Title: Override the comment_form function ?
Last modified: October 29, 2018

---

# Override the comment_form function ?

 *  Resolved [Nox](https://wordpress.org/support/users/profnox/)
 * (@profnox)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/override-the-comment_form-function/)
 * Hi,
 * I need to change the comment form template in order to remove labels and add 
   some placeholder in the different fields.
    But the template seems to be “hard-
   coded”. I discovered that the template is managed by the function comment_form()
   in wp-includes/comment-template.php.
 * Is it a way to override this function ?
    Or a proper way to edit the comment 
   form template ?
 * Thank you in advance,
 * N.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Thread Starter [Nox](https://wordpress.org/support/users/profnox/)
 * (@profnox)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/override-the-comment_form-function/#post-10825964)
 * _I don’t really get why my question was moved to the “Fixing” section…
    Aren’t
   native templates modification in a from-scratch custom theme considered as development?
    -  This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by [Nox](https://wordpress.org/support/users/profnox/).
 *  Moderator [Jose Castaneda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jcastaneda/)
 * (@jcastaneda)
 * THEME COFFEE MONKEY
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/override-the-comment_form-function/#post-10826854)
 * Howdy, howdy!
 * Yes, it is very possible to change that. At least the fields. That’s done using
   a filter. That code can be found: [https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/comment_form/#source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/comment_form/#source)
 * It’s this line: `$fields = apply_filters( 'comment_form_default_fields', $fields);`
 * So what you could potentially do is something like:
 *     ```
       add_filter( 'comment_form_default_fields', function( $fields ) {
         // do things here
         return $fields;
       }, 10 );
       ```
   
 * Do note that code will only work for PHP version 5.3 and up.
 * Unless you mean something different.
 *  Thread Starter [Nox](https://wordpress.org/support/users/profnox/)
 * (@profnox)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/override-the-comment_form-function/#post-10827087)
 * Oh, thanks you ! It works well.
 * I’m still taking my first step in theme development, so I didn’t really understand
   how the to use the filters and how to find them.
 * So I use the same process to hook and custom the “comment” field (here the fields
   array were just used to manage extra fields like authors, url).
 * _I share the result, here’s an example where I custom all fields of the comment
   form (adding placeholder to the fields, and removing the “website” field by the
   way) : _
 *     ```
       <?php
   
       // Edit "extra"-fields (author, email, url...) of comment form
   
       add_filter( 'comment_form_default_fields', 'custom_comment_form_fields', 10 );
   
       function custom_comment_form_fields( $fields ) {
   
           $commenter = wp_get_current_commenter();
           $req      = get_option( 'require_name_email' );
           $html_req = ( $req ? " required='required'" : '' );
   
           $fields['author'] = '<p class="comment-form-author">' . '<label for="author">' . __( 'Name' ) . ( $req ? ' <span class="required">*</span>' : '' ) . '</label> ' .
                   '<input placeholder="' . __( 'Name' ) . '" id="author" name="author" type="text" value="' . esc_attr( $commenter['comment_author'] ) . '" size="30" maxlength="245" ' . $html_req . ' /></p>';
           $fields['email'] = '<p class="comment-form-email"><label for="email">' . __( 'Email' ) . ( $req ? ' <span class="required">*</span>' : '' ) . '</label> ' .
                   '<input placeholder="' . __( 'Email' ) .'" id="email" name="email" ' . 'type="email"' . ' value="' . esc_attr( $commenter['comment_author_email'] ) . '" size="30" maxlength="100" aria-describedby="email-notes" ' . $html_req . ' /></p>';
           unset($fields['url']);
   
           return $fields;
       }
   
       // Edit the "comment" text-area
   
       add_filter('comment_form_defaults', 'custom_comment_field', 10);
   
       function custom_comment_field ($defaults) {
           $defaults['comment_field'] = '<p class="comment-form-comment"><label for="comment">' . _x( 'Comment', 'noun' ) . '</label> <textarea placeholder="' . _x( 'Comment', 'noun' ) . '" id="comment" name="comment" cols="45" rows="8" maxlength="65525" required="required"></textarea></p>';
           return $defaults;
       }
       ```
   
 * N.
    -  This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by [Nox](https://wordpress.org/support/users/profnox/).
 *  Moderator [Jose Castaneda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jcastaneda/)
 * (@jcastaneda)
 * THEME COFFEE MONKEY
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/override-the-comment_form-function/#post-10827497)
 * > I’m still taking my first step in theme development
 * That’s awesome! You’ll have so many aggravating moments but it’s so fun too!
 * There are several articles which will help you understand hooks and filters a
   lot better. The way I often remember it is via photography. A filter is much 
   like a neutral density filter added to the lens and a hook is like the self-timer;
   the time between the shutter click and shutter release is about when the hook
   will act or do things.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Override the comment_form function ?’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Jose Castaneda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jcastaneda/)
 * Last activity: [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/override-the-comment_form-function/#post-10827497)
 * Status: resolved

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