Askbot: Expose comment anchors for direct linking

Tracked by Jolla (Rejected)

asked 2014-01-03 01:14:47 +0200

4694 ●35 ●41 ●44

updated 2014-01-03 01:49:14 +0200

There is no obvious way to identify the comment anchor to be used when creating a direct link to a comment, for instance while posting on a forum or some other site and directing users to together.jolla.com.

The best you can currently do is link to the question and give directions to find the comment, eg. "it's the 58th one down" or "it's the third comment by bilbobaggins". Or just copy and duplicate the comment rather thank link, which leaves the read rather less well informed.

I realise that "Answers" are most likely the "proper" solution but sometimes there's a gem hidden in the comments that is worth linking to directly.

A question on together.jolla.com is rather like a thread on a forum, but whereas on a forum you can link directly to a post within a thread, you can only link to the entire thread/question on together.jolla.com, then leave it up to the reader to find the relevant post (comment) within the thread.

Obviously "comment anchors" do exist, as you can see and click them in your activity, but it's not possible to identify the anchor of a comment that isn't your own. This makes the site a little less useful as a resource.

Please expose the comment "anchors" so that comments can be linked to directly.

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This problem is related to the Askbot platform, I have shared your question there: http://askbot.org/en/question/13012/get-permanent-link-of-a-comment/ Wait & see

baptx ( 2015-02-01 18:16:34 +0200 )edit

answered 2014-01-12 15:10:05 +0200

fl
1545 ●4 ●8 ●13

updated 2014-07-14 23:23:52 +0200

You actually can link directly to comments. On every URL you can add an "ancor" to an element with an ID. Luckily on this site every comment has an ID.

One Example, I randomly selected a thread with lots of answers (I expected comments there) and within Firefox with [F12] I opened the inspector. With the tool highlighted on the left:

how to get the id of the DIV large image: http://phlixi.de/zSQbsbsXPew9Y9Q4xXtZ/link_to_element_with_id.png (edit: the icon highlighted left, now in current version of firefox has been moved to the right [currently means has been moved in the last one or two versions, current is firefox version 30])

you are able to select different elements on a page. Select the Comment, and look for the first "#" left to the selected element (second highlight) You can then simply copy the elements id and append it to the link like this:

Link to the page: https://together.jolla.com/question/11303/are-you-going-to-fosdem-2014-irl-floss-meeting-in-belgium/

and link to the DIV: https://together.jolla.com/question/11303/are-you-going-to-fosdem-2014-irl-floss-meeting-in-belgium/#comment-11507

...actually this is already implemented in the software of the page (but obviously not exposed) since it adds a flashing effect (if JavaScript is enabled).

Hope this helps... :)

Update ~half a year later to fix Digital Brains's issue:

instead of https://together.jolla.com/question/315/wpa-8021x-enteprise-others-wifi-support-needed-workaround/#comment-50238

add an additional "?comment=50238" before the ancor like this: https://together.jolla.com/question/315/wpa-8021x-enteprise-others-wifi-support-needed-workaround/?comment=50238#comment-50238

...and then it works even if the comment would be hidden under the "see more comments"

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True, but to find out that id for a random is quite tricky. I've done it using developer mode in safari to inspect element and looking at the css id of the comment, it would show "comment-11507" for the comment you linked, and then use that to add to the anchor of the URL I'm creating. But you can't expect every user to do that.

Mohjive ( 2014-01-12 16:14:46 +0200 )edit

@fl: Yes, I know the anchors exist. The problem is that editing the source of the page in order to construct the appropriate URL from the embedded anchor is not very user friendly or practical. The anchors for every comment should instead be exposed so they can be easily copied. A "link" item (which is present on answers) would solve the problem.

Milhouse ( 2014-01-13 02:16:49 +0200 )edit

1/2 This could be implemented on server side in a convinient way for the user, but currently it isnt; and frankly I think jolla has to do more important things (if they can do that, i dont know, the service is maybe hosted as is).

fl ( 2014-01-13 21:24:14 +0200 )edit

2/2 I just wanted to point out that it is in fact possible to link to comments If you really like to link to a specific comment. Furthermore I think its not as bad as some other command line solutions proposed at together.jolla.com for other problems that should have a solution with ui ;)

fl ( 2014-01-13 21:25:37 +0200 )edit

This doesn't seem to work when the comment is hidden in a "see more comments" block. I just found out this method myself while trying to see if I could link to this comment, but the link only works when I first click the "see more comments" at the bottom!

Digital Brains ( 2014-07-14 22:42:26 +0200 )edit

Askbot: Expose comment anchors for direct linking

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