Mass Node Update (e.g., disable comments for all nodes of a given content type)

Question

Is it possible to mass update nodes from, say, "Comments Read/Write" to "Comments Disabled" for all nodes of a certain content type?

I changed the Content Type setting and that worked for all the other nodes types, except for a certain Node type that has given us problems in the past.

Thx

Answer 1

There's a module called Views Bulk Operations.

I never tried to do it, but I think you can write your own operations for this module pretty easily.

Answer 2

Not for the weak of heart, and this bypasses the chance for hooks to fire on the node save / update as well as revisioning, but I usually do this with direct queries.

UPDATE node
SET comment = 0
WHERE type = 'some_type'

should do it. Make sure you take a backup to be safe. If you are on Drupal 7, the comment status is also in node_revision, so you need to do

UPDATE node_revision nr 
INNER JOIN node n ON n.vid = nr.vid 
SET nr.comment = 0
WHERE n.type = 'some_time'

as well.

Answer 3

Disable comments here first:

structure->content types->{node_type}->edit->comment settings

To update the nodes use hook_update below:

/**
 * Disable comments on node_type
 */
function hook_update_N(&$sandbox) {
  $content_type = 'node_type';

  // Initialize batch.
  if (!isset($sandbox['total'])) {
    $query = db_select('node');
    $query->addExpression('COUNT(*)');
    $query->condition('type', $content_type);

    $sandbox['total'] = $query->execute()->fetchField();
    $sandbox['progress'] = 0;

    if (empty($sandbox['total'])) {
      $sandbox['#finished'] = 1;
      return t('No %type nodes exist in database.', array('%type' => $content_type));
    }
  }

  // Get and update nodes.
  $nids = db_select('node')
    ->fields('node', array('nid'))
    ->condition('type', $content_type)
    ->range(0, 10)
    ->execute()
    ->fetchCol();

  if (!empty($nids)) {
    $nodes = node_load_multiple($nids, NULL, TRUE);

    foreach ($nodes as $node) {
      $node->comment = 1; // I set comments as 1 where value of 2 enables the comments.
      node_save($node);   // Re-save the node.
    }
  }

  // Increment & check progress.
  $sandbox['progress'] += count($nids);
  if (empty($nids) || $sandbox['progress'] >= $sandbox['total']) {
    $sandbox['#finished'] = 1;
    return t('Updated @count nodes.', array('@count' => $sandbox['progress']));
  }
  else {
    $sandbox['#finished'] = $sandbox['progress'] / $sandbox['total'];
  }
}

Do not forget to replace 'node_type' to your node type.

Answer 4

If you're looking for a Drupal 6 solution that does not involve SQL queries or running your own PHP code via VBO or custom module, there is also Mass Change. It allows you to change statuses, including comment status, for all nodes of a particular content type.