This issue has been miserably annoying to me, and I have spent a long time figuring out how to appropriately utilize the SharePoint Social Comment Web Part.
Here’s how to do it.
I know this works with SharePoint 2010. This might work in SharePoint 2013…
1. To your web part project add a reference to the Microsoft.Sharepoint.Portal namespace. This is NOT listed in the “Extensions” section of Visual Studio, and you’ll need to browse for it.
c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ASAPI\microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll
2. Create a placeholder in your Web Part’s ASCX file…
<asp:PlaceHolder runat=”server” ID=”plcComments”></asp:PlaceHolder>
3. Add a SocialCommentsWebPart to the placeholder in your Web Part’s .ascx.cs file
plcComments.Controls.Add(
new Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.SocialCommentWebPart()
{
WebPartPropertySpecifiedAddress = Page.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri
}
);
You can replace the Page.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri part with any URL.
4. The comments form should appear upon page load. You might need to wrap the code in step 3 with if(!IsPostBack){ … } but this usually works.