How to rearrange fields in comment_form()

Im using a custom filter to change the fields, but can´t figure out how to change the order of the fields in the comment form.

Desired order:

• comment field (first/top)
• name
• email
• website

This is the code which I am currently using:

function alter_comment_form_fields($fields){
    $fields['comments'] = 'Test';
    $fields['author'] = '<p class="comment-form-author">' . '<label for="author">' . __( 'Your name, please' ) . '</label> ' . ( $req ? '<span class="required">*</span>' : '' ) .
                    '<input id="author" name="author" type="text" placeholder="John Smith" value="' . esc_attr( $commenter['comment_author'] ) . '" size="30"' . $aria_req . ' /></p>';
    $fields['email'] = 'next';  //removes email field
    //$fields['url'] = '';  //removes website field

    return $fields;
}

add_filter('comment_form_default_fields','alter_comment_form_fields');

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

That’s pretty simple. You just have to take the textarea out of the default fields – filter 'comment_form_defaults' – and print it on the action 'comment_form_top':

<?php # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
/**
 * Plugin Name: T5 Comment Textarea On Top
 * Description: Makes the textarea the first field of the comment form.
 * Version:     2012.04.30
 * License:     MIT
 * License URI: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 */

// We use just one function for both jobs.
add_filter( 'comment_form_defaults', 't5_move_textarea' );
add_action( 'comment_form_top', 't5_move_textarea' );

/**
 * Take the textarea code out of the default fields and print it on top.
 *
 * @param  array $input Default fields if called as filter
 * @return string|void
 */
function t5_move_textarea( $input = array () )
{
    static $textarea = '';

    if ( 'comment_form_defaults' === current_filter() )
    {
        // Copy the field to our internal variable …
        $textarea = $input['comment_field'];
        // … and remove it from the defaults array.
        $input['comment_field'] = '';
        return $input;
    }

    print apply_filters( 'comment_form_field_comment', $textarea );
}

Method 2

There are obviously a number of ways to accomplish this. For example, to move the comment field to the bottom of the form you would use code like this:

add_filter( 'comment_form_fields', 'move_comment_field' );
function move_comment_field( $fields ) {
    $comment_field = $fields['comment'];
    unset( $fields['comment'] );
    $fields['comment'] = $comment_field;
    return $fields;
}

If you wanted to rearrange all the fields:

1. unset all the fields
2. put the fields back into the array but in the order you want them displayed

Simple right? I figured I’d spell it out explicitly for the next noobie like me to find this page and not find the answers useful.

Method 3

I liked toscho answer.
However I wanted to use a custom textarea, so it didn’t work in that case.
I used the same hooks but with separate functions:

add_filter( 'comment_form_defaults', 'remove_textarea' );
add_action( 'comment_form_top', 'add_textarea' );

function remove_textarea($defaults)
{
    $defaults['comment_field'] = '';
    return $defaults;
}

function add_textarea()
{
    echo '<p class="comment-form-comment"><textarea id="comment" name="comment" cols="60" rows="6" placeholder="write your comment here..." aria-required="true"></textarea></p>';
}

Method 4

The exact CSS to do this will depend on your theme, however, here’s one way:

#commentform {
display:table;
width:100%;   
}

.comment-form-comment {
display: table-header-group; 
}

The table display methods let you reorder things of arbitrary height.

More info: http://tanalin.com/en/articles/css-block-order/

Method 5

the fields od comment form are in the array $fields in function comment_form(). You can hook inside the filter comment_form_default_fields and reorder the array.

Also you can hook inside filter comment_form_defaults and change the defaults; leave all data in array and change only the fieldof the array with your custom fields; include the html.

the default if $fields:

      $fields =  array(
          'author' => '<p class="comment-form-author">' . '<label for="author">' . __( 'Name' ) . '</label> ' . ( $req ? '<span class="required">*</span>' : '' ) .
                      '<input id="author" name="author" type="text" value="' . esc_attr( $commenter['comment_author'] ) . '" size="30"' . $aria_req . ' /></p>',
          'email'  => '<p class="comment-form-email"><label for="email">' . __( 'Email' ) . '</label> ' . ( $req ? '<span class="required">*</span>' : '' ) .
                      '<input id="email" name="email" type="text" value="' . esc_attr(  $commenter['comment_author_email'] ) . '" size="30"' . $aria_req . ' /></p>',
          'url'    => '<p class="comment-form-url"><label for="url">' . __( 'Website' ) . '</label>' .
                      '<input id="url" name="url" type="text" value="' . esc_attr( $commenter['comment_author_url'] ) . '" size="30" /></p>',
      );

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0