[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #10910: Standardize comment form

[WordPress Trac]

#10910: Standardize comment form
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 Reporter:  Otto42       |       Owner:                
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new           
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  Comments     |     Version:  2.9           
 Severity:  normal       |    Keywords:                
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 Every theme includes a substantially similar piece of code: the comments
 form. Largely, this form goes unchanged, except in extremely minor ways,
 from theme to theme. It's ripe for being pulled out of the theme and
 standardized in the core.

 Points of note:
  * The form contains all the same elements (name, email, url, comment
 text), which must have all the same names in order for the comment form to
 actually work.
  * Virtually every theme uses styling to adjust the form, not changes to
 the HTML.
  * Any plugin which enhances comments has to have code manually inserted
 into the theme, in most all cases. A more standardized form could have
 useful action hooks around the elements in the form, letting plugins work
 on the form in a simpler way (adding fields to sane locations, etc).

 I suggest that this proceed in phases:

 1. Copy the comments form code from default and classic themes into the
 core, and replace it with a function call. comment_form(), for example.

 2. Add action hooks everywhere in it. Maybe some filters on the minor
 amounts of text in it, if it makes sense to do so. Add to these as needed,
 as the theme authors complain about not being able to easily adjust the
 HTML anymore. Should be a minority, almost all themes leave this verbatim
 from whatever theme they started out with.

 3. Encourage themes to adjust. Maybe start suggesting themes in the Expand
 section to use it, like threaded comments did.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10910>
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