Set Up Your WordPress Blog To Allow Trackback Toggling

Set Up Your WordPress Blog To Allow Trackback Toggling

One aspect of WordPress I dislike is that trackbacks display as a comment with the rest of a post's comments. Trackbacks are a nuisance when there's a great conversation going within the post's comments. Some users, however, love trackbacks so I can't simply get rid of them. I know there are plugins available to separate trackbacks from post comments, but I've chosen a different approach.

Using PHP, MooTools javascript, and simple CSS, I've added functionality to my website to toggle trackback display at the click of a link. Want to do the same? Follow these steps.

Step 1: The PHP/XHTML

You'll need to add a CSS class, "trackback", to the comment's "wrapper" DIV if the comment type is "trackback."

<div id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" class="comment <?php if(get_comment_type() != 'comment') { echo 'trackback'; } ?>">

Step 2: The CSS

Declare the "trackback" class in your stylesheet. Also, define the toggle link as an ID(#).

.trackback	{ display:none; }
#toggle-tb-link	{ display:block; float:right; font-size:11px; font-family:arial; font-weight:normal; margin:0 10px 0 0; color:#090; }

Step 3: The Moo

Using MooTools, we create a javascript function that sets the wrapper DIV's CSS display property and link message depending on whether the trackbacks should show or hide.

//trackback toggle
function toggle_trackbacks()
{
	//for every trackback div...
	$$('.trackback').each(function(el) {
		//show or hide the trackbacks
		el.setStyle('display',(el.getStyle('display') == 'block' ? 'none' : 'block'));
	});

	//set the link text
	$('toggle-tb-link').setText(($('toggle-tb-link').getText() == 'Hide Trackbacks' ? 'Show' : 'Hide') + ' Trackbacks');
}

Step 4: Create the Link

Now that all of the functionality in place, we can add the link anywhere on our page.

<a href="javascript:toggle_trackbacks();" class="no-print" id="toggle-tb-link">Show Trackbacks</a>

You don't need to use MooTools for this project, but like MooTools does for every other part of my blog, I can create a lot of functionality with a little bit of code.

No Trackbacks? No Problem!

I've also added the following snippet of code to hide the toggle link if there are no trackbacks:

//manage trackback link
window.addEvent('domready',function() {
	if(!$$('.trackback').length) { $('toggle-tb-link').setStyle('display','none'); }
});

Have any suggestions for this system?