Custom Comment Output - Best Practice

[Dave Damage]

Hi folks,

I need to alter the markup of renderItems of Comments but keep all the rest. So my question is: Do I have to copy the whole folder of wire/modules/Fieldtype/FieldtypeComments and rename it to a new module? Or is there a simpler method?

Initially I thought about using a Replacement Hook but neither $comments->render nor $comments->renderitem() are hookable according to cpatain hook. And generating custom output would be my last choise since the comments have to be both voteable and threaded. 

[LostKobrakai]

How about the "Optional: Generating your own output" variant outlined here: http://processwire.com/api/fieldtypes/comments/?

[Dave Damage]

How about the "Optional: Generating your own output" variant outlined here: http://processwire.com/api/fieldtypes/comments/?

This was my initial approach, but especially threaded comments are a little bit more complicated and I would like to use the renderList-Method for them. So as I said, it would be my last choice.

[LostKobrakai]

Threaded views can be quite simply done by recursive functions, as you can see in the renderNav function that's part of the default installation profile in pw. If that's not sufficient than you've only the option to copy the whole module or ask ryan to add the necessary hooks.

[Dave Damage]

Threaded views can be quite simply done by recursive functions, as you can see in the renderNav function that's part of the default installation profile in pw. If that's not sufficient than you've only the option to copy the whole module or ask ryan to add the necessary hooks.

Thank you very much, I will give the recursive functions a try, should be sufficient...

[gebeer]

To follow up on this, it would be very much appreciated if the render functions were hookable. I need microdata in the markup for the comment lists ratings. I know I could loop through the comments and output my own markup. But it would be much better if I could place this in a module and hook from there as I (and maybe others) sure could use this on other projects, too.

EDIT: I added an issue and a pull request on github.

Edited August 3, 2016 by gebeer
added info