Arve Bersvendsen

Alternating comment colouring in MT without PHP

Using my Switch plugin you can create alternating background colors for comments. The technique is quite simple.

First, set this somewhere near the top of your index template (before any comments):

<MTSetVar name="oddevencomment" value="evencomment">

Then, modify the MTComments section of your individual entry archive, so that the value is alternated.

<MTComments>
<MTSwitch value="[MTGetVar name='oddevencomment']">
<MTSwCase value="evencomment">
<MTSetVar name="oddevencomment" value="oddcomment">
</MTSwCase>
<MTSwDefault>
<MTSetVar name="oddevencomment" value="evencomment">
</MTSwDefault>
</MTSwitch>
<div class="<MTGetVar name="oddevencomment">">
<h3><$MTCommentAuthor$> said:</h3>
<$MTCommentBody$>
</div>
</MTComments>

Please note that the MTSwitch tags do not strip whitespace, so you might want to remove any superfluous newlines and spaces inside this tag.

Finally, you can go on to modify your CSS, so that every odd and even comment gets alternating colour:

div.oddcomment { background: #ccc; }
div.evencomment { background: #fff; }

Enjoy!