JComments for Joomla 4?

[arvendal]

Does anyone know if there will be a version of JComments for Joomla 4? I have to ask this because the support forum at Joomlatune has been taken down.

Best regards

[pe7er]

I have a feeling that there won't be a Joomla 4 version:

• The developer doesn't seem to be active.
  Their extension has been unpublished for a while at the JED: https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/jcomments/
• Their latest J3 version was JComments 3.0.7 Stable and released in August 2018.
  There haven't been any updates in the last 3 years.

One of my customers uses this extension on their website. I had to change some of its PHP code to solve some deprecated errors on PHP 7.4. I haven't checked the extension on PHP 8.0, but I have a feeling that it won't work properly on PHP 8.

[arvendal]

Thanks for your reply. I was afraid this would be the case.

I have used JComments for several years on a magazine website and, even though it's quite a while since any update, the component has worked well on latest Joomla (even 3.10) on a server using PHP 7.4.

But I'll probably need to find a new comment extension.

Thanks for your help.

Best rgds

[sozzled]

I agree with @pe7er about the original developer's version of JComments. It is correct that the original version was unlisted from the JED. The original version did not work with reCAPTCHA or with PHP 7. Another developer made the required changes to accommodate reCAPTCHA and the changes brought about by PHP 7 (in particular PHP 7.2+). These things have been mentioned before on this forum (e.g. viewtopic.php?f=715&t=982185#p3614729).

I can tell you that the patched version of JComments that I use works with J! 3.10 (both with PHP 7 and PHP 8 ). Be aware, though, that PHP 8 is a peculiar beast and there isn't any guarantee that all the functionality in J! 3.x operates as expected. I haven't tested every feature of J! 3.x with PHP 8 and I can't say, with my hand on my heart, whether everything works; most of the core CMS works with PHP 8 (from what I've tested) and a sizeable number of extensions work with PHP 8 ... that's all I can say.

I cannot tell you if there if [the patched version of] JComments works with J! 4.x. I haven't tried it.

I don't know the answer to the question, "Will there be a new version of JComments for J! 4?" I haven't a clue; I didn't write the extension (but I did have a hand in helping the volunteer who stepped forward to update it). JComments is a nice extension (probably because it doesn't cost any money to obtain it) but there may be better extensions available in the future.

[arvendal]

Thanks sozzled,

Yes, JComments has almost all things needed for a comment extension for free.

I believe it may have worked on my website (PHP 7.4) because I kept the built-in captcha, but that is not optimal to continue with. Right now I am testing Akeeba Engage, also free, also well featured.

Best rgds

[hoanta]

I have the same concern while thinking about migration.
There are lot of informative comments on the site and I don't want them lost.

[arvendal]

I am looking at CComment Pro which has an import tool for JComments. But I don't know yet how well it works. And it's not for free.

Best rgds

[Slackervaara]

I just found out that a JComments fork for Joomla 4 is available at GitHub since 2 days ago. But you cant upgrade it at Joomla 3. I installed it on my Joomla 4 local site:
https://github.com/exstreme/Jcomments-4

Modified Jcomments 3.0.7 with Recaptcha 2 in comments. Adapted to Joomla 4. No compatibility with Joomla 1.5\2.5\3.x

[arvendal]

Thanks, Slackervaara,

This was really great to know. I got kinda stuck in my migration to Joomla 4, because I couldn't find a feasible alternative solution with a couple of features that JComments have.

Best regards

[sozzled]

Thanks, @Slackervaara. This news arrived a bit too late for me.

Although I have used JComments over the years, I've found that

(a) if you allow public comments (even if you protect yourself with CAPTCHA) it is targeted by a lot of spam posters and you spend a lot of time deleting them; and

(b) the software itself has not been 100% compatible with PHP 7.4.

That's not to say that JComments—the patched version, of course; the original version is no longer available on the JED—is bad.

I recently switched to Akeeba Engage which, in many respects, is a better product in my opinion although (even with its CAPTCHA protection) it doesn't completely block spam attempts if you allow public comments and, therefore, you still need to do a bit of cleaning up. Akeeba Engage interfaces with Akismet—which you have to subscribe to—which may add an additional layer of anti-spam protection. Importantly, Akeeba Engage is professionally engineered and compatible with the latest versions of PHP and J!. The main thing is that if you're looking for complete control over who can post comments, where and when they can post them and to prevent rubbish appearing on your website, I'm happy with what I've got.

[arvendal]

You are right, sozzled, there are certain problems with JComments. I also had problems with spam, but I found some tweaks that helped a bit (so long ago, don't exactly remember what I did).

I tried Akeeba Engage, but it lacked some features I needed from JComments. But I really liked Engage and I will certainly use it for other websites than this one I am working on at the moment.

Maybe to use the forked JComments is only to postpone an inevitable change of component. But I think I'll check it out and see if it works OK under newer PHP version.

Best regards

[gws]

I tried the new Jcomments on J4.0.3 with php 8.11 and it didn't work.It wouldn't display the page with a 403 error. As it is a test site I didn't bother debugging it,just deleted it.

[Slackervaara]

I tested on my test site with PHP 7.4.9 and it worked OK.

[arvendal]

Thanks for the info, Slackervaara

Best regards

[Slackervaara]

A new extension JComment for Joomla 4 also has arrived but it costs 49 Euro.
https://storejextensions.org/extensions/jcomment.html

[arvendal]

Thanks! I will probably use this.

Best regards