Disqus: how to test its UI integration

Question

We are using Disqus in a standard way within a large web page

<div id="disqus_thread"></div>

and then the script.

The question is

is there an easy way to test this locally ? I only care to test how it's going to look like, how it fits ? I am just concentrating on the User interface so I would like to fill the div with some fake comments or something similar... it's a bit like when people who test layout put latin stuff as content...

Answer 1

First tell disqus you are in developer mode so it will allow your local website to load disqus js script, this way:

<script type="text/javascript">
    /* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: THIS CODE IS ONLY AN EXAMPLE * * */
    var disqus_shortname = 'example'; // Required - Replace example with your forum     shortname
    var disqus_identifier = 'a unique identifier for each page where Disqus is present';
    var disqus_title = 'a unique title for each page where Disqus is present';
    var disqus_url = 'a unique URL for each page where Disqus is present';
    /* * * REMOVE THE FOLLOWING LINE IN PRODUCTION * * */
    var disqus_developer = 1;
    /* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * */
    (function() {
       var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true;
        dsq.src = '//' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/embed.js';
        (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);
    })();
</script>

After that you can use disqus import feature to load lots of test comments. Also I recommend you to read the best practices.