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_recent_comments]
Shortcode for displaying recent reviews: [init_recent_reviews]
Shortcode for displaying recent comments of a specific user: [init_user_recent_comments]
Shortcode for displaying recent reviews of a specific user: [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 (.pot included)

Usage

Use the shortcode anywhere:

[init_recent_comments number="5" maxheight="400px"]

Recent reviews:

[init_recent_reviews number="5"]

Recent comments of a specific user:

[init_user_recent_comments user_id="123"]

Recent reviews of a specific user:

[init_user_recent_reviews user_id="123"]

Attributes:

number – Total items to show (default: 5)
maxheight – Optional max height with scroll and hidden scrollbar (example: 300px)
paged – Optional pagination
theme – Light or dark (example: theme="dark")
For user shortcodes: user_id, user_login, or user_email can 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.

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.

Init Recent Comments – Templated, Modern, Minimal

Features

Usage

License