post right?how if the title of the post changed?

  35. Tech Review says:

    Great coding. I was really looking for this. Can you tell me how to remove comments from widget? Like in your website. I want to show only post name and commenter name. Thanks

  36. Net Success says:

    Great plugin, I am just beginning to get familiar with blogger and blogspot. Very powerful blogging tools.

  37. Zephyr says:

    Hey, I want to say great works (cos it’s the only recent comments gadget which is working on my blogger blog and all others messed up with my existing format).

    My little problem is that the link doesn’t show the “title” of my blog post but just said “blog post”. Is there a way to get around this problem? Many thanks.

  38. TRISH says:

    it’s a great widget but I have a question

  39. TRISH says:

    My question is why does it continue to show spam comments after they are deleted forever ?
    can you block ‘anomymous’ or even your own ?

  40. spor says:

    Finally it works. Thanks!

  41. Thank you, that’s really fine. I adapted it to ma needs.

    Is there any possibility to have the real title of the post displayed instead of the filename of the html file? Because sometimes the filename is not the same as the title post (and vice versa)?

    Thanking you for your answer.

    Clemens Vargas Ramos, Germany

  42. … problem solved. It was easier as I thought.

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