Add a filter to get_comments_link()

Question

I am trying to change the permalink #comment-xy to #customname-xy. When i change the corefile comment-template.php on line 754 to

$link = $link . '#customname-' . $comment->comment_ID;

I achieve the desired result. But of course this is not elegant.

So, i tried to add a filter to my functions.php:

/*has no effect*/
function directcommentlink( $link  ) {
    global $post;
    $hash = '#customname';
    return get_permalink( $post->ID ) . $hash;
}
add_filter( 'get_comments_link', 'directcommentlink' );

But this filter has no effect. What is wrong with this filter? Thanks for your interest. theo

Answer 1

Modifications of the core code are not recommended.

Note that the core get_comments_link() function considers two cases of $hash:

$hash = get_comments_number( $post_id ) ? '#comments' : '#respond';

Also note the second input argument is $post_id.

Here's your modified example:

add_filter( 'get_comments_link', function( $link, $post_id )
{
    $hash = get_comments_number( $post_id ) ? '#mycomments' : '#myrespond';
    return get_permalink( $post_id ) . $hash;

}, 10, 2 );

or another approach might be a simple replacement:

add_filter( 'get_comments_link', function( $link, $post_id )
{
    return str_replace( 
        ['#comments', '#respond'], 
        ['#mycomments','#myrespond'], 
        $link 
    );

}, 10, 2 );

But it sounds like you want to modify the get_comment_link() according to your line number reference. Then you should consider the get_comment_link filter:

add_filter( 'get_comment_link', function( $link, \WP_Comment $comment )
{
    return str_replace( 
        '#comment-', 
        '#mycomment-', 
        $link 
    );

}, 10, 2 );