Display custom comments field for first level only

4 comments

1. The Reply links

   I assume your Reply links look like this:

   <a class="comment-reply-link" href="/2013/12/29/hello-world/?replytocom=32#respond" 
    onclick="return addComment.moveForm('comment-32', '32', 'respond', '1')">Reply</a>
   

   and the Cancel Reply link:

   <a rel="nofollow" id="cancel-comment-reply-link" 
   href="/2013/12/29/hello-world/#respond" style="">Cancel reply</a>
   

   The Javascript method addComment.moveForm is defined in /wp-includes/js/comment-reply.min.js.

   Demo plugin:

   To hide the extra Subject field for comments replies, you can try to check for the replytocom GET parameter for the non-Javascript case and hook into the click event for the Javascript case.

   Here is a demo Comment Subject plugin: /wp-content/plugins/comment-subject/comment-subject.php:

   <?php
   /**
    * Plugin Name: Comment Subject
    */
   
   /**
    * Add extra Subject comment field when there is no replytocom in the url 
    */
   function additional_fields () {
   
       $url_query = parse_url( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_QUERY );
   
       if( FALSE === stripos( $url_query, 'replytocom' ) )
       { 
           echo '<p class="comment-form-subject">'.
           '<label for="subject">' . __( 'Your subject' ) . '</label>'.
           '<input id="subject" name="subject" type="text" size="30"  tabindex="5" /></p>';
       }
   }
   
   add_action( 'comment_form_logged_in_before', 'additional_fields' );
   add_action( 'comment_form_before_fields', 'additional_fields' ); 
   
   /**
    * Add jQuery and load the custom "script.js"
    */    
   function custom_scripts() 
   {
       wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery' );
   
       wp_enqueue_script(  'my-comment-subject', 
                               plugins_url( 'js/script.js' , __FILE__ ), 
                               array( 'jquery' ), 
                               '1.0.0', 
                               TRUE 
                        );
   
   }
   
   add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'custom_scripts' );
   

   where you add the file /wp-content/plugins/comment-subject/js/script.js containing:

   jQuery(document).on( 'click', 'a.comment-reply-link', function( event ) {
       jQuery('p.comment-form-subject').hide();
   });
   
   jQuery(document).on( 'click', 'a#cancel-comment-reply-link', function( event ) {
       jQuery('p.comment-form-subject').show();
   });
   

2. Let me throw a simple CSS-only solution into the hat:

   /* Hide the subject for nested comments (level 2 and below) */
   .comment .comment p.comment-form-subject {
       display: none;
   }
   

   This solution assumes you are using comment_class.

3. How about using a conditional to check if there are comments? If not, display a different comment form.

   $num_comments = get_comments_number( $post_id );
   if($num_comments > 0) {
       // Your function to edit comment fields if there ARE comments. Or nothing if the default fields are fine.
   }
   else
   {
   //We have comments, so run your function, as above.
   add_action( 'comment_form_logged_in_before', 'additional_fields' );
   add_action( 'comment_form_before_fields', 'additional_fields' ); 
   
   function additional_fields () {
       echo '<p class="comment-form-subject">'.
       '<label for="subject">' . __( 'Your subject' ) . '</label>'.
       '<input id="subject" name="subject" type="text" size="30"  tabindex="5" /></p>';
   }
   } //End else
   

4. Use this snippet inside your single.php, paste it in while loop before comments open function, this will get you solution.

   $args = array( 'post_id' => $post->ID,'count' => true );
    $comments = get_comments($args);
   
    if( $comments == 0  ) :
       add_action( 'comment_form_logged_in_before', 'additional_fields' );
       add_action( 'comment_form_before_fields', 'additional_fields' );
    endif;
   
    function additional_fields () {
       echo '<p class="comment-form-subject">'.
       '<label for="subject">' . __( 'Your subject' ) . '</label>'.
       '<input id="subject" name="subject" type="text" size="30"  tabindex="5" /></p>';
    }
   

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