Separate pings/trackbacks from comments in WordPress

One of the greatest disruptions to the conversation that goes on in comments is the trackbacks. They’re great, and I love it when people link to my blog. I always want to separate them because they detract from the discussions that my readers are having, and they sometimes can make it difficult for a new reader to follow. How about you? This tutorial will show you how to separate Trackbacks/Pings and Comments in WordPress

What is the Difference Between a Comment and a Trackback?
A comment is an interaction between a reader and the blogger about the blog post. A trackback is a link to this post published on another blog post.

We have a little bit different in WordPress 2.7+ than in previous versions, so I had to look up how to split the comments from trackbacks. I started by making some modifications to the comments.php and functions.php files. Now, comments show up on top, and trackbacks show up below.

The comments loop in WordPress 2.7+

<?php if (have_comments()) : ?>
<h3 id="comments"><?php comments_number('No Responses', 'One Response', '% Responses');?> to “<?php the_title(); ?>”</h3>
<ol class="commentlist">
<?php wp_list_comments(); ?>
</ol>
<div class="navigation">
<div class="alignleft"><?php previous_comments_link() ?></div>
<div class="alignright"><?php next_comments_link() ?></div>
</div>
<?php else : // this is displayed if there are no comments so far ?>
<?php if ('open' == $post->comment_status) : ?>
<!-- If comments are open, but there are no comments. -->
<?php else : // comments are closed ?>
<!-- If comments are closed. -->
<p class="nocomments">Comments are closed.
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

As you can see it is much simpler than the old comments “loop”. The majority of everything that is happening is now done via the function wp_list_comments.
To show separate trackbacks and pingbacks on a page in WordPress 2.7 or above, you can change the code in the default comments.php with the following:

Remove pingbacks and trackbacks in comments list

1. Open comments.php then find <?php if (have_comments()) : ?>
2. Add the following codes after it: <?php if (! empty($comments_by_type['comment'])) : ?>
3. Then find <?php wp_list_comments(); ?>
4. Make it change like this <?php wp_list_comments('type=comment'); ?>last step is write this code below after the wp_list_comments function. </ol><?php endif; ?>

Display pingbacks and trackbacks

You can do it with similar previous step about

<?php if (! empty($comments_by_type['pings'])) : ?>
<h3 id="pings">Trackbacks/Pingbacks</h3>
<ol class="commentlist">
<?php wp_list_comments('type=pings'); ?>
</ol>
<?php endif; ?>

Now we need to style the pingbacks and trackbacks list by add new functions to functions.php

1. Make change <?php comments_template(); ?> to <?php comments_template('', true); ?> in single.php
2. Add new functions to functions.php

   <?php
   function list_pings($comment, $args, $depth) {
   $GLOBALS['comment'] = $comment;
   ?>
   <li id="comment-<?php comment_ID(); ?>"><?php comment_author_link(); ?>
   <?php } ?>

You need to call $listping functions (new style of list pingbacks) in single.php

<ol class="pinglist">
<?php wp_list_comments('type=pings&callback=list_pings'); ?>

Full loop code below

<?php if (have_comments()) : ?>
<?php if (! empty($comments_by_type['comment'])) : ?>
<h3 id="comments"><?php comments_number('No Responses', 'One Response', '% Responses');?> to “<?php the_title(); ?>”</h3>

<ol class="commentlist">
<?php wp_list_comments('type=comment'); ?>
</ol>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php if (! empty($comments_by_type['pings'])) : ?>
<h3 id="pings">Trackbacks/Pingbacks</h3>
<?php
function list_pings($comment, $args, $depth) {
$GLOBALS['comment'] = $comment;
?>
<li id="comment-<?php comment_ID(); ?>"><?php comment_author_link(); ?>
<?php } ?>
<ol class="pinglist">
<?php wp_list_comments('type=pings&callback=list_pings'); ?>
</ol>
<?php endif; ?>

<div class="navigation">
<div class="alignleft"><?php previous_comments_link() ?></div>
<div class="alignright"><?php next_comments_link() ?></div>
</div>
<?php else : // this is displayed if there are no comments so far ?>

<?php if ('open' == $post->comment_status) : ?>
<!-- If comments are open, but there are no comments. -->

<?php else : // comments are closed ?>
<!-- If comments are closed. -->
<p class="nocomments">Comments are closed.</p>

<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

This is how we have separated the trackbacks/pingbacks from comments, hidden the trackbacks and styled our comments in WordPress 2.7.