Comment Sort Weight

This module displays comments newest first or oldest first by date on a per
content type basis. It is a port of the Drupal 7 Comment Sort Weight module,
with a fix for a permalink/pagination issue the original module did not address.

Instructions

• Install this module using the official Backdrop CMS instructions at
  https://docs.backdropcms.org/documentation/extend-with-modules.

• Configure content types (admin/structure/types/manage/[content_type]), go to
  Comment settings and check the box Sort comments by weight for options.

What the module does

Per content type, the module lets you configure:

• Whether comments use a custom display order at all.
• Newest-first or oldest-first for root-level comments.
• Whether replies under each comment should also reverse, or keep their
  default oldest-first order regardless of the root setting.

How it works

A comment_sort_weight table stores one precomputed weight value per
comment, built by flattening the comment tree in the configured order.
hook_query_TAG_alter() targets Backdrop's comment_filter query tag in
comment_get_thread() and swaps in an ORDER BY on that weight column for
threaded listings, or a direct ASC/DESC swap on c.created for flat listings.

The table is resynced on comment insert/update/delete, and in bulk via a
batch operation when a content type's settings are saved.

To correct comment permalinks or pager-page calculation when the sort order is
reversed this module computes the comment's correct page via
comment_sort_weight_get_display_ordinal(), querying the weight table
directly with no need for branching on sort direction since it's baked into the
weight at write time, and uses a backdrop_goto() redirect to
node/[nid]?page=[n]#comment-[cid] to avoid bypassing Backdrop's layout system;
matching the fix that was merged for the Backdrop forum Permalinks issue.

Views integration

• Views integration. This was ported from the Drupal 7 module as
  comment_sort_weight.views.inc, exposing the weight column as a
  sortable/filterable/field-able Views column via hook_views_data().
  Note: this only helps custom Views-based comment listings
  (e.g. a "recent comments" block) - it is a separate mechanism from the
  hook_query_TAG_alter() in this module that applies to the default comment
  display for a content type node, which doesn't go through Views at all.

Documentation

Additional documentation is located in the Wiki.

Current Maintainers

• izmeez.

• Seeking additional maintainers.

Credits

• Ported to Backdrop CMS by izmeez. Assisted-by: LLM agent.
• Originally written for Drupal by pol.

License

This project is GPL v2 software.
See the LICENSE.txt file in this directory for complete text.