Unlike other blogging engines the Serendipity designers have produced two different modes of displaying comments, either linear or threaded. Linear mode displays all comments in the order they were created, whereas threaded mode allows the comment author to select a parent comment that their reply applies to. The inspiration for this came from the many forums and guestbooks in use today, and allows your blog users to see at a glance which conversations are generating the most interest.
Trackbacks to your entries are automatic with Serendipity and in most cases your readers will never need to use a dedicated trackback address (URI).
Are you writing a new theme for Serendipity? If so, comments and trackbacks can be arranged in many different ways by changing your CSS in the template stylesheet or by altering the Smarty Templating files.
The styles you need to be aware of
The html for the comments and trackbacks are coded in the '
comments.tpl' smarty template file, and the serendipity specific styles that can be used are as follows;
.serendipity_comments, the container div for comments, trackbacks and the comment form.
.serendipity_commentsTitle, the style for comments and trackbacks header, usually the same as the entry title.
.serendipity_comment, container div for individual comments.
.serendipity_commentBody, the actual comment or trackback.
.serendipity_comment_source, the date and time a comment or trackback was saved, and the details of the comment author.
.serendipity_comment_author_self allows separate styling for comment author if they are logged in.
The html for the comment form is coded in the '
commentform.tpl' smarty template file, and is usually contained within a table. The serendipity specific styles that can be used are as follows;
.serendipity_commentForm, the container div for the comment form.
td.serendipity_commentsLabel, the labels marked name, email, homepage etc
td.serendipity_commentsValue input, style for the input boxes (name, email etc).
td.serendipity_commentsValue select, style for the drop-down box (reply to).
td.serendipity_commentsValue textarea, style for the comment box.
.serendipity_commentDirection, container div for all text beneath the comment form.
.serendipity_comment_s9ymarkup, allows you to style the bold and underline helptext below the comment form.
.serendipity_comment_emoticate, allows separate styling for the emoticons if needed.
.serendipity_comment_captcha, style for the anti-spam text.
Comments are visible from the detail pages of an entry and can be seen in the comment popup window. To style comments in the popup window you'll need to edit '
commentpopup.tpl', and add a separate style for wrapping the content,
.s9y_wrap in your stylesheet. Typically you would take styles from your regular
body and
.serendipity_entry and merge them into the
.s9y_wrap so that the popup window is visually similar to the comments and comment form on your detail page.
Entries that have no comments are styled with
.nocomments