Display number of comments in a non default position?

[Razerr]

Installed a third party module to display the latest published articles. Is there a way to have the number of article comments there? Like for example to add a code in the override of the module template? Thank you in advance.

[nikosdion]

You could do that in a template override with some custom code, assuming the “Content – Akeeba Engage” plugin is published. The plugin is required to load enough of the extension to make the following code possible

$container = \FOF40\Container\Container\Container::getContainer('com_engage');
$commentsModel = $container->factory->model('Comments')->tmpInstance();
$numComments   = $commentsModel->asset_id($article->asset_id)->count();

where $article is the article record, assuming that the third party module also returns the asset_id column for the article.

If the $article object does not have the asset_id column but only the id (article ID) column you can add a database query to get the Joomla asset ID:

$db    = \JFactory::getDBO();
$query = $db->getQuery(true)->select($db->qn('asset_id'))->from($db->qn('#__content'))
->where($db->qn('id') . ' = ' . $db->q($article->id));
$assetId = $db->setQuery($query)->loadResult();
$container = \FOF40\Container\Container\Container::getContainer('com_engage');
$commentsModel = $container->factory->model('Comments')->tmpInstance();
$numComments   = $commentsModel->asset_id($assetId)->count();

If you only have an article ID just replace $article->id with the variable that holds the article ID in the code block above.

Needless to say, $numComments is just an integer. You need to provide your own way to display it in the template. I mean, you asked about template overrides, I assume you know that BUT I also assume someone else reading this might not know that, that's why I mention it. I mean no disrespect to you and your abilities, it's just a way to help other people who might be reading this :)

Caveat: this code will no longer work in Akeeba Engage 3 which will no longer be using our FOF framework but will be rewritten as a native Joomla 4 MVC component. This is still quite a few months away, though 😉

[Razerr]

Thank you for the detailed response. And reading your last part of the comment, the upcoming Akeeba Engage 3 looks promissing :)