Adding Comment Systems to Frosti

Introduction

One of the essential features of any blog is the ability for readers to engage with your content through comments. While Frosti provides an excellent foundation for your Astro-based blog, adding a comment system requires a few additional steps. This guide will walk you through integrating the Waline comment system into your Frosti blog.

Static sites like those built with Astro don’t have built-in comment systems since they lack server-side processing. However, we can use third-party comment services that handle the backend for us, while we integrate their frontend components into our site.

Creating Comment Components in Astro

Before diving into a specific comment system, let’s understand how to create and use components in Astro. We’ll create a reusable component that can be easily added to any page.

Component Structure

We’ll create our comment component in the src/components/comments directory. First, let’s ensure this directory exists:

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mkdir -p src/components/comments

Integrating Waline

Waline↗ is a simple, safe, and feature-rich comment system with backend and frontend separation. It is highly customizable and easy to set up.

Step 1: Set Up Waline Backend

Before adding Waline to your site, you need to set up the backend:

Create a LeanCloud application to store your comments.
Deploy the Waline server to Vercel or another hosting platform.

Follow the official Waline guide↗ to set up your backend service. After deploying, you’ll get a server URL that you will need for the frontend component.

Step 2: Create the Waline Component

Let’s create a reusable Waline component:

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touch src/components/comments/Waline.astro

Add the following code to this component:

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---
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interface Props {
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  serverURL: string;
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  lang?: string;
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  dark?: string;
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  emoji?: string[];
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  meta?: string[];
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  requiredMeta?: string[];
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  reaction?: boolean;
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  pageview?: boolean;
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}
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const {
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  serverURL,
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  lang = "en",
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  dark = "html[data-theme-type='dark']",
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  emoji = ["https://unpkg.com/@waline/emojis@1.1.0/weibo", "https://unpkg.com/@waline/emojis@1.1.0/bilibili"],
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  meta = ["nick", "mail", "link"],
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  requiredMeta = [],
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  reaction = false,
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  pageview = false,
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} = Astro.props;
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---
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<div id="waline-container"></div>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/@waline/client@v3/dist/waline.css" />
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<script
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  type="module"
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  define:vars={{
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    serverURL,
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    lang,
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    dark,
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    emoji,
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    meta,
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    requiredMeta,
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    reaction,
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    pageview,
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  }}
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>
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  import { init } from "https://unpkg.com/@waline/client@v3/dist/waline.js";
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  async function initWaline() {
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    const container = document.querySelector("#waline-container");
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    if (!container) return;
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    init({
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      el: "#waline-container",
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      serverURL,
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      path: location.pathname,
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      lang,
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      dark,
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      emoji,
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      meta,
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      requiredMeta,
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      reaction,
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      pageview,
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    });
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  }
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  document.addEventListener("astro:page-load", () => {
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    initWaline();
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  });
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  if (document.readyState !== "loading") {
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    initWaline();
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  } else {
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    document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", initWaline);
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  }
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</script>
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<style>
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  #waline-container {
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    margin-top: 2rem;
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    margin-bottom: 2rem;
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  }
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</style>

Step 3: Using the Waline Component

You can now use the Waline component in your Astro pages or layouts. Here’s how to add it to your blog post template:

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---
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// In your blog post layout file
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import Waline from "../../components/comments/Waline.astro";
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// Other imports and frontmatter...
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---
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<!-- Your blog post content -->
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<article>
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  <slot />
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</article>
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<!-- Add the comment section -->
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<section class="comments">
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  <h2>Comments</h2>
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  <Waline serverURL="https://your-waline-server.vercel.app" />
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</section>

Replace "https://your-waline-server.vercel.app" with your actual Waline server URL.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Comments not displaying: Make sure your serverURL is correctly set and accessible.
CSS issues: Ensure that the Waline stylesheet is properly loaded.
Deployment issues: If your server is on Vercel, check the environment variables and deployment logs.