Recent Comments Widget For Blogspot Users
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Today, I am releasing the Recent Comments widget for blogspot user.
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?
- Login to the blogger dashboard.
- Go to ‘Page Elements’ tab

- Click on Add a Gadget. Select HTML/Javascript widget type.

- 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;}elseif ("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>
- 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.
- You are done! Lastly please do not remove the footer credits*.
Please let me know if you face any problem implementing the code above.
*The code is released under the condition that footer credits should remain intact.
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October 24th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Thanks, it looks great on my blog
November 6th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Created a widget to show blogger label co-occurance as a silverlight dynamic tag cloud
November 8th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I have added the link but no comments are coming up on it???
November 8th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
It’s OK I sorted it!!! Thanks!!!
November 13th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Thanks so much - finally a great-looking comments widget that works on my complicated template.
November 16th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
thnx a lot
November 19th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thanks for this!
November 25th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
dzieki , dobry artykul
December 4th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Thank’s for u info
December 19th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Many thanks for this! This is the only recent comment widget that works! Keep up the good work.
December 20th, 2008 at 6:09 am
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?
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
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.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
@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.
December 28th, 2008 at 5:39 am
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 ;-).
January 4th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Finally one that works!! Thank u!
January 5th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
@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.