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I'm evaluating comment systems and although I see disqus used in many cases I'm not sure if it is the best choice for me as I am uncertain that my site's own search system could show comments in search results.

Can Drupal built-in search or Apache Solr find comments on the site made with Disqus ?

Research I have shown so far is that Disqus has Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) -- for external search engines e.g. Google:-

But what about your own search system on your site, or using Solr for example. I'd prefer not to use Custom Google Search to search my site as I want control over how my results are shown.

So I'm looking for 2 answers for searching Disqus comments: 1) for the basic built-in Drupal search and 2) for SOLR.

Thank you.

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  • As far as I know, Disqus comments are downloaded and rendered using javascript, aren't they? If so, they are never on the server hosting your site, and no server-side tool will know about them.
    – Mołot
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 9:17
  • Thanks Mołot - what about the Disqus APIs? Is there a means to access the comment content via this? My initial search results indicated that this feature is not available, but if you know this possible I'd be pleased to know (and the references) but I'll try to keep digging.
    – therobyouknow
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 9:52
  • Never managed to find it, but I used it just once, on my test site, and it's not like I particularly cared, so maybe there is.
    – Mołot
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 9:53
  • Thanks again Mołot - when you say "it" - you mean disqus generally (not an API to searching the content)? Once I've worked out that it's not possible with Disqus I can justify (to the client) that this is a dead-end and move onto something else, like Drupal's own system (and theme it or extend it) - as I would be able to include this in searches. I'll continue to look into it, thanks for your inputs :)
    – therobyouknow
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 9:57
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    Yea, I meant Disqus generally. I disliked the idea of my comments way outside my control and gave it up pretty quickly. Thus I can't help you much here beside sharing what little I know (and even that in form of a question as I'm not 100% sure).
    – Mołot
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 9:59

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Looks like it may be possible on the server side via the Disqus API PHP wrapper - I widened my answer outside of Drupal to get more input: https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/a/52159/3738

Though I still have concerns about not fully controlling the comment data and if the API changes. I'd have to see real benefits for our situation for Disqus to be able to outweigh these potential issues. Another issue is that of usability (UX/User Experience): having already logged in to the Drupal site, the user has to log in yet again to use disqus, unless the well supported Facebook login to the Drupal site can be "carried" into the Disqus login automatically. Though some user testing has revealed some would prefer the Disqus approach to be simpler.

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