How can I add markup to a link in node links?

Question

I am trying to add some markup around the number of comments link in the standard node links. I want to do this so I can theme the number of comments as a little comment bubble and hide the text (possibly only on mobile).

I can get this far:

function mytheme_preprocess_links__node(&$variables) {

 if (isset($variables['links']['comment-comments'])) {
    $title = $variables['links']['comment-comments']['text'];
    $count = 7 // need to get the actual count in here.

    $variables['links']['comment-comments']['link']["#title"] = \Drupal::translation()->formatPlural($count, ''<span class="comment-count">1</span> <span class="comment-text">comment</span>', '<span class="commment-count">@count</span> <span class="comment-text">comments</span>');
  }
}

When I dsm the $title variable I can see that the comment count is in there, I just can't figure out how to get it out into the $count variable. Any help?

Answer 1

Unfortunately the object PluralTranslatableMarkup has no method to get the protected value count. The serialization was fixed to provide the count value, see issue https://www.drupal.org/node/2844181, but the class is still missing it's own getArguments() to extend it with the count value. You could file an issue and wait for a fix or use this work around with reflection:

  if ($title instanceof \Drupal\Core\StringTranslation\PluralTranslatableMarkup) {
    $reflection = new ReflectionClass($title);
    $property = $reflection->getProperty('count');
    $property->setAccessible(TRUE);
    $count = $property->getValue($title);
  }