Akismet Spam protection built-in to comments
To power the front-end of your website or intranet, we provide a standard commenting control to suit almost any circumstance. We take a look below at some of the features and options of this control that are available to any web user in just two clicks.
A screenshot of the comments control in use on a sample blog post.
Comments Control
The comments control itself can be inserted into any page or template as you choose.
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Comments can be anonymous
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Comments can require membership/registration
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Comments can be moderated.
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Comments can be spam checked using Akismet
This page shows user profile avatars coming directly from Gravatar.
Gravatar Support
If you don't know about Gravatar, it is probably a good time to find out. Gravatar provides a globally recognised avatar service.
What this means is that if you have a Gravatar account and have uploaded your avatar or profile picture, whenever you comment on a site that support gravatar and enter your email address as part of the form, the site can show your picture.
In Contensis, we will show Gravatar images for both registered and anonymous users if they have got a Gravatar account!
This screen shot shows a user updating their avatar image using the profile control
Avatar Support
If your end users don't have a Gravatar account, but have registered with your site, they can upload their avatar through the standard Contensis user profile control, and start seeing their 'mug-shot' appearing against every comment they make.
This functionality is also implemented for many other features such as Social Networking and discussion forums for example.
This screen shot shows a user about to post an anonymous comment
Anonymous Posts
When anonymous posting is enabled, any one with permission to access the page will be able to post a comment.
These comments can be run through spam protection and moderation if required.
If you visit the page having logged in, you will only be presented with the Comment field, to save registered users having to enter their details twice.
This screenshot shows the comments control in use with membership service
Non Anonymous Posts
If you choose to require a login to post comments, you will be happy to know that the comments control is fully integrated with our membership services.
As you can see from the screenshot the control detects no login and gives the user options to either register or login to post.
The registration can be as simple as 3 fields, more can be found about this under user registration.
Spam Protection with Akismet
If you choose to allow anonymous posting, you will want to consider using a spam prevention service, as otherwise every page on your site will start filling with spam.
This is especially useful if the comments are not moderated - but even if they are moderated you don't want to spend 30 minutes a day deleting spam comments!
Contensis integrates with Akismet seamlessly. All you need do is supply a valid Akismet API key, and Contensis will do the rest.
When a comment is made, if it is deemed by Akismet to be spam it will not get deleted, but will be marked as spam and will require moderation through the Contensis comment approval screen
Comments in The Editor
This screenshot shows the comments control in use with membership service
From an editors' perspective, they can immediately see all comments made against their content and moderate these, if they have been given the relevant privileges.
Commenting is integrated into the workflow
Comments can also be used from an editorial point of view; for example, a user can simply add a comment to a page through the editor and this will stay within the CMS and will not be available on the web.
When an approver declines a page, or passes a page to another user, the comments they make will automatically be added to the editorial comments.
This screenshot shows the comment moderation screen, used to approve, decline and delete comments centrally
Comment Moderation
At any stage any user with moderation permissions can go to the comment moderation screen.
This screen allows you to see all comments that are awaiting approval.
This screen also shows spam messages, from here you can delete all spam in one click.
When comments are approved they will then display on the web page in question within a few seconds.
Hopefully you have seen the depth and breath of the controls available to implement comments on your site.
All of the controls have configurable options which allow for customisation to suit your needs, but sometimes this may not be enough, you may have specific requirements that are not included in the standard control set.
If you are using .Net then you can simply inherit from any of the standard controls and extend them to suit your needs, or you can use the same framework we use to develop new controls that meet your specific requirements.
If your idea is something that would be beneficial to all Contensis customers, then just run it past us, as we often will extend the system and provide new functionality based upon user specifications and ideas.
If you attend our developer training course, then you will be able to create any extra functionality or controls just like we do.