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hide_delete_comment()

Description

Hide or delete a comment or annotation. Comments will be hidden where they have comments below them.
If the comment has no comments below it will be deleted. Trees with all hidden comments will also be deleted.
Option to disable deletion / hiding of comments created as annotations e.g. to prevent API use.

Parameters

ColumnTypeDefaultDescription
$comment_to_hide int Reference of the comment to be deleted / hidden.
$allow_annotations bool true: bool { if !checkPerm"o" Should comments created by annotations be deleted / hidden.

Return

bool True if successful else false.

Location

include/comment_functions.php lines 573 to 608

Definition

 
function hide_delete_comment(int $comment_to_hide, $allow_annotations = true): bool
{
    if (!checkPerm("o")) {
        return false;
    }

    $root = find_root_comment($comment_to_hide);
    $linked_annotation = getAnnotation(ps_value(
        'SELECT annotation AS `value` FROM `comment` WHERE ref = ?',
        ['i', $comment_to_hide],
        0
    ));

    if ($linked_annotation !== [] && !$allow_annotations) {
        return false;
    }

    // $request_ctx originates from pages/ajax/annotations.php
    if ($linked_annotation !== [] && deleteAnnotation($linked_annotation, $GLOBALS['request_ctx'] ?? [])) {
        $comment_update_extra_cols = ', annotation = null';
    } else {
        $comment_update_extra_cols = '';
    }

    // Does this comment have any child comments?
    if (ps_value("SELECT ref AS value FROM comment WHERE ref_parent = ?", array("i",$comment_to_hide), '') != '') {
        ps_query("UPDATE `comment` SET hide = 1{$comment_update_extra_cols} WHERE ref = ?", ['i', $comment_to_hide]);
    } else {
        ps_query("DELETE FROM comment WHERE ref = ?", array("i",$comment_to_hide));
    }
    if (!is_null($root)) {
        clean_comment_tree($root);
    }

    return true;
}

This article was last updated 3rd March 2026 18:05 Europe/London time based on the source file dated 3rd March 2026 15:10 Europe/London time.