Init Recent Comments – Templated, Modern, Minimal
Init Recent Comments is a developer-friendly plugin that lets you display the latest comments anywhere via a simple shortcode. It uses clean HTML, minimal CSS, and fully customizable templates.
No widgets, no bloated options. Just lightweight, extendable code — made for real sites.
Key design goals:
- Templated rendering with override support from themes
- Clean CSS you can disable or replace
- REST-ready architecture (future-proof)
- No jQuery, no nonsense
Perfect for blogs, news sites, or anyone who wants a better way to show active discussions.
This plugin is part of the Init Plugin Suite — a collection of minimalist, fast, and developer-focused tools for WordPress.
GitHub repository: https://github.com/brokensmile2103/init-recent-comments
Features
- Simple shortcode:
[init_plugin_suite_recent_comments](legacy alias:[init_recent_comments]) - Shortcode for displaying recent reviews:
[init_plugin_suite_recent_reviews](legacy alias:[init_recent_reviews]) - Shortcode for displaying recent comments of a specific user:
[init_plugin_suite_user_recent_comments](legacy alias:[init_user_recent_comments]) - Shortcode for displaying recent reviews of a specific user:
[init_plugin_suite_user_recent_reviews](legacy alias:[init_user_recent_reviews]) - Template-based rendering (
comment-item.php,wrapper.php) - CSS can be disabled to use your theme’s design
- No widgets, no jQuery, no frontend bloat
- Developer-ready: extend with filters, REST, and lazy loading (planned)
- Translation-ready (
.potincluded)
Usage
Use the shortcode anywhere:
[init_plugin_suite_recent_comments number="5" maxheight="400px"]
Recent reviews:
[init_plugin_suite_recent_reviews number="5"]
Recent comments of a specific user:
[init_plugin_suite_user_recent_comments user_id="123"]
Recent reviews of a specific user:
[init_plugin_suite_user_recent_reviews user_id="123"]
The legacy tags [init_recent_comments], [init_recent_reviews], [init_user_recent_comments], and [init_user_recent_reviews] still work exactly the same way, for backward compatibility with existing content.
Attributes:
number– Total items to show (default: 5)maxheight– Optional max height with scroll and hidden scrollbar (example:300px)paged– Optional paginationtheme– Light or dark (example:theme="dark")- For user shortcodes:
user_id,user_login, oruser_emailcan be used to target the user
To override templates, create the folder in your theme:
your-theme/
└── init-recent-comments/
├── wrapper.php
├── review-wrapper.php
├── comment-item.php
└── review-item.php<h3>Filters for Developers</h3>
This plugin provides multiple filters to help developers customize caching behavior and performance for recent comments, reviews, and total comment count queries.
By default, comment/review queries are NOT cached (TTL = 0) so newly posted comments always show up immediately — this is intentional, since most sites using this plugin expect real-time freshness. If your site has heavy traffic and you’re fine with a short delay before new comments appear, you can enable caching yourself using the filters below (a value like 60 for 60 seconds is a reasonable starting point). Total comment count queries default to a 5-minute TTL instead, since counts are less time-sensitive.
init_plugin_suite_recent_comments_ttl
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for recent comments.
Applies to: Recent Comments Query
Params: int $ttl
init_plugin_suite_recent_comments_query_args
Allows developers to modify or extend the WP_Comment query arguments before the query runs.
Applies to: Recent Comments Query
Params: array $args
init_plugin_suite_recent_reviews_ttl
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for recent reviews.
Applies to: Recent Reviews Query
Params: int $ttl
init_plugin_suite_user_recent_comments_ttl
Control cache TTL (in seconds) for recent comments by a specific user.
Applies to: [init_user_recent_comments]
Params: int $ttl, array $args
init_plugin_suite_user_recent_reviews_ttl
Control cache TTL (in seconds) for recent reviews by a specific user.
Applies to: [init_user_recent_reviews]
Params: int $ttl, array $args
init_plugin_suite_total_comments_ttl
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for total approved comment counts by post type.
Applies to: Total Comments Query
Params: int $ttl, array $post_types
init_plugin_suite_total_by_posts_ttl
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for total approved comment counts across multiple post IDs.
Applies to: Total by Post IDs Query
Params: int $ttl, array $post_ids
License
This plugin is licensed under the GPLv2 or later. You are free to use, modify, and distribute it under the same license.