Here’s one suggestion using the comment_reply_link
filter to change the reply links.
Instead of using a regular expression to change it, I think it’s easier to just construct the links again.
Here I use the same code as used in the get_comment_reply_link()
core function, but I replace the $comment->comment_ID
with $comment->comment_parent
when the following condition is fulfilled:
max_depth === depth + 1
We can adjust max_depth
from the backend settings or via the thread_comments_depth_max
filter, where you can e.g. find an example in my answer here.
Here’s our demo plugin:
/* Regenerate the reply link but for the comment parent instead */
add_filter( 'comment_reply_link', function( $link, $args, $comment, $post )
{
if(
isset( $args['depth' ] )
&& isset( $args['max_depth' ] )
&& isset( $args['respond_id' ] )
&& isset( $args['add_below' ] )
&& isset( $args['reply_text'] )
&& isset( $args['reply_to_text'] )
&& (int) $args['max_depth'] === 1 + (int) $args['depth' ]
&& ( ! get_option( 'comment_registration' ) || is_user_logged_in() )
) {
$onclick = sprintf(
'return addComment.moveForm( "%1$s-%2$s", "%2$s", "%3$s", "%4$s" )',
$args['add_below'], $comment->comment_parent, $args['respond_id'], $post->ID
);
$link = sprintf(
"<a rel="nofollow" class="comment-reply-link"
href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/235356/%s" onclick="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/235356/%s" aria-label="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/235356/%s">%s</a>",
esc_url(
add_query_arg(
'replytocom',
$comment->comment_parent,
get_permalink( $post->ID )
)
) . "#" . $args['respond_id'],
$onclick,
esc_attr(
sprintf( $args['reply_to_text'], $comment->comment_author )
),
$args['reply_text']
);
}
return $link;
}, 10, 4 );
Hope it helps.