jekyll-comments

jekyll-comments

Static Comments for your Jekyll website

Download

Jekyll Comments lets you have static user generated comments to your static Jekyll website, and features profanity filtering, keyword blacklisting and moderation of comments.

Features

Client Side

  • simple UI that allows you to post comments and replies
  • Google Sign in to authenticate users
  • write comments in markdown, allows html code blocks also
  • comment + reply counter
  • comment permalinks
  • comments by post author are highlighted

Server (Google Sheets)

  • profanity filter
  • user blacklisting
  • disallow comment content (keyword blacklisting)

Admin

Setup

Video Tutorial - Static Comments for your Jekyll Website

(sorry for lag in video, will create new one and reupload soon)

Install following python modules, if you don't have them

# Terminal markdown viewer https://github.com/axiros/terminal_markdown_viewer
$ pip install mdv

# PyYaml
$ pip install pyyaml

Obtain apiUrl Create a database on Google Sheets ;)

  1. Login to your Google Account.
  2. Copy this spreadsheet.
  3. Configure Code.gs. Edit the deletekey (string recommended that key should be long and random, like some md5 hash). Choose whether you want the API profanity filter or not (true/false)
  4. In Apps Script, Publish > Deploy as web app at following settings:
Project version: New
Execute the app as: Me
Who has access to the app: Anyone, even anonymous

Give the permissions when prompted and copy the URL given which looks like apiUrl = https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbyTwxtrSxu...g5Guoj5KiKsPMyh4aXQ6c_/exec

Obtain a Google Authentication client ID

Refer to this article by Google : https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/web/devconsole-project

Now you have YOUR_CLIENT_ID.apps.googleusercontent.com

Create a new project using git clone project_name, configure files as defined below. Obtain API URL and ClientID as explained below. You're set.

Alternatively, follow these steps:

Copy jekyll-comments/ and all its contents to your project folder. Add jekyll-comments/ to exclusions in your Jekyll config and gitignore \

# _config.yml
exclude: ['jekyll-comments/']

# .gitignore
jekyll-comments/
  • Copy jekyll-comments/comments.html to your project's _includes/comments.html folder.
  • Copy jekyll-comments/comments.sass to assets/css/comments.sass.
  • Copy jekyll-comments/comments.js to assets/js/comments.js.
  • Add following line between <head> ... </head> of each of your page:
<meta name="google-signin-client_id" content="{{site['jekyll-comments']['client_id']}}">

Include comments.html in your posts as:

{% unless page.comments == "nope" %}
<div id="comment-section" class="comment-section">
    {% include comments.html %}
</div>
{% endunless %}

Configure

Open your _config.yml and add the following in end:

jekyll-comments:
  apiUrl: ""
  # [REQUIRED] the url you received from Google Apps Script step, e.g.
  # "apiUrl": "https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbyTwxtrSxu...g5Guoj5KiKsPMyh4aXQ6c_/exec"
  commentsDir: ""
  # this is where are comments are saved, 
  # default: "_data/comments/"
  logFile: ""
  # this file will keep a list of files in which comments are updated, useful in partial builds. 
  # default: "jekyll-comments/comments.log"
  saveAsmd5: False
  # if True, the email ids in _data/comments/*.yml are saved as md5 hashes, useful if you make your _data/comments/*.yml public
  # otherwise emails are stored as it is
  # default: False
  client_id: ""
  # client ID obtained from Google Sign In API
  # YOUR_CLIENT_ID.apps.googleusercontent.com
  sort: "newest_first"
  # comment sorting: "newest_first" or "oldest_first"

In jekyll-comments/comments.py, edit the deleteKey in settings in def main(). This is the same deleteKey as in the GoogleAppsScript.

settings = {
    "deleteKey": "",
    # a key that is known only to you - this is the same key as in comments.gs file
    # allows: comment deletion, get comments, user blacklisting
    # keep it safe, don't add comments.gs and comments.py to your git repo
    # default: "123456789"
    ...
}

If you want these settings as defaults, do not delete the keys, assign them ""

Usage

Enabling comments in a post

In your post's frontmatter,

comments: "disallow" # to disallow new comments, shows pre-existing comments
comments: "nope" # to completely disable the comments on page
# write nothing to allow comments

Posting a comment

Use the comment form on your built pages to post comments or replies.

Moderating

$ cd path/to/your/project_name/
$ python jekyll-comments/comments.py
# or, if you want to allow all comments without pressing [allow] each time
# $ python jekyll-comments/comments.py all
# now moderate comments as you wish, the comments allowed are put into respective _data/comments/*.yml files
$ bundle exec jekyll serve
# to view your comments locally

You can also moderate the comments from your Google spreadsheet.

To add more keywords to blacklist, append a new cell with your keyword in profanity_blacklist sheet.

To blacklist a user, you can use the command line interface or append a new cell with the email you want to blacklist in user_blacklist sheet.

If you accidentally deleted your any of your _data/comments/*.yml file, you can move (cut and paste, not copy) required (or all) comments from published sheet to pending. Make sure to move the comments in top of pending sheet (to keep comments sorted by date)

Tips

Create an alias to update comments

alias jcomm='cd ~/path/to/sample-project; python jekyll-comments/comments.py'
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