GatherPress

RSVP

Last updated July 11, 2026, Version 0.34

GatherPress stores RSVPs as WordPress comments with a custom comment_type of gatherpress_rsvp. The comment row is the canonical record — status changes (attending, not_attending, waiting_list), guest counts, and anonymous / authenticated state all live on the comment and its meta. Reusing the comments table means RSVPs inherit WordPress’s moderation, capability, and i18n infrastructure for free.

Comment-query coexistence

Because RSVPs live in wp_comments, generic comment queries (sidebar widgets, admin moderation lists, REST endpoints, federation plugins) would surface them alongside real comments unless filtered out. GatherPress hooks pre_get_comments and removes the gatherpress_rsvp type from each query’s type / type__in vars in Rsvp\Query::exclude_rsvp_from_comment_query() (includes/core/classes/rsvp/class-query.php).

The exclusion mutates query vars rather than appending a WHERE comment_type != … clause because the comment_type column is not indexed in WordPress core (see Trac #59488). Pre-populating the type list lets MySQL use the existing index and avoids a full-table scan on sites with large comment volumes.

When the default exclusion gets in the way

Mutating shared query vars is the right trade-off for performance but can conflict with other plugins that read or write the same vars on pre_get_comments. The canonical example is the ActivityPub plugin — federation interactions (likes, boosts, quotes) flow through wp_comments with their own types, and ActivityPub’s own pre_get_comments callback assumes the caller’s type__in reflects the original query.

To opt out of GatherPress’s default exclusion for a specific query, return false from the gatherpress_rsvp_comment_query_exclusion filter. The filter receives the live WP_Comment_Query, so the opt-out can be scoped to the queries an integration actually owns:

add_filter(
    'gatherpress_rsvp_comment_query_exclusion',
    function ( bool $exclude, WP_Comment_Query $query ): bool {
        // Only short-circuit when the caller is asking for federation
        // interaction types — leave every other comment query alone so
        // GatherPress's default RSVP exclusion continues to apply.
        $types = (array) ( $query->query_vars['type__in'] ?? array() );
        if ( array_intersect( $types, array( 'like', 'announce' ) ) ) {
            return false;
        }
        return $exclude;
    },
    10,
    2
);

A scoped opt-out is preferred over a global remove_action() against Rsvp\Query::exclude_rsvp_from_comment_query: it leaves the exclusion in effect for unrelated comment lists on the same site, and it has no coupling to GatherPress’s class names or singleton accessors, so it survives internal refactors without code changes on the integration side.

Sitewide gating (RSVP Mode and Open RSVP)

Since 0.34.0 the rsvp_mode setting is the master switch for the whole RSVP subsystem. When it is set to disabled, GatherPress removes the gatherpress-rsvp post type support from every post type that declares it (Rsvp\Setup::maybe_disable_rsvp()), so every post_type_supports() guard in the plugin — and in companion plugins following the same pattern — returns false without needing its own setting check. The gatherpress/rsvp* blocks are also filtered out of the block inserter, and the RSVPs admin page is not registered.

Open RSVP has two gates: the sitewide enable_open_rsvp setting and a per-event gatherpress_enable_open_rsvp post meta (unset means enabled). Rsvp::allows_open_rsvp() resolves both; when it returns false the RSVP Form block renders nothing and form or REST submissions are rejected with a 403.

Further reading